Us girls over here at Topology, love it when we’ve got a project reveal for you and this one is no exception. In the heart of North London, a few weeks ago in August, we completed a 16 day installation in a 2 bed property. The client’s brief was ‘feminine boho style interiors’. Um…count us in! We of course naturally reveled in the idea of filling the apartment with copious amounts of plants, natural materials & muted relaxing tones. So if you’re curious to know about the process – from start to finish – you can learn all about the trials & tribulations by reading below. Oh and of course we’ll be sharing our before & after pics alongside our top recommended products. Yes, to those obsessed with the Instagram sneak peak, it does include that amazing IKEA bed!
Fast Facts
Property Description:
2 bedroom garden flat with open plan living / kitchen, 2.5 bathrooms
The Budget:
£10k, although increased to £11.5 so we could re-do the entire flooring
The Good:
It had amazing period details & gorgeous afternoon sunlight in South facing rooms (& our client was absolutely lovely!)
The Bad:
The flat had damp issues being essentially a basement flat which caused a few delays with the flooring & paint on the walls.
Brands We Used & Loved:
DFS, Ikea, Cox & Cox, Graham & Green, Wayfair, Valspar, Designers Guild, Anthropologie, Amazon, HM Home, Bothy Blue & Habitat.
The Flooring Install:
We ripped out the existing flooring which was a combination of laminate & old wooden planks to reveal a concrete base below. To level the floor and avoid using door-bars or scotia (like you would with laminate which tends to be a less luxury look) we installed a 12mm plyboard underlay (materials approx. £700) and also damp course (approx. £150). We the installed Plusfloor Luxury Vinyl Tiles aka ‘LVT’ on top. The result was a seamless, highly realistic wood effect flooring flowing from room to room with no door bars! The Plus floor materials cost around £1k and installation was £1405.
Shop The Kitchen Dining
Kitchen Upcycle
There’s was no budget to rip out the so we did an upcycle job using Annie Sloane paint. The joy of this stuff if you’ve not heard of it, is that it requires no priming or sanding! As the kitchen had laminate & varnished wooden areas installed already, we chose to use 1x layer of primer below to ensure an even coat. We used Zinsser primer as it’s the best! The cabinets did require around 4 coats to get good coverage however it made such a huge difference & was a much cheaper option than buying new fronts. To seal the paint and ensure it was suitable for kitchen cabinets we topped it off with a wax seal coat, but you could use a varnish. We also changed the handles to a sleeker brass and this completely elevated the ktichen. Total cost: only around £200.
The Living Room
The challenge for this space was the size combined with the client’s requirements. In a space around 4m x 3.7m we had to fit; a dining area, sofa / lounge area, tv area, shelving unit & a work station. Eek! After playing around with a few layouts on our software, we decided it was best to put the dining table right next to the kitchen in a corner you’d least expect it. The size worked to seat two people but could be pulled out further into the room to seat 4 if necessary. This freed up space around the fireplace (in the alcoves) for a desk & a media unit. We chose matching rustic wooden pieces from Only Home as we’d already chosen quite a few varying wooden elements in the space already (the flooring, dining table, sofa arms). By keeping these pieces in unison it calms the space.
For those wondering the sofa is part of the FCUK range at DFS – yes really! Everyone is so surprised when we say this as it’s completely design forward and something you’d expect to cost a fortune. Athina herself has it and couldn’t recommend it enough.
Slide over the image for a before & after
The Master Bedroom:
As this was the room that got the least natural light, we thought best to play upon the fact it was naturally dark. In light of this, excuse the pun, we opted for a deep, rich brown hued paint colour. We chose ‘Clay Figurine’ by Valspar. We opted for Valspar as they have a fantastic try before you buy service also know as the ‘Love Your Colour Guarantee’ whereby if you aren’t happy with the colour you’ve chosen, you can go back to your local B&Q and change it for a different colour. This gives you total peace of mind that you’ll end up with the ideal colour for you space. In a space where natural light was lacking paint colours can look completely different to their colour card, so this was a huge selling point for us to use Valspar paints. The result? It couldn’t have been more perfect for the space. It’s warm earthy tones met the client’s ‘boho’ brief to perfection.
Shop The Bedroom Look
Blinds
As the budget was stretched quite far on this project, yet required completely new blinds throughout, we chose an affordable made to measure blind service called ‘Make My Blinds’. The process was simply – simple order your free swatches, measure your windows and enter them online and dispatch was quick! To keep costs down we chose roller blinds but the company do offer others such a Roman blinds too which we’d definitely like to try in the future. For an exclusive 10% discount use code Topology10.
Product Highlights:
Round Living Mirror From Cox&Cox
Botanical Print From Trouva
Graham & Green Side Lamps
Only Home Desk / Media Unit
Photography by Richard Kiely
Wanna see another project reveal? Click here!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this reveal post – if you have any questions, DM us on @topologyinteriors and we’ll get back to you asap!
Karen
Love reading your inspirational and quite informative blog posts. I simply love the bohemian look and how you present it in your post. Keep up the good work. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Regards
Karen
http://www.easternada.com