St George's Avenue, London N7

This one-bedroom home in Tufnell Park was in need of some carefully considered updates - the whole flat required re-painting and new flooring and some additional storage solutions.  

Bespoke alcove cabinets and shelving

This open plan living room was low on storage space however the alcove space had never been maximised due to the angle on one side and the long window on the other.  Our client was keen to keep a few of the existing vintage furniture pieces so we needed to take this into consideration when it came to styles and finishes of the new additions. So we set about thinking how to use the alcoves to more advantage within the room.

When it came to designing the alcove cabinets, we purposely suggested the left cabinet at coffee table height so as to create a reading corner with a table lamp at low level beside the armchair.  We balanced this with some 'floating' shelves above to display some of our client's impressive glass and ceramics collection.

Having previously had the TV on the vintage sideboard, our client felt comfortable with that viewing height so we designed the new right-hand alcove cabinet to be a similar height. This also gave us quite a bit of storage space inside. We installed a new electrical socket behind and incorporated cable management holes within the cabinet to keep all the wiring neat and tidy and concealed.

As the alcoves are asymmetric in shape, we thought that a feature colour would be a good way to unify them either side of the chimneybreast.  We painted the left alcove wall dark grey and mirrored this with a similar coloured roller blind on the window in the other alcove. As a result, the chimney breast became more of a focal point in the room.

Flooring

There was a mix of oak laminate flooring and carpet throughout the flat which had become worn and needed updating.  We discussed various options for replacing it and settled on a dark oak wood effect LVT (luxury vinyl tile) because of its durability and versatility throughout the whole flat. It's dark colour complements the new paint colours very well and is different enough not to clash with wood finish colour of the vintage furniture. Having one type of flooring running throughout a small property can be a great way to enhance the feeling of space.

Colour Scheme

Our aim with the new colour scheme was to create an contemporary scheme of fresh neutrals that complimented the existing furniture.  The main walls are painted in a light grey tone with a deep grey in the living room alcoves.  As mentioned earlier, the right alcove mirrors this dark wall colour in the form of a dark grey roller blind behind the TV.