“She encouraged us to be brave with our choices”
Julie and her partner Marc bought their home in Walthamstow at the start of this year “it is our first house together so it’s very special to us” she says. The house, a beautiful old Victorian mid-terrace building, is located in Walthamstow Village, close enough to trendy Hackney but surrounded by “old cottages, a museum, a stunning church and with some fantastic local pubs and restaurants”. “We wanted to live in a place that was quiet, but had character and local entertainment.” Julie explains. Julie says they were attracted to the house straight away because it was “bursting with original features, a stunning fireplace, wooden floorboards, architraves and ceiling roses… we knew we had an interesting base to start from” she laughs. From that base they launched into a £40,000 three month building project to overhaul the interiors. Having previously lived in an old sewing factory in London Fields, Julie admits that “it was often difficult for us to imagine how our ideas would be realised” so they enlisted interior designer Sarah Ellison (see Heart Home Issue 2) to help them with the design process. “Sarah encouraged us to be brave with our choices and she was genius in how she made our budget work” Julie continues, outlining how she helped them visualize their ideas using mood boards and managed the building project, ensuring everything ran smoothly. Julie describes her style as rustic and eclectic and is strongly influenced by old retro and vintage furniture “I think this style of furniture adds so much character to a space” she says. As a passionate collector she had gathered a lot of pieces over the years, “so when we moved it to the house we had to find a way to make the furniture fit” she says.
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