Project Description
What do you do with a bland, characterless new build? Add design! In this project colour and pattern transform a new build that was simple, uninspiring and drab. Now its design features radiate personality and work together to make it a joyful place to call home.
New Build = Builder-Grade
Builder-grade is the term used to describe the often low budget, easy choices builders make in new home construction. That’s magnolia walls, the cheapest fittings, boring tiles and mediocre kitchens. However, the plus side of a new-build home is that it’s a blank canvas for you to enhance, improve and upgrade with your own design choices.
New Build in Southwater
My client came to me as she was claiming on her home insurance due to a leak in her downstairs cloakroom. She wanted to use the redecoration as an opportunity to do something fun across her downstairs rooms. She loves pink and she wanted to have a home that reflected her tastes rather then non-descript building company choices. My client also loves travelling and she had several treasures and pieces of artwork that she had collected over time, that I could use as a starting point for the design scheme. The brief encompassed the downstairs cloakroom and the lounge.
Colour and Pattern in the Cloakroom
This was a fun design to put together! To avoid overwhelming the downstairs with pink, I proposed a half-height pink wall and ink and fuscia wallpaper from Oh Popsi above. This tempered the pink while allowing us to introduce other colour into the overall design scheme. We installed dark blue painted bobbin trim at the join of the wallpaper and paint for a further design touch.
Coloured Sanitaryware
As this cloakroom didn’t need storage, I included a wall-mounted teal coloured concrete sink and an amazing pink tap from Dowsing & Reynolds. I paired this with the matching toilet paper holder and towel rail. And my client found the perfect pink and olive hand towel to co-ordinate. For practicality the wall behind the vanity was tiled in a soft pink square zellige tile that also provides some visual rest from the deeper pink walls.
Pink Lounge
Seating
The mid-pink on the walls is French Rose from Sanderson, which creates a calming, restful feel to the room. It looks very smart against the crisp white skirting and ceiling. Unfortunately there wasn’t room with the French doors to the garden to have a permanent chaise, but I found this sofa that has a motorised one. It provides the comfort you want in the evening and a neat shape in the daytime. The blue / green Kingfisher shade of the sofa looks gorgeous against the pink and grounds the sofa nook. It continues the colour palette thread from the wallpaper and various travelling treasures that I had noted in a lighter turquoise colour.
I complimented the sofa with the Jude big comfy armchair from Made.com for reading or relaxing. It’s made from an amazing soft faux fur. It really does feel as good as it looks
Furniture
The lounge space in this home is fairly compact and also accommodates a dining table and seating. The original furniture was dark wood, and we wanted something more contemporary and stylish to replace it. I settled on a mid-oak bookshelf and media unit from La Redoute to provide the storage and display space needed.
Additional Opportunities to Enhance a New Build
Choosing New Hallway Flooring
The cloakroom leak also damaged the hallway flooring, and the insurer offered to replace the tiles with the same boring beige squares. Realising that this was a golden opportunity to do something fun and make a real impact, I shortlisted pink and patterned tiles for selection. I wanted something that would make my client smile every time she opened her front door. We eventually settled on the Cuba Guzzatto tile which is the perfect bridge between the pink walls, turquoise in the wallpaper and dark blue in the kitchen. Look how fabulous these tiles are!
Easy Kitchen Upgrades
The second extra opportunity to enhance this new build, was easy improvements to the kitchen. On one of my first visits I noticed the clunky chunky chrome door handles and how plain the space was. To visually trick the eye into thinking the room is longer we painted the window wall Sapphire Salute by Dulux. This dark blue co-ordinated perfectly with the wallpaper and adds so much visual interest to the space.
Next up the kitchen door handles were swapped from cheap chunky chrome to matt black D handles. This reduced the visual heaviness in this compact space and helps the white gloss of the cupboard doors do their work bouncing the light around.
The final idea for here was to replace the glass splashback. We actually didn’t end up replacing it though as that could have caused that part of the wall to come down. So in a budget-friendly alternative we had the wallpaper printed onto a glass splashback and we stuck this over top of the existing one. Voila!
How does it feel to live in an improved new-build rather than the builder grade version you were handed?
The answer is fantastic! My client is thrilled with the upgrades, enhancements and improvements that a co-ordinated, considered design scheme has delivered to her. She now has a home that perfectly fits her personality and reflects the things she loves most.
Do you have a new build that needs help?
If so I'd love to help you bring it to life and reflect how you want to live. You can get in touch for a free initial consultation in my Contact section linked here.
Credits
Custom glass splashback by Southern Counties Glass.
Decorating by Paul Lidsbury.