Writing about interior design for her day job,
Kate Watson-Smyth gave new meaning to taking
her work home with her when she moved into her
Victorian townhouse in Crouch End three years
ago.
a home, Kate and Adam also fitted a new kitchen
and bathroom, replaced the aluminium windows
with wooden sashes, installed new plumbing and
heating and changed all the doors so they were in
keeping with the property’s Victorian heritage.
Looking for a project, Kate, along with her
husband Adam, took on the task of transforming
what were two rental flats, putting them back into
one house. The result is a beautiful four-bedroom
family home for Kate, Adam, their children
13-year-old Isaac and Noah, 10, and not forgetting
Enid the cat.
Kate’s passion for, and knowledge of interiors
meant that she had a big influence on the fixtures
and fittings. She says: “I’m not really a maker more of a draw it on the back of an envelope, hand
it over to someone else to make and I did quite
a lot of that. I love the wardrobe in the master
bedroom which acts like a mini-dressing room
and the kitchen shelves and cabinets were all done
Reminiscing on the early days of the renovation to my specification, as well as the library shelves.”
project, Kate comments: “We lived in the upstairs
maisonette while the work was being done Of course, as someone who writes about interiors
downstairs and then moved around all the rooms daily, there are always little additions that Kate
in a Tetris-style fashion while the rest was done.” would like to make to her own home and she takes
much of her inspiration from the internet when
Structural changes such as removing the partition looking for something new. “I love browsing the
walls that divided the property into flats, although web - Duffy London always amuses me as I like to
far from a minor job, turned out to be far from the find wit in design.”
end of the project. In order to turn the house into
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