07/09/2026
This lovely client booked an online Design Consultation for advice on updating her 1930s Arts & Crafts-style home.
She loved its character but wasn’t sure how to make the house work better for family life.
In her living room an abundance of windows made furniture placement and window treatments tricky, while the beautiful original timber felt dark and difficult to work with.
I suggested making more of a focal point of the original fireplace by extending the panelling across this entire wall and not having curtains at the (high) windows either side – one of them beautiful stone mullions - leaving them to frame the garden, as if artwork.
Moving the TV to an adjacent wall and repositioning the sofas stops it competing with the fireplace.
These houses celebrated a connection with light and nature so layering the windows with full-length sheer linen, curtain softens the room while allowing views of the garden.
Soft white walls & ceiling allows the natural materials – timber, brick – to shine, while introducing colour and pattern elsewhere adds visual interest and balances those visually dominant features, making them the foundation of the room rather than the problem.
Two-hour Design Consultations are available online wherever you live, or in person locally, for an expert eye and a way forward. Details via link in bio.
