Ensuring this new build was full of charisma came down to pretty pastels, vintage treasures and fanciful textiles and wallpapers
SITTING ROOM
A vintage mantelpiece and a chair in a handdrawn fabric introduce beautiful character.
DINING AREA
The striped banquette seating with playful skirt detail elevates this scheme, but it is also child-proof as it has washable, zip-off covers.
KITCHEN
Brass details chime with the patina of the charming wood seats and ground the fresh scheme.
Alix Walker, an award-winning editor, never set out to build a house from scratch. Nor did she ever plan to hire an interior designer. But on moving from north London to Hertfordshire in 2021, the property she and her husband Matt found required so many changes, a builder suggested it would be simpler to pull it down and start again. ‘We got swept up in the idea,’ says Alix, who was expecting her fourth child at the time. Matt, a chiropractor by trade, turned architect as he drew out the family’s perfect home on graph paper; on their wish list was a guest annexe downstairs, and a boot room with drawers and cupboards to keep the family’s many coats (and football boots) stashed away.
To improve the chances of their planning application being approved, the couple looked to the Edwardianstyle properties already lining the street. As Alix explains: ‘I almost wanted it to look like a doll’s house from the outside.’ Alix had started gathering decor ideas, but when the builders suddenly demanded drawings for every room in the property within a week, she realised she needed professional help, fast. So she turned to Instagram, where Holly Vaughan, the designer of a bathroom inspiration shot Alix had saved, had been tagged by a follower. Alix called Holly of Vaughan Design & Development and the two immediately clicked. ‘Alix and Matt’s style and aesthetic aligns with what we’re interested in,’ says Holly of their shared fondness for pastel shades and traditional architecture.
Alix wanted ‘the absolute antithesis’ of the sterile, grey-and-white rental she was living in, so Holly ran with her request for an ice-cream parlour-style palette. But she pushed her client out of her comfort zone, proposing fresh pops of colour, such as the arresting blue in the boot room. Holly treated the house like a period property, doubling down on textiles by way of cafe curtains and cupboard skirts to add charm to its new-build bones. The
