Designer and stylist Teri Muncey wasn’t about to let her city centre rental press pause on her dreams of a cosy country-style cottage
Feature Lara Watson Photos Kasia Fiszer
CHARACTERFUL RENTAL MAKEOVER
Welcome to my home
A BIT ABOUT ME
I’m Teri Muncey, a freelance designer, stylist and content creator. I run The Lovely Drawer online shop and blog. You can find me on Instagram@thelovelydrawer. I live with my two kids, Maggie, six and Lars, four.
WHERE I LIVE
Our home is a three-bedroom semidetached new-build in Birmingham city centre. We moved here in 2021.
WHAT I WANTED TO CHANGE
The house was a classic new-build with little character. Though all the rooms needed clever styling, my top priority was the kitchen – it was so uninspiring!
HOW I MADE IT MY OWN
I’ve spent a lot of time making this rented house a home but obviously, as we don’t own it, I haven’t been able to do any substantial renovations. Instead, I’ve been trying to think up smart ways of changing the look and feel while keeping these changes reversible.
MY FAVOURITE PART
As soon as I saw the dining space I fell in love. The vaulted ceiling with its skylight windows, as well as the two other windows facing in different directions, means that this is by far the brightest room in the house.
Kitchen
‘Peel-and-stick is your friend in a rented house! I covered the kitchen countertops in a marble vinyl and the cabinets have a vinyl base too. The kitchen splashback is a peel-and-stick herringbone tile. My biggest challenge here was getting the tiles to go around the plugs and fixtures! It took some time to get a neat-finish, but I love the result. This was the first room I tackled, and it made such a difference to have it in my style – you spend more time in your kitchen than you realise, even if you aren’t big on cooking!’
style idea
In a small kitchen, use handy wall hooks to store essentials
My story
When I first viewed this house, I was really surprised that I liked it so much. I’m never naturally drawn to new-build homes, but I could instantly see the potential and the whole flow of the house felt so spacious without actually being open-plan.
The first thing I did when we moved in was ask the landlord if I could replace the carpet in the living room with laminate as I was fortunately able to work with a brand to make this happen. It completely transformed the room.
