STYLE HOME
"WE’VE BLENDED old & new"
WHEN RENOVATING THEIR RUN-DOWN PERIOD PROPERTY, ALI LOVETT AND ROB MELDRUM CREATED A FLEXIBLE SPACE FOR BOTH ENTERTAINING AND FAMILY LIFE
FEATURE AND STYLING ALI LOVETT
HOME NOTES
WHO LIVES HERE?
Ali Lovett, Houses Editor at Ideal Home, lives here with her husband, Rob Meldrum, an advertising executive, and their children, Ellis, six, and Rae, three, and mini schnauzer, Betty.
THE PROPERTY
A three-bedroom Edwardian terrace in Aldersbrook, east London
1 “Go bold for maximum impact”
‘We use this space for grown-up relaxing and listening to music, plus there’s a WFH desk in the bay window. I love the dark shade of blue – it feels cosy and calm. When we moved in, the original fireplace had been replaced with an ugly 1970s gas fire, so when I saw a huge Georgian surround on eBay, I went for it. We recently added a gas stove, which heats up in an instant.’
MUTED METALLICS
Mixing gold, silver and glass baubles creates a classic Christmas colour scheme
2 “Create spaces for styling”
‘As part of my job I style photoshoots for magazines, so I’m constantly moving things around and packing them up to use on a job. I love being able to change things around so I purposely added lots of surfaces, hanging rails and picture ledges throughout the house. It refreshes things in an instant – especially at Christmas when I can add decorations everywhere.’
3 “We mixed budget buys with statement pieces”
‘To keep down the costs, our kitchen is Ikea but we upgraded it with statement handles, a concrete-style worktop and honed marble tiles as a splashback. The flooring is wood-effect tiles rather than the real thing, which was a fraction of the cost and conducts the underfloor heating really well.’
