PERIOD TOWNHOUSE
While the front of Leila’s home features dark, moody chill-out spaces, the rear is light and bright and made for socialising
COME ON IN!
ABOUT ME I’m Leila Davidson, 35, an HR adviser. I live here with my partner Joe Peddie, 34, a civil and structural engineer, and our cats Zephyr and Laszlo. You can find us on Instagram @zephs_house.
MY HOME A threebedroom period house, built around 1904, in Grimsby, north-east Lincolnshire. We moved in in September 2017.
WHEN WE MOVED IN The house had central heating and a new roof, along with bags of potential for us to give it our own stamp.
AND NOW We’ve made it our own and decorated half the house in a rich, dark style, with the other half much brighter.
STYLE TIP If you find an item you want on an interiors website, check if you can find the same thing secondhand or cheaper on eBay.
We viewed a few properties before this house, all within a mile radius of Grimsby town centre, but we ended up falling for the cheapest and most dated house of all,’ says Leila. ‘Having rented on and off for years – and having got travelling out of our systems – Joe and I were ready to buy our first home. We lived on the rural outskirts before, so we wanted to be more central.
I’d always loved my aunt’s deceptively spacious London terrace and Joe had grown up in a period home, too, so we were on the same page in our hunt for a characterful house. Luckily the three bedroom house we found already had central heating and a new roof, and we couldn’t wait to make our own mark on it.
Work begins
On the day we moved in, Joe’s Nana was ripping up the worn carpets in the dining room. And the first weekend I started with an easy job by painting the small downstairs toilet. Then we decorated our bedroom in a pale stone grey and painted the floorboards white to create a sanctuary from all the building work we had planned.
By viewing other similar properties, we’d got a feel for what could be done, so a few months later we had the dining room, tiny kitchen and utility room knocked through to create one long kitchen-diner. The ceiling was vaulted and skylights added, while a window and side door were blocked up to give more scope for placing kitchen units and furniture.
Helping hand
After contacting lots of trades people – and only half of them providing estimates! – we eventually found a builder recommended by one of my best friends. However, we had a few challenges during the four-month project. A damp proof course was an unexpected cost and Joe had to fit the bifold doors with his dad because the builder wasn’t comfortable installing an unfamiliar product that I’d sourced.
Thankfully the new space, with its galley kitchen in the middle, flows so much better. We regularly have family over for Sunday tea and we love g
