'It's neutral but FULL OF STYLE'

Shani transformed a bland Victorian townhouse into a designed-to-last modern family home, and filled it with her own eclectic style

- GEORGIE RODGERS

Originally, we’d put in an offer on a house the next street over,’ says Shani. ‘By the time that fell through, we’d already fallen in love with this area of north London, and knew this was where we wanted our first proper family home.

‘Luckily, this house came onto the market almost immediately and we snapped it up. It had already been converted back into a single dwelling after decades as flats, but the renovations were cheap. The kitchen was flimsy and much of the Victorian character inside had been stripped away, but we saw that it had lots of potential. It was filled with light and the bedrooms were all a good size. We were happy to take our time to transform it into the home we wanted.

Sociable living

We started off by renovating the ground floor. By removing the unnecessary doors and widening the entrances between the kitchen, dining room, and sitting room, we opened up the downstairs to create an open-plan, sociable environment that suits our way of living. We love having people over, but the dining room is a relatively small space, so we plumped for a big table with a long bench seat, which easily accommodates plenty of dinner guests. Going open-plan is ideal for family entertaining and cooking altogether, especially at Christmas.

Making white work