'French style is my dream look'

For first-time homeowner Esther, this Victorian terrace house has given her the chance to indulge her love of Parisian chic

- By Ellen Finch

An older house was always on the cards for me,’ says Esther. ‘I grew up with my parents renovating homes – my dad was a builder – and when the time came for my boyfriend Lewis and me to buy a property of our own, we knew we wanted a period project we could put our stamp on.

Living at home while we saved up meant we were in a great position to buy a four-bedroom Victorian terraced house just around the corner from my family home. The house was on the market for a competitive price, so we knew it was the property for us.

It had been empty for six months when we bought it, and rented out before, but structurally it was in pretty good condition, with a new roof and the boiler had also been replaced. However, the decor looked quite grotty, so it was relatively cheap, and since everything apart from updating the decoration was done already, we knew we wouldn’t need to spend much money on it.

Transformation time

We bought the house in 2018 and set about giving it a bit of a facelift before we moved in, starting with the kitchen, which was old and battered with drip marks and peeling wallpaper. The house had been empty all over winter and it smelt of damp, though there wasn’t any to be seen.