Through the keyhole

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Self-confessed interiors and garden addict, Kristina, shows us around her Cheshire home

We moved into our house in Bowdon, built in 1853, about 12 years ago, having spent four years in Paris. The transition was made easier by finding our dream home with the high ceilings, sash windows, and a similar sense of light and space which we loved.

Being half Norwegian I also wanted to bring an element of Scandinavian style to our family home. My husband and I moved in with our young girls Sophia and Henrietta and we were soon joined by our son Magnus to complete our family. Whilst the house was in very good condition when we moved in I wanted to make it more in tune with our taste with more muted and neutral colors.

The hallway was one of the first spaces we wanted to update. By stripping back the pine-stained wooden floors and oiling them with Danish oil, the floors were transformed. We had brought some antique chandeliers from our apartment in Paris but the challenge was on to find one large enough for the central hallway at the centre of the staircase. Luckily a good friend whilst on a recce for antiques for her own home spotted the perfect one for us at an antique fair. Much to our relief, when we got in touch with the vendor it was still available and we were delighted when it was installed. The other issue was to find a mirror that was fit for the space. We commissioned a local antique buyer who found us a beautiful old French mirror which reminded us of our time abroad.

We have recently replaced the dated beige carpet with a fresh light grey chevron carpet by Fibre carpets.

Being the most hard-working room in the home, it was important to get the kitchen right. We inherited a Mark Wilkinson kitchen which whilst cleverly designed in terms of layout and beautifully constructed was looking a little dated, to say the least. So we eventually repainted it using colours from the Benjamin Moore range, Dove White, and Hale Navy on the island. We replaced the brown granite worktop with white quartz and introduced marble chevron tiling behind the range cooker. Finally, we decided to replace the cold stone floor tiles with a pale oak chevron floor by Tedd Todd.

We were keen to replicate the previous owners by having a baby grand piano in the bay window. A lucky gamble on eBay paid off and we had the piano transported from the south coast to our home. We stripped the wooden floors once again and stained them Danish style. With pale white seating we were keen to introduce some pops of colour with hints of pale pink, mustard yellow, and grey throughout.

This formal room was originally two rooms when we moved in, which meant we had two sitting rooms and a dining room which didn’t really work well as an entertaining space. We decided to knock the two rooms together to create one larger room. We aimed to match the cornicing and paneling to make it seamless.

During lockdown, we painted the far wall a deep Swedish blue, Blue Blood by Paint and Paper Library. In terms of artwork, my husband and I had seen a painting we absolutely loved while away one weekend in Suffolk. The only issue was it was too small so we commissioned a piece by a local artist who made a large-scale piece, especially for the room.

With pretty cornicing already in situ together with built-in wardrobes, this room was easy to update. We used calming colours such as Benjamin Moore’s warm white, Farrow & Ball’s lime white, and Cotton II by Paint and Paper Library on the wardrobes. We had inherited a large Brittany chest of drawers which fitted the space perfectly too.

I wanted to create a pretty, cosy, traditional room for my girls who shared a room for many years. I designed the pale pink pelmets and had those and the curtains made by a local curtain maker. I bought the Scandinavian Style beds from a shop in London. The traditional dolls’ houses were sourced by the girls’ grandparents and were extremely complicated to put together!

Whilst there was plenty of space, one of the things the house was lacking was a large family bathroom. After several consultations with our builder, we took the decision to convert the unused loft space into a bathroom. We installed a grand vanity from Porter with marble counter tops, a stone bath, and a walk-through shower. The added bonus of starting from scratch was to add underfloor heating throughout and contemporary lighting.