A month ago or so I upped sticks from my beautiful countryside flat in Great Wymondley to move into London with my partner in crime, Christian. I really loved my old flat, especially in the summer, so any new flat would have quite a lot to live up to. We set out with a few criteria in mind – our new place would have to have a sizeable balcony, open plan living room / kitchen, be modern and non-mouldy (never a given in London), have lots and lots of storage to hide away all my rag rug materials and had to be in zone 1 or 2… it was quite some list. We’d decided to aim high!
After flat hunting for what seemed like an age (which is certainly not for the faint hearted in London), we finally found our ideal place in Wapping near the Tower of London. We snapped it up straight away as not only was the flat just what we were looking for but the neighbourhood was lovely too – right by the river with lots of pretty canals to cycle along. Some of you may already know Wapping from its days as the newspaper printing district of London which means it has lots of nice warehouse conversions.
So now that we’ve had a month and a half to settle in I thought I’d share with you a few photos of the new Wapping flat which is already starting to shape up and look pretty homely 🙂 There are still a few things I’d like to do (put up a painting above the sink, for example) but all in all I’m pretty pleased – hope you like it!
As most of you already know, I absolutely love colour. So, it only seemed right that when anyone first comes into the flat there’s plenty of beautiful art. Many of them are pieces from my travels in Cuba.
I love to hide away ugly things like cables and odds and ends in pretty boxes. My favourite ones are these orange and green Ortigia hat boxes at the bottom of the side board. I picked these up in Lucca in Italy earlier this year.
So this is quite a departure from my previous mid-century modern living room (with bright red sofa!) but I’m enjoying the change of scenery. I’ve chosen blue and green cushions and placed my blue radio on the side table to bring out the colours in the cuban paintings behind.
And the Wapping flat even has big french windows for lots of light throughout the day.
I couldn’t resist posting a photo of my cute indoor succulent garden on my coffee table.
Exactly what I wanted – an open plan kitchen / living room!
Our dining table even extends out so I can spread out all my rag rug materials before I get making.
We haven’t had an awful lot of time to enjoy the balcony yet, as we moved in just as Summer was coming to an end, but so far my plants seem to be enjoying it out there. Watch this space as I’ve already killed three basil plants in the new flat!
So this photo isn’t exactly inspiring as I still haven’t got around to putting up a painting above the sink.
A few of you may recognise some of my kitchen trinkets from Wymondley…
Luckily I’ve already picked out a shelf in the kitchen to display all my pretty bits and bobs, including a Jeeves & Wooster inspired “Cow Creamer”, elephant tea cosy, brandless Marmite jar and spice container from Uzbekistan – quite the collection.
These were a firm favourite in my old flat so you’ll be glad to see that my french red and white candy stripe pots have travelled with me.
So not particularly exciting but in the interest of showing you the whole kit and kaboodle… the bathroom in all its glory!
I have to admit that the previous photo was the one I took when the previous owners lived here and our bathroom is a little more cluttered….
I was so pleased to find the perfect spot for my Cuban cut out lamp in the bathroom.
Like the rest of the flat, the bedroom is lovely and light with a touch of the bohemian. I’m still using my Summer duvet which is a reversible one from Anthropologie (one of my favourite shops).
Home wouldn’t be the same without my gorgeous Celia Birtwell prints which my mum bought for me from Hitchin market.
And finally, my jewellery and general knick knacks.
[…] and I absolutely loved our old Wapping flat, which didn’t suffer from many of the downsides of London living (pokiness, damp, rats?!?). […]
[…] Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m an unapologetic lover of colour. In shops, I immediately make a beeline for bright things (like a moth to the flame) and my home and studio couldn’t be further from monochrome (just look at my flat). […]