Hello ladies. First off, let me say sorry for taking a long break on blogging. We had an incredible summer and I have several travel posts to write to catch you all up, but I wanted to start back with this long overdue post on our home.
Last September we bought our first house in London. This was a long and stressful process, but we enlisted the help of different experts along the way, such as mortgage brokers and solicitors, who made it easier. Side note: if you are going to buy a house here, you will definitely need to find a mortgage broker in London who can help you with the whole process. Anyway, despite the stress, it was really special for us because it coincided with the same year that our entire family became British. Although I’ve considered London home since 2008, now it really feels, well, REAL!
If you have recently bought a home, you know what a long and complicated process this is, so one year on we are still celebrating! I really need to write a separate post on that, but first the fun bit.
I’ve known Caitlin Henderson since we first moved. She’s a UCLA grad and I went to USC so we immediately bonded over missing the sunny California weather. The second I saw her interior design work I knew she would be my first call when we bought a home. Caitlin works with global artisans as well as emerging and established artists to develop entirely unique spaces complete with handmade textiles, textured wall finishes and site-specific art installations. She’s worked on incredible projects throughout Europe and is quickly becoming internationally recognized for her work.
Caitlin was one of the first people I showed the house to and we immediately started discussing my vision. I happen to be one of the most impatient people on the planet and I wanted everything done and decorated within seconds of being handed the keys, but Caitlin urged me to slow down a bit, live in the space, and we spent HOURS and HOURS at the Chelsea Design centre looking at fabrics, wallpaper, and furniture.
I am so glad I took the time and effort to pick each piece with her, otherwise, I would have ended up with several expensive mistakes. In decorating a home for the first time I had zero knowledge of where to look for things. Caitlin and I spent hours trawling the internet to find ideas and themes. This was really useful, and we found ideas for most things you can see in the photos; for example, I discovered the idea for my stunning shutter blinds from the Shuttercraft website. I instantly fell in love with them. I also had no idea how to combine old antique pieces that I loved with the modern aesthetic I envisioned. Caitlin helped me with everything from sourcing art to show me how to arrange the throw pillows on my bed. I literally could not have done this without her.
One lesson that she taught me was to source my furniture from independent boutiques wherever possible. It is so important to support small businesses and shopping with unique stores is the best way to find totally unique pieces. For example, if you browse at Finlows you can find a huge range of gorgeous pieces of designer furniture that you would be unable to find anywhere else. So, whether you are looking for a large candle for a centerpiece or a rustic cowhide rug to finish off your space, there are so many amazing pieces of furniture just waiting to be discovered in independent shops!
So with that all being said, here’s a look at our living room/dining room. Hopefully, you can see why we love it so much. The interior is perfect, it’s exactly what we wanted. When designing the living room, it’s so important to get it perfect. It’s one of those rooms that you’ll be spending the majority of your time in, so you have to be happy with it. When we were trying to source all of our furniture, we were trying to think of where our friends had purchased their sofas from. I remember one of my friends mentioning that she’d found her dream sofa from Lulu & Georgia, so we thought we should probably have a look there to see if we could find anything that would fit in with the design of the room. Thankfully, we had Caitlin to help us find the best furniture too, so that’s why our living room looks so nice! We’re so happy with the results, and hopefully you like it too! As you’ll see in photos to come, our kitchen has a living area as well and so I was majorly stressed about where a formal dining table was going to go. After all, what’s the point of having a pretty house if you can’t throw dinner parties, right? Caitlin carefully worked with the space so that everything fits comfortably.
Caitlin also totally embraced my love of the color pink, while making it tasteful and not going too overboard, since there are two gentlemen that also live here.
Shop some of the pieces from our home, directly here:
Caitlin Henderson Design, caitlin@caitlinhendersondesign.com.
Photos by Natalie Dinham.
Queen Bubblegum by Michael Moebius available at Maddox Gallery, Mayfair.
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