At Home With Becs @becs_bakers_abode

This week I'm at home with Becs, the home improving lady behind the popular instagram account @becs_bakers_abode where she shares beautiful images of life in her Edwardian home. Read on to learn more about Becs, her home, lifestyle, and top tips for home styling.

 

Tell us about you

I’m Head of Talent for a global brand design agency, am passionate about Diversity and Inclusion and am a mentor for Kerning the Gap, which aims to raise women up in the creative industries. I live in Twickenham with my husband who works in finance, our two children, and a crested gecko. We moved into this home in between lockdowns and the extra space was a godsend for home schooling! We’re close to the river and the open spaces of Richmond Park and Kew Gardens, which is perfect for me because I love walking and beautiful views.

 

Tell us about your home

Our home is a semi-detached Edwardian property, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms and an open plan kitchen. The fourth spare bedroom is in the loft which is also used as a home office and is intended to be a chillout zone for the kids when they get older, or we might convert it fully into a master suite at some point. Our garden is small, and brick laid but it’s all we need as it can fit a trampoline, a barbecue, a table and chairs and lots of container plants which are a delight in the summer.

Before we bought it, it had been rented out to the same family for three years and had been renovated to a pretty good standard for that, but it was a blank (grey) canvas.

 

How would you describe your home?

Until we moved here, I hadn’t been brave enough to experiment with colour. In our previous home we had white walls and I added colour through bright accessories and artwork. I really wanted to make this place my own, so I’ve been playing quite a bit, meaning that I don’t think my home has one particular style as such, yet. My dining area is a bit retro with a hand-painted wall mural, a vintage sideboard, hanging plants and open shelving.

The kitchen is more contemporary in feel (although I would rip this out if I could, but for now I’ve added my own touch by covering some of the cabinets in vinyl and I’m very happy with it for the time being).

My front room is a bit more traditional but with a modern twist. If I really had to define my style, I’d say colourful, streamlined maximalist… can that be a thing?

 

Which is your favourite room in the house?

My favourite room is my dining area. It’s so bright and colourful and happy. I’m very proud of my mural. I didn’t get the colours quite right the first time but, now that I’ve changed a couple of them, it feels exactly right, and it makes me smile every day.This is also where I have my gorgeous yellow chaise longue, the vintage sideboard that I sourced from eBay, and the window seat that I built (and then had to get a handyman to rebuild!). This is the only room where I haven’t had to make any compromises, and I love it.

 

How does your home reflect any passions or interests?

My dad is a retired art teacher and a have-a-go-DIYer so I’ve definitely been brought up to try things out and to surround myself with art and colour. I work in a design agency but I’m not a designer, so I struggled a little with imposter syndrome at first, but now I’m really secure in my colour palette and my choices – and quite frankly, if I like it, that’s all that matters! I really love painting, and I’ve yet to be fully converted to a roller. There’s something so mindful about painting with a brush, even though it takes longer, but I feel like it’s a necessary part of the process. Having said that, I recently won a huge bundle of rollers from Two Fussy Blokes so I’ll be trying those out on my next project and may well be eating my words.

 

What are your favourite items in the home?

Definitely my chaise longue. It was one of our first purchases for the house and I’d had a really clear vision of it in the space before we’d even moved in. It took ages to arrive, but it was absolutely perfect when it did.

 

When you moved into your house was it the finished article or was it a project?

It was a completely blank canvas, so the best of both worlds.

 

What renovation and decorating have you done?

Not renovation as such, but anything that isn’t grey in my home has been painted by me, essentially! I’d never used frogtape before, I’d barely held a drill, and now I’ve panelled my bedroom and the downstairs loo, I’ve wallpapered, I’ve upcycled furniture, I’ve put up shelves, I’ve vinyl wrapped my kitchen… I have bought floor tiles and all the tools for my downstair loo floor but haven’t quite worked up the courage to get started on that yet!

 

Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?

So many! I tried to build a window seat, but the wall was crumbling, and it wouldn’t hold, so I had to get someone in to finish that. I’ve redecorated my downstairs loo twice in two years. I can’t even remember all the other disasters. There’s a whole highlight dedicated to them on my profile.

 

What is your top home styling tip?

When I’m styling, I like to arrange everything in threes, in a triangle shape, so one tall piece and two shorter pieces. I find this really pleasing to the eye and it really helps when I’m rushing around trying to style a space for a quick bit of content. It’s good to have a structure to work within when you’re short on time.

 

Is there anything in your home that you couldn’t live without?

My disco ball! It’s only cheap and it just hangs from the window but it’s magical when the sun hits it.

 

They say that every home tells visitors a story about who lives there. What do you think your home says about you?

I would love to think that visitors find my home welcoming and that they think I’m creative and stylish. It’s all a façade though. My house is only ever really tidy for Instagram or for when I know we’re expecting visitors. Or for about half an hour after the cleaners have left!

 

 

The Home Edit

 

Lived-in look or showhome?

Lived-in, but clean and tidy.

 

If you could only paint your walls one colour, which one would it be?

Green.

 

What is your pet hate when it comes to your own or other’s homes?

Mirrored furniture and cats on worktops.

 

Favourite front door colour?

Blue (which is lucky as that was already the colour of our door when we bought the house).

 

Carpet or Floorboards?

Floorboards – one day we’ll rip up the carpet and laminate flooring and put floorboards or, hopefully, reclaimed parquet, throughout.

 

Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?

When I’m entertaining, I like a formal setting but one that is softened with flowers and candles.

 

High gloss or rustic?

In between?

 

Wallpaper or Brick Walls?

Wallpaper. I always think that brick walls in kitchens must be such a pig to clean!

 

Want More?

If you enjoyed being at home with Becs, you might like to take a look inside other popular home styling accounts on instagram and find out more about the people behind them. You can view more of these "at home with" articles here

Catch up with Becs' instagram account here. It's well worth a look