At Home With Laura @thevictorianterracehouse

 

This week I'm at home with Laura, the very creative home interior loving lady behind the very popular instagram account @thevictorianterracehouse where she shares wonderful images of her beautiful Victorian terraced house in the North West of England. Read on to learn more about Laura, her home, lifestyle, and top tips for home styling.

 

Tell us about you

I’m thirty four, living with my boyfriend Jonny and our white cat Luna. We both work in Digital marketing. We live in a Victorian house, which is based in a beautiful village in the North West of England. It’s also a conservation area and there are lots of amazing Victorian and Georgian buildings in the village, which I love! I’ve always loved older buildings – I love the details like intricate brick work, stained glass windows and tiled floors that you get with period properties.

 

Tell us about your home

Our house is a Victorian terrace, built in 1895. It has a red brick front, with gorgeous details in the brickwork. We’re also really lucky to have lots of original features still in place, like stained glass windows and vestibule, a Minton tile floor and original fireplaces. I’m slowly working my way round the house to strip paint and restore all the features.

 

How would you describe your home?

My style is a mix really, I like to be sympathetic to the period of the house (for example I reinstalled Victorian style coving back into our kitchen), whilst giving things a more modern twist. I also like to experiment with colours a lot.

 

Which is your favourite room in the house?

I would say our living room – it was the first room we decorated when we moved in, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do in the room when we first viewed the house. I love the high ceilings, original coving and deep skirting boards. The room can carry the bold green colour so well. I also love the combination of pink and green that I’ve used in here – definitely my favourite room to sit in.

 

How does your home reflect any passions or interests?

I’m a very creative person and I definitely have a passion for interiors which I would hope is reflected in my home. I’m not scared of bold colours either – if it doesn’t look good or you don’t like it, then you can always paint over it.

 

What are your favourite items in the home?

 

I don’t have a particular favourite item as such, but I absolutely adore the original features, and especially the fireplaces. We have four in total including three cast iron which we have stripped the paint from and lovingly restored. Because of the hard work that’s gone into them, I have a particular soft spot for these.

 

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

It was a bit of a project. We had quite a few issues with drains in our back garden, which led to some more serious issues inside the dining room and kitchen, so we had a lot of work to do there. We’ve also completely replaced the bathroom which was another big project.

 

What renovation and decorating have you done?

I’ve always been quite handy at DIY, but in this house, I’ve learnt how to strip and restore cast iron fireplaces which I’d never done before.

 

Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?

My other half managed to drill through a water pipe, when we were ripping up our old kitchen floor.

 

What is your top home styling tip?

Go with your gut instinct! Nine times out of ten, I always revert back to the idea I had first, or the first paint sample I tried. I’ve learnt not to over complicate things, and I like to keep ideas simple.

 

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

Our garden, this might sound a bit strange, but before living here, we lived in a flat and that was during most Covid lockdowns. I will never take having your own outdoor space for granted.

 

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

I’d like to think that my home would say that I’m creative – I always have been quite artistic and I like to think that’s expressed in the way I choose to decorate. I also think it would feel quite welcoming. I love having friends and family over. I love entertaining and being the host, so I’d like to think that people feel really at home and comfortable here.

 

The Home Edit

 

Lived-in or showhome?

Lived in – I love to see people’s real homes

 

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?

It would have to be the colour grey – especially when the whole house is grey and mixed with mirrored items and crushed velvet.

 

Favourite front door colour?

Red

 

Carpet or Floorboards?

Floorboards

 

Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?

Kitchen table – I love casual, cosy dining!

 

High gloss or rustic?

Rustic

 

Wallpaper or Brick Walls?

Brick walls, although I really prefer painted plaster.

 

Want More?

If you enjoyed being at home with Laura, 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 Laura's instagram account here. It's well worth a look