It’s perhaps not cool to admit that your house is influenced by your mom and dad’s taste, but there are touches in teacher Lily Hastings’s South London home that she can trace back to her childhood. The downstairs powder room, for instance, is a jewel box covered in three layers of deep blue Bauwerk limewash and embellished with gold-leaf stars hand-painted by artist Queenie Ingrams. Immersive and splashproof, it’s the last thing guests expect to see. “My husband, Mikey, would hate to say that we copied my parents, but every time they’ve decorated, there’s been a really funky toilet bordering on garish,” says Lily, laughing.
But when it came to the finer details, like picking out cabinet fronts and light fixtures, she sought the expert guidance of interior designer Lizzie Green. Lily, who was pregnant at the time and feeling overwhelmed with the decision-making involved with a gut renovation and extension, did a deep dive on Instagram and ultimately discovered Green. She was automatically drawn to her bold use of color.
One reference Lily and Mikey shared with Green during the early planning stages was a print they own of the Bondi Icebergs pool in Sydney, Australia, taken by photographer Kara Rosenlund. The refreshing blue of the water inspired the palette for the kitchen, which now features paneled cabinets painted Bridge Blue by Mylands alongside a navy island. Green pulled the deepest shades into the frames for the sliding doors rather than leaving them as standard black.
The artwork itself lives in the cozy den where it pops against walls and woodwork drenched in a warm raspberry-brown hue dubbed Ashes of Roses by Little Greene. “I never would have been brave enough to have gone for that, and it’s something everyone who visits remarks on,” admits Lily. The front living room is much in her comfort zone, with its neutral walls in the brand’s China Clay and checkerboard curtains that match the moody TV room. Green echoed the pattern around the fireplace, tiling it with adorable small-scale mosaics.
Keeping Lily and Mikey’s growing family in mind, Green cut into the space under the stairs and created three storage compartments: one for the water heater, one for hanging coats, and one for shoe drawers. The cherry on top is a vibrant flat-weave runner by Green’s go-to rug designer, Sophie Cooney.
Upstairs, the principal bedroom rivals the comfort of a boutique hotel suite. Green had a custom wavy headboard made to fill the space between the entry to the room and the new arch to the dressing room, “because it would have looked weird with a small gap left on each side,” she explains. The designer went above and beyond with the piece, even incorporating a cutout for the light switches.
Green situated a re-covered vintage cocktail sofa by the window, which Lily will curl up on and read when she has a spare moment. The patterned curtains are attached to an upholstered fascia, a detail Green has been using more and more in her projects. “It’s really effective when you have a print, and it’s more contemporary than a pelmet, which can feel a bit traditional,” she says. “This looks neat and is a modern way of fixing heavy lined curtains to a track.”
The connecting dressing room, covered in a small-scale clover print, is a poignant throwback to Lily’s recovery from long COVID. Largely bed-bound for 18 months, she recuperated in her tiny bedroom at her parents’ cottage in Oxfordshire, which is covered in the same wallpaper. “I’ve always loved that pattern, and I’d lay there with the sun streaming in onto the walls. It was a rubbish time, but it was such a sanctuary, and it could have been so much worse,” she recalls. She had the identical treatment installed to remind her that challenges in life can be overcome.
On the other side of the closet is the couple’s bathroom, which Green covered in textured waterproof tadelakt. “Doing that all over allowed us to make the shower enclosure feel a bit more interesting, rather than just opting for a big glass screen,” she explains. An arched opening with a mustard-hued shower curtain makes for a moody, secluded retreat. “Initially I wanted a bright shower so that if you’re feeling grumpy in the morning it’s uplifting, but actually the lighting in the niche is done so well. I feel like l’m in my own world in there,” says Lily.
