A longtime rental unit, this two-bedroom flat in London’s Clapham neighborhood had been stripped of most of its original charm when Courtney Thornalley, creative director at Cat Dal Interiors, began redesigning its kitchen. “A married couple came to us with a small flat they’d purchased in a row of Victorian terrace houses,” she says. “These houses have a lot of character and charm, but this particular flat lost a lot of its detail over the years and hadn’t been given much TLC. So the couple was really keen to reinstate that charm and give it more joy and whimsy.”
But piling on the whimsy isn’t always easy when you’re short on space, which was the case here. To make up for the kitchen’s limited square footage, Thornalley got crafty with color and brought in warmth through fabric treatments and floating shelves as well as vintage (and vintage-inspired) lighting fixtures. Here are a few of her takeaways from the project.
Mismatch Upper and Lower Cabinets
Kitchen cabinet traditionalists may be shocked to hear that you don’t have to paint your upper and lower units the same color. “It’s another opportunity to break things up,” says Thornalley. “We wanted to add as much character as we could, but because it was a small kitchen, there were minimal furnishings, so it seemed like almost a waste to not take advantage of a design choice here.” Thornalley went with Farrow & Ball’s Green Smoke on the bottom cabinets and Blue Gray up top. “Going a couple shades lighter on top draws the eye upward and adds more dimension to the room,” she says.
Use Pink to Pack on the Personality
Added whimsy comes from the rest of the room’s color scheme, which includes a yellow-based white wall paint from Farrow & Ball called White Tie, an unexpected punchy blue (Lulworth Blue, also by Farrow & Ball) inside a wall-mounted glass cabinet, and a pink backsplash made with porcelain tile by Artisans of Devizes. “It was a decision made on-site—it was like, why not pink?” says Thornalley. “It’s a yellow-based pink, so it works really well and gives that little bit of edge and personality. Plus, because we had that foundation, we were able to layer in more eclectic things like the yellow fern scroll window treatment.”
Creatively Cover Unsightly Elements
Limited square footage wasn’t the only design challenge Thornalley encountered: “In the original kitchen, when you walked in, the first thing you’d see was this beautiful window, and then there was this horrible, ugly boiler on display.” Thornalley knew the boiler needed to be covered, but doing so created a cupboard that jutted out slightly in front of the kitchen’s sole window. However, by also adding floating shelves to the left of the boiler cabinet, the eye glosses past the boiler cabinet, creating a design diversion of sorts plus added storage. “It was just really about how we maximize every little nook and cranny and cover up some of these less desirable aspects,” she says.
Similarly, a curtain covers a washing machine below the kitchen’s mini farmhouse sink. “Here in the U.K., you’ll often have the washing machine in the kitchen,” says Thornalley. “But we really didn’t want you to walk around the corner and just see the appliance, so we covered it with a curtain made from Marbleized Velvet fabric by Beata Heuman.”
Add a Flexible Lighting Source
Updating the kitchen’s existing lighting—basic recessed spotlights—was another opportunity to add character. In addition to sourcing a vintage French wheatsheaf chandelier from 8 Holland Street in London, Thornalley mounted a swing wall lamp from Wo & Wé. “We had created this little peninsula that came out into the middle of the space,” she says, “but there wasn’t room to drop any kind of lighting over it. So the idea was to put something on the wall that’s movable and provides another layer of lighting.” The lamp easily swings out for anyone studying a cookbook or enjoying a bite to eat.
Keep What You Can
As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…but maybe add a fresh coat of paint. That’s all Thornalley did to the existing fireplace, which she coated in Farrow & Ball’s Railings. The original tile flooring remained the same as well, which not only helped with the renovation’s budget but added to the kitchen’s character—Thornalley’s goal from the beginning. “There’s something really nice about preserving that heritage,” she says.
