See inside Suzy Hoodless' home - a vibrant lesson in the clever use of colour

By Livingetc 2021-03-12T13:00:31Z

THE PROPERTY

A Victorian terrace and modern home in west London. The ground floor comprises a double-aspect living room and a kitchen-diner. There is a study, utility room, master bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and a bedroom on the third floor.

KITCHEN

After buying the four-storey terrace with her husband almost eight years ago, interior designer, Suzy Hoodless was immediately drawn to ‘its space and seemingly endless floors’. She wanted to create a sociable home that would work for her family, but could also be shut down at night, and not filled with billions of plastic toys everywhere.

Kitchen cabinets painted a bold, matt Yves Klein-style blue bring an otherwise pared-back kitchen to life. Suzy says she can’t imagine life without the saturated colour.

The bespoke, industrial wall shelving set against a clean backdrop of Carrara marble and white tiles lends a lightness to the space.

DINING AREA

The kitchen and custom-sized dining table were designed to accommodate Suzy’s vintage Hans Wegner chairs, bought many years ago.

The black limestone flooring reflects the dark woodwork of the chairs.

living room

The couple opened up the space by removing some walls and lots of doors, divided the double-aspect ground-floor room ‘to create a cosy but proper living room at the front and a sitting room/playroom in the middle’, and knocked out a ‘hopeless lean-to’ at the back of the house. By lowering the kitchen level from that of the sitting room, they created a large kitchen-diner, which has made all the difference to the way they live.

A powerful shock of incandescent yellow around the architrave, links the front living room to the middle sitting room, and instantly saves the two spaces from becoming ‘too polite’.