Planning your home decor can be tricky if you love a variety of styles, but what if you could have all of them? Louise Landry expertly mixed and matched different looks to create a harmonious home.
She was able to blend them together, taking her home from shabby to chic! Louise's Edwardian home now feels surprisingly modern.
Read on to find out how she did it and steal her style for your own home.
I’m Louise Landry, 36, and I live with my partner Daniel, 35, a painter and decorator, our daughters Bella Crosbie, 10, and Ofelia Berry, three, and our British shorthair cat, Yogi. I work part-time at Penhaligon’s perfume shop and have a home styling business.
Where I live… A three-bedroom Edwardian semi- detached house in Formby, Merseyside, which we bought in June 2021. You can see more of my home on Instagram @altcar_edwardian_renovation.
What I wanted to change… It hadn’t been updated for decades, there was no bathroom upstairs and the kitchen was tiny.
How I made it my own… I wanted every room to have a different feel but there’s a brass thread that runs throughout the house and a real mix of old and new.
My favourite part… The front living room, which we call the snug. I just love the high ceilings and the shutters. It’s so cosy in the evenings with a glass of wine and the fire on. We live mainly in the open-plan room so it’s the one space where the kids don’t go and there are no messy toys.
When our daughter Ofelia came along, we soon outgrew our three-bed semi in Huyton, Liverpool. I’d bought the new-build property as a single mum in my early 20s with an inheritance from my sister who passed away, but my lifelong dream was to own a period property.
Formby, on the outskirts of Liverpool, ticked so many boxes as it’s by the beach and woods, but not too far from the city.
This house had sat empty for seven years after the owner passed away, but it had a wonderful feel and I just fell in love with it. When they finally traced a distant relative who inherited it, we were able to make an offer.
Over 14 months, the whole house was taken back to brick while we stayed in our previous home. Daniel’s family have a building firm, (@cbconstruction0495 on Instagram), so they built a two-storey extension to create an open-plan kitchen-diner and family room with an extra bedroom above.
Although we came up with the design and layout, we had lots of help from the Instagram community. My sister, Marcelle, was another sounding board – we’re always sharing ideas.
I wanted each room to have a calm and relaxing feel. There’s definitely a Scandi and Japandi influence in the open-plan areas, while the living room is more Art Deco-inspired and our bedroom has a Mediterranean vibe. I love how these different styles give us the best of all worlds.
Kitchen
I knew I wanted a kitchen with a floating shelf where I could display accessories. Quartz worktops and gold handles were also on my wishlist.
For the kitchen cupboards, I’ve gone for a very light grey as a neutral colour will go with anything, but I did want the island to stand out a bit more so chose a slightly darker charcoal colour to contrast. It was between Howdens and DIY Kitchens in the end.
They were both a similar price, but we chose Howdens as they come out to measure up and there’s a depot nearby if there are any problems.
Dining area
It took me months and months to find the right dining table for this space. We even brought the garden table inside for a while. Eventually I came across this one at Tikamoon. It really stood out and I liked the curved shape.
If we’ve got more people around for dinner, we can pull the little bench up and put the other two chairs at the ends.
We’re lucky to have a south facing garden off this space, although it was pretty wild and neglected when we bought the house, and then the renovation turned it into a building site full of rubble. Since then we’ve laid a grass lawn and porcelain patio which has transformed the way we live – and next year I want to add a raised deck.
We still get daily visits from the two peacocks who were living in the garden when we bought the house!’
Living area
I really wanted the open-plan space in the new extension to have a more contemporary Scandi feel. We’ve kept the walls an off-white called Steamed Milk by Rust-Oleum but painted the door to the hall black to link with the kitchen island and bi-fold doors.
It’s a lovely warm space in summer, but the underfloor heating is great in winter. The one regret I have is dropping the ceiling height in this part to make it the same as the new kitchen. I think it would’ve looked better higher, but we had to make a quick decision and it was easier to do.
Snug
This is a little relaxing sanctuary for Daniel and I to enjoy in the evenings when the kids are in bed. I wanted to give the original part of the house – the living room and front bedroom – an edgy Art Deco kind of vibe with a moody palette.
To restore it to its former glory, we invested in sash windows from Elmsley Curtains and Blinds for all the front windows and added sills to replicate the original ones. We also re-instated the picture rail to complement the original coving, installed a reclaimed fire surround and put panelling up around the bay window and in the alcoves.
At first we went for navy walls but I didn’t like it. Instead we chose Charcoal by Rust-Oleum with white above the picture rail to give it a bit of a vintage feel. Daniel is a painter and decorator (@berrydecorating) so he wasn’t happy about painting it twice, but he loves the new look now and it helps the TV above the fireplace to blend in.
Ofelia's bedroom
‘This was going to be our bedroom, then we thought it might be a guest bedroom and the two girls would share the middle bedroom. However, it wouldn’t work when one’s a teenager and the other one’s a toddler.
It’s the biggest bedroom so it made sense to have built-in wardrobes in here, but we had to move the entrance door slightly to fit them across one wall.
The original coving and ceiling rose were gone so those were re-instated. Then we found a reclaimed fireplace on Facebook Marketplace and put up feature panelling behind the bed to complete the period look.
Ofelia has a double bed, which is handy if she wakes up in the night and needs soothing, but it also suits the space better as a smaller bed would look a bit lost.
Main bedroom
I wanted this room to be minimalist with very little furniture and have given it a light and airy Mediterranean feel. It’s south facing, so the limewash works really well when the sun shines on it. Lightweight voiles create that holiday vibe, but there’s also a blackout blind for practicality.
All our wardrobes are in the front bedroom, as we were originally going to have that larger room as our main bedroom. However, we moved in here when the extension was done and Ofelia moved into the front bedroom.
I love that it’s quieter at the back and we’re a bit away from the children. It feels like having your own hotel suite as we’re right by the bathroom.
Bathroom
I’m really glad we turned this tiny box room into a bathroom and raised the sloping roof to make it feel bigger. With the window being so big, I wanted a freestanding bath right under it and there was enough room for a walk-in shower behind the door too.
I’d always envisaged a Japandi look with a spa feel, so we used a Bauwerk limewash paint on the walls and ceiling. Looking back, I wish we’d gone for white tiles behind the sink and bath though, as the limewash isn’t wipeable and you can see splash marks.
What I learned
- During the reno, we lived half an hour away and weren’t on site that much. If I ever do another project, I’d visit the site more often to make sure I pick up on small details.
- Matt black bathroom fittings are a nightmare to clean. My friend Jade, who has her own cleaning business (@cleaningwithjade), did warn me but I didn’t listen as I really wanted that look.
- You can’t rush things. I wanted everything done before we moved in and the kids started school, but it just wasn’t possible. It’ll look better if you take your time deciding on the finishes.
How to get a neat paint line
- If you want a two-tone wall – for instance a dark shade on the bottom two thirds and a light colour on the top third – you can achieve a crisp straight line even without a picture rail.
- Paint two or three coats of the lighter colour first across the whole wall. Once dry, use a measuring tape and pencil to mark dots along the wall the same distance from the ceiling. A ruler with an in-built spirit level will help you join up the dots and draw the line across the wall.
- Apply masking tape flush above your pencil line, rubbing out any air bubbles carefully. To prevent the second paint colour bleeding through, a top tip is to paint over the masking tape in the original lighter colour first. This creates a seal, so any paint that does bleed through effectively matches the existing paint. Then let it dry before putting your darker paint colour over the bottom half up to the masking tape. Remove the tape when your final coat is still wet for a perfect crisp line.
- For cutting in, pick a two- or three-inch brush. Synthetic bristles are better with water-based matt emulsion paints as they won’t absorb too much water and swell up, which sometimes results in tramlines. A natural brush is better for woodwork when you’re using oil-based paints and is less likely to leave bristle marks.
Words by Karen Wilson. Photography by Katie Lee
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