An ex-rental can be the perfect blank canvas – you can stamp your personality onto it and make it your own.
That's what Maureen Gomez did when she took on this former rented house and set about restoring it to its former glory – with a few modern twists.
Read on to find out how she injected personality into her home and lovingly restored the surviving period features.
Feature and styling by Maxine Brady. Photography by Bee Holmes.
I’m Maureen Gomez, an interior designer at maureengomezinteriors.com and on Instagram @maureengomezinteriors. I live with my husband Nigel, a structural engineer, and our two children, Zachary, aged nine, and Zara, aged six.
Where I live
A three-bed, mid-terrace Victorian house built in 1890, in South London.
My best bargain
Our living room 1960s rug, which was £80 at a car boot sale.
Our biggest mistake
After laying down our beautiful reclaimed floorboards, I used a varnish that was far too dark and ended up having to sand it all back again!
Finding your dream home often involves a bit of luck, as interior designer Maureen Gomez discovered when she stumbled upon this house. ‘I spotted an estate agent putting up a “for sale” sign outside this place and I made an appointment to view it before the agent even had a chance to put the details on their website,’ she says.
‘We put in an offer before anyone else looked at the place, because we’d always wanted to live in a period property that had lots of character. It was pure chance that I happened to be walking by our future home that day.’
The three-bed Victorian terrace had been rented out for years, and the interior was tired. ‘We quickly made friends with lots of the people on the street, and they welcomed us to the area with open arms. We instantly felt at home.’
Restoring character
The house was bland throughout. ‘It was beige, beige, beige everywhere, including the tiles, carpet and walls. And most of the period features were missing,’ recalls Maureen. ‘The day we got the keys, we ripped up the grotty carpets. They had to go before we could even think of moving in. We’d rather live with rough floorboards than with the smelly carpets.’
Next, the couple set about reinstating the original features in the house, such as the fireplace, cornicing and ceiling roses. With Maureen expecting their first child a few months after they moved into the house, they also prioritised making the main bedroom and living space habitable.
Luckily, they found reclaimed floorboards on a local selling site for a great price, so hired a van to pick them up. Their existing furniture didn’t work in the new space, though. ‘All the furniture from our previous flat was too big, so we sold it or passed it on,’ Maureen explains. ‘We couldn’t afford to buy new furniture, so we slept on a mattress on the bedroom floor for the first few weeks.’
Maureen started visiting car boot sales and markets to find affordable vintage and antique furniture. ‘To save money, we furnished the house in dribs and drabs,’ she says. ‘I didn’t mind shopping secondhand because I’ve always loved old things, which can add depth and character.’
Old and new
In 2014, the couple had finally saved up enough to replace the kitchen. ‘It was beyond salvaging. I’d open a cupboard door and it would come off in my hand,’ she says. They chose cream units that were within their price range, but it wasn’t long before Maureen regretted the colour.
Not able to justify ripping out her new kitchen, Maureen decided to instead give the units a makeover with yellow paint, and paint the woodwork green. She also made a curtain to hide her washing machine and hung vintage plates on the wall to inject personality. ‘Plants thrive in my kitchen, so I hung them from the ceiling and mounted them to the walls to save on countertop space,’ she says.
Maureen’s biggest DIY win was stencilling the kitchen floor to give it the look of Victorian tiles. ‘Stencilling is a finicky job, but the result was worth the effort. So much so, that I painted over our bathroom tiled floors as well,’ she explains. ‘It was tedious work, but the hardest part was stopping my kids walking on the wet painted floor. Three years down the line, my faux tiled floors are still going strong.’
Making it personal
During lockdown, Maureen decided on a career change, leaving her role as an art teacher to start training as an interior designer, which inspired her to start mixing patterns and colours in her home. Over the space of a year and half, white walls were updated in a colour palette of sky blues, greens and ochre. ‘Having more time in my home gave me the chance to tackle lots of decorating jobs,’ she says.
With a background in art, Maureen had built up a collection of artwork over the years, which she used to create unique gallery walls in the landing, living room and hallway. She gave her children’s rooms colourful makeovers, and refreshed the living space too. ‘There’s nothing more satisfying than spending an afternoon painting a room and seeing it be transformed,’ she enthuses.
Maureen credits her success as an interior designer to the skills and confidence she gained when decorating her own space. ‘My home has taught me how to inject colour into a room with rugs, soft furnishings, and lampshades,’ she says.
‘I feel that a home should tell a story. That’s why I’ve filled every room in my house with heirlooms, family photos and ornaments that we have collected over time, so that it feels really comfy and cosy in here. When I step through the door, I feel like I’m getting a huge hug!’
Kitchen
Over the years, Maureen’s kitchen has undergone many mini transformations. She painted the cream units yellow, updated her handles and stencilled the black slate floor to create a country-cottage look. ‘I’ve enjoyed slowly adding to this room and tweaking the colours over time’.
Living room
As she has narrow hallways, Maureen invested in a sofa-in-a-box by Swyft so that she could still fit a large three-seater sofa into her living room. The couple have been collecting the prints above the sofa for years and they include their wedding photos.
Hallway
Luckily, the original banisters and doors were still in place when Maureen and Nigel moved in. But they couldn’t salvage the original floor because the wood was cracked and warped, so they covered it over with reclaimed floorboards. ‘We invested in a runner up the staircase once I had finished painting the house’.
Zara’s bedroom
This pretty peppermint colour is one of Maureen’s own creations. ‘I created the wall colour from samples tins until I got exactly the right shade and got my DIY sample colour matched by Dulux.’ Maureen also painted over the original floorboards in white paint to cover over any blemishes
Bathroom
Maureen carried out lots of DIY jobs in the family bathroom, too: she stencilled the beige floor tiles, painted the radiator for an antique finish, and added wall panelling.
Zach’s bedroom
Maureen choose yellow for her son’s room as she finds it positive and uplifting. She picked up the vintage school chair from a local car boot sale.
Main bedroom
Maureen painted her loft bedroom Card Room Green by Farrow & Ball. The vintage rug and lamps bring warmth, while the Swoon bedside tables (found for £200 on Facebook Marketplace) add a modern touch.
En-suite
The loft bathroom glow-up cost Maureen just £300 – with the toilet seat costing her the most money! She painted the walls in Farrow & Ball’s Green Smoke, and bought the panelling from a timber merchant.
