Design duo Andy and Karen are behind the popular contemporary children’s bedding and accessories collection, Olli and Lime, and have very kindly shared pictures of their highly covetable retro-contemporary home that induced palpitations when I laid eyes on pics of it a few months back. Minimalist, open-plan living that’s still invitingly warm, their taste for retro green and brown and edgy pattern is echoed in their decor.
Our place is in the Regency town of Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire. We’ve lived on the outskirts of the town centre for about 18 months now and it’s very quiet most of the time but still handily placed for everything we need. We bought the place, then took about a month to renovate and decorate. It’s a Victorian-style property, divided into flats. When we bought it, it hadn’t been touched since the 1980s development, so everything needed ripping out and replacing. This suited us, as we ended up with blank canvas to work with.
Our inspiration came from a love of loft-style properties, like you’d find in New York for instance. We just don’t get that kind of housing where we live, so we decided to buy a place that had some of the features we like – space, high ceilings, large windows etc – then open it up as much as possible to create that kind of feel. We had to make some compromises but we’re pleased with how it ended up.
I guess our style is kind of retro-contemporary. I know that’s a contradiction but it suits us perfectly. I think we extract what we like from old and new. Luckily our tastes are very similar and where they do differ they complement, rather than clash. There are certainly parallels with our business too. Our home has a similar colour palette and feel to our range designs.
We didn’t have a set vision, just a desire to create a feeling of space. We removed all the doors (apart from the bathroom) and a few walls, to create smooth lines and a nice flow. We hate carpets – plus they aren’t great with three cats! – so we went for wood flooring throughout and painted walls and ceilings white; a very big job! Some people would think this a bit cold and clinical but we just love the contrast. We’ve added colour over time with feature walls in a few of the rooms, plus our kitchen units were pretty bright to start with, obviously!
Most treasured piece(s)
We’re pretty chair-obsessed. For me it would be the Eileen Gray Bibendum armchair (though it really isn’t comfortable!) and for Karen our Robin Day sofa. The other thing we love, which is more a part of the house, is our kitchen worktop. It’s concrete, poured on site. It’s just so solid and durable. It started as a cheap alternative but it became a real feature.
Favourite shops
We love looking around the Conran Shop, though rarely buy anything! Stores like Bo Concept are really cool too, plus Habitat is always good value. We also trawl online for bargains and inspiration.
Future plans
Embarrassingly, we still haven’t finished our bathroom! It was the last thing on our list and we still have a couple of things to do (hence the lack of photos). We really do need some more artwork on the walls too, but haven’t found anything suitable just yet. We are also going to build a bespoke wall unit in the dressing room to house all our shoes, bags and hats. Needless to say, Karen is very excited about this!
Thanks to Andy and Karen for not only sharing their pictures and inspiration but for also being the very first participants in home tours on Nest Goodies. If you’d like to show off your home, a room, a reclaimed piece of furniture, or any of your own creations that you’re using to feather your nest, drop me a line at contact AT nestgoodies DOT co DOT uk.
