Audenza House Tour: A Stunning London Home

Today we are joining the amazing Audenza team as they tour the home of Anna Jacobs, a phenomenal British artist and designer living in a rented home in London with her two children.

In a way it’s often more inspiring to see what can be done with a rental property as there are so many limitations to creativity. But nothing has limited Anna’s quest for an original and visionary home, so prepare to be inspired and stunned, with its colour saturated interiors and colourful wall murals!

How would you sum up your style?

I would say my style is like living inside a piece of art that is saturated with fresh colour to make your heart leap with joy. That’s my aim, anyway!

What sort of condition did you rent the house in?

When we moved in, the property was completely neutral, with a mix of white and greige walls. The landlord had left two coffee tables and the kitchen table, plus cupboards full of crockery and old food (some of which was 10 years out of date!). He said we could keep, chuck or do what we liked with all of it. So far, I’ve just painted the two coffee tables, covered the orange pine kitchen table with a cloth and stored much of the crockery.

Anna’s top tips for making a rental property your own?

– Cover the floors with rugs, these immediately make it your own home, are removable and protect rental carpets and wooden floors

– Paint walls that are cheap and easy to paint back (with landlord permission!)

– Start small, by just painting door frames, or even the edge of a door!

– Paint just part of a wall, or paint a giant shape on a wall

– Replace door handles on kitchen units, using the same size handles as the rental ones.

– Use self-adhesive removable wallpaper on walls, uncarpeted stair risers and even furniture

– Use self adhesive removable splashbacks on tiles in the kitchen and bathroom.

– Accessorise, accessorise, accessorise!

Do you design your home with colour psychology in mind?

Absolutely! I use a mix of colour psychology and colour theory, but you have to listen very closely to your own personal reaction to colour too, which might contradict and take precedent over these.

As a single parent running my own business, I live with fairly constant stress, so I have surrounded myself with a lot of blues and greens, because they are calming and nourishing colours, but I add pink highlights to warm them up and create a welcoming feel. I’ve also just changed the very warm and quite dark greige in our living room to a gorgeous duck egg blue, because as a West facing room, it just felt too heavy and cloying in the very warm afternoon light. The blue literally makes me feel as though I can breathe again!

Find the full article online at Audenza.