Rosie Madison could be described as a serial renovator. Just as she finishes one home, she can’t help herself looking around for the next project.
‘I get itchy feet and wonder what else I can make beautiful,’ admits Rosie, who co-presents a show on BBC Radio 1, ‘and I always end up falling for another house.’
When she and her husband Matthew went to view their third renovation – a four-bedroom townhouse in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire – ‘it looked tiny from the front,’ says Rosie. ‘However, once inside, we realised the house had some gorgeous bones. At every turn, there was another staircase, another period door, another beautiful marble fireplace.’
Dating back to 1737, Trevor House, or ‘Trev’ as the couple call it, is right in the middle of town and used to be a beer and wine merchants.
Kitchen
‘We focused on creating a kitchen with wow factor,’ says Rosie. ‘The old white units took up a third of the room with a little breakfast bar sticking out – a bit like apartment living but not in a good way.’
Keeping the same layout and squeezing in a dining table would only have made the room look smaller. The solution, they decided, was to arrange the kitchen units around the whole room.
As this room was quite dark, the couple chose Shaker-style kitchen units in a warm neutral shade, and herringbone flooring in a light tone to create a modern and airy feel in the small kitchen.
The second-hand range cooker was a bargain buy that elevates the scheme and brings contrast to the pale cabinetry.
Arranging the kitchen units around the room freed up space for a sizeable draper’s table in the centre that can be used as a worktop or a breakfast bar.
‘You can even have a dinner party around it,’ says Rosie. ‘Although I wanted an antique table, nothing would fit in the house, so we had one specially made in pieces that could be reassembled. I love how it adds a different texture in contrast to the worktops.’
On the walls are some of Rosie’s own artworks, which she sells via Harrogate House Interiors.
‘I like mixing things up – putting a modern art canvas next to an antique table for a nice contrast ’
Living room
It was clear that the house needed more sympathetic décor to complement the original features.
As a keen collector and creator of art, Rosie prefers decorating with neutrals and plain walls rather than patterned wallpaper as a backdrop for prints and paintings.
The warm dusty-pink shade works well in this north-facing living room. Rosie added a vibrant red trim to standard drapes as a curtain idea to give them an eye-catching uplift, while the couple’s greyhound, Dorothy, features in many of Rosie’s artworks
The living room was a difficult space to style, because the fireplace is off-centre. Also, the room seemed small when Rosie first looked around the house.
‘Strangely, the more things we put in this small living room, the larger and more liveable it felt,’ she says.
Home office
The house is filled with antiques and artwork picked up on the couple’s travels, particularly around Asia and South America. Matthew and Rosie share the same quirky style and like pieces with meaning.
‘Home offices can be such boring spaces, but this room has a fun mood,’ says Rosie. ‘It’s where we put our crazier pieces – such as the masks we bought in Brazil – that might not work in the living room.’
‘When I was little, I loved going round Halifax Antiques Centre with my dad, and I’ve always collected art, so I wanted a gallery feel in the house,’ says Rosie,
The walls are painted a warm and deep earthy yellow hue – a perfect colour for a home office – which contrasts beautifully with the black gloss-painted door.
‘Don’t buy high street art prints or furniture when you can find a vintage classic that will last a lot longer’
Guest bedroom
Rosie always has her eye out for vintage and antique bargains; the beautifully curved wooden headboard in this guest bedroom was one of her best ever Facebook Marketplace finds at just £12.
A mix of scatter and bolster cushions complements the wall colour – Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball.
Green bedroom
Foliage prints fill the wall behind the headboard in this second guest bedroom.
As an artwork framing idea, Rosie bought £2 gold-coloured frames from Yorkshire Trading Company and scraped bits off to show the black underneath and create a vintage look.
A patterned lampshade and striped cushion add splashes of red to the green bedroom scheme.
‘I love little pops of colour. They can be introduced very easily and changed just as easily,’ says Rosie
‘I love that so much of our interior choices have a story behind them; what inspired them, where we found them’
Bathroom
Rosie and Matthew updated the bathroom, removing the black tiles that Rosie says made it look like the inside of a 1996 sports centre changing room!
Starting with a battered old marble-topped dresser she found on ebay, Rosie upcycled a vanity unit, painting it and fitting a new basin to give it a new lease of life. She then opted for wall-mounted taps sourced in Morocco, adding a vintage foxed mirror to complete the look.
Deciding the bathroom needed a little more grandeur, Rosie chose luxury vinyl bathroom flooring, brass shower fittings sourced from Morocco and marble bathroom tiles for the shower enclosure.
‘There are certain things you can’t scrimp on,’ Rosie says.
Although Rosie says she and Matthew are really happy with their home, she admits they made plenty of mistakes along the way. ‘Like the time we painted the hallway a classy beige, which looked wonderful in the evening but felt like a Spanish taverna in the daytime,’ she laughs.
‘No matter how much we love Trev, this is not a forever home. Matthew will kill me for saying that as he’d like a rest, but I’ve already got itchy feet to start our next project …’
This feature first appeared in Period Living Magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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