An interior designer's Dulwich flat transformed into a creative family home

When Catherine Olley and her newly wedded husband Alex “scraped together all the money [they] had” to buy their first flat together, they were under the impression that it “only needed cosmetic renovation.” They were wrong. In a series of events that would make for a dramatic Grand Designs episode, the pair ended up tackling several unstable brick walls, all the damp-proofing, rewiring, re-plastering and a collapsed ceiling–and it was only once those issues had been dealt with that the couple could begin the decoration process they had originally bargained for.

Bought in the summer of 2018, the apartment in the south-east London neighbourhood of Dulwich represented the end of a long house hunting process for the couple. “It was pretty run down and had been empty for quite a few years, but it was the only one that had the bones of what we wanted in terms of space, garden and location," explains Catherine, adding, “our main criteria was to have somewhere big enough for a decent sized dining table and a decent sized sofa!" Indeed, the duo needed the space to be the right fit for their life as a young couple, as well as being relatively future proof.

Bizzarely, it was actually thanks to the house's structural issues that Catherine got the opportunity to address the flat's layout. As they re-plastered the wall in between the kitchen and the bathroom, it became vulnerable and ended up having to be taken down, which in turn caused the ceiling to start crumbling. “Luckily we were staying with my sister-in-law at the time… because the toilet was in the kitchen for a while," she reminisces amusedly. Whilst they did decide, naturally, that a new wall up would have to go up around the bathroom, they left the space between the dining room and kitchen open plan to allow for the large entertaining area the couple had wanted.

At the time Catherine was working for Louisa Penn Interiors, learning the craft of interior design from her, and the Dulwich flat was her chance to apply those lessons on her own. “We did a lot of the decorating ourselves and didn't go for the easy option at any point," she remarks. Truly, the finished house is an immense feat of creativity and craftsmanship from Catherine, whose idea of a ‘hands on process’ is perhaps bolder than most. Take the bedroom, for instance, where her own paintings are displayed on wallpaper hung by her, next to mirrors made by her–and even the roman blinds were made as a lockdown craft project.

Over in the living room - which presented the unusual challenge of having the front door opening right into it - Catherine was determined to use every trick up her sleeves to create a space that felt settled, rather than just an area for passing through. “It's a south-east facing room, which is bathed in sunlight in the morning, so it was important not to waste the space,” she comments. To achieve this, the couple put in joinery either side of the fireplace creating a charming vignette that greets you on entrance. Above the fireplace, Catherine crafted a Beata Heuman-inspired ‘TV cover’ out of Ikea frames, wallpaper scraps and a wooden frame.

Taking a space from an empty shell to a family house on a budget isn't a project to be undertaken lightly, but this flat is living proof that it can be done well. Catherine and her husband moved here as newlyweds looking for their first family home, and have left the space with two children, a dog and a burgeoning interior design business. Whilst you might think that's enough on the plate for anyone, the larger space they picked was “definitely a doer upper," laughs Catherine.

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