How Alice Palmer turned her creative hand to every corner of her joyful London house
Alice Palmer is a woman of considerable confidence. Undertakings that might make other people blanch, such as designing an extension for her house with no help from an architect, or setting up a homewares business from scratch as a one-man band, she breezes through with no apparent hesitation. Her house in north-west London, where she lives with her husband and three children, is a showcase for these plucky projects, a joyful, colourful space decked out in her distinctive designs.
Alice and her family bought the 1930s terrace five years ago, in the full knowledge that they had a project on their hands. The previous owner had embarked on a renovation and gutted the interiors, but it had stalled when they ran out of money. But there were plenty of advantages to work with. “I love the proportions of these 1930s houses,” says Alice. “You always think you want a Victorian house but actually the houses of this period are more generous; they have wider rooms and seem to be filled with light.”
As in most terraced houses, there were obvious directions to go in; the back of the house was ripe for a kitchen extension, and the loft could be developed to create a generous space for a master bedroom and bathroom. Alice had a certain level of confidence in renovations, having already undertaken a loft conversion at their previous flat in North Kensington, but it’s still rather remarkable that she decided to design everything herself and see it through with the builders, while she was pregnant with her first child, no less. “I wanted the flexibility of being able to make the decisions myself,” she explains. “We worked with an architect on our flat, and it would annoy me when they made decisions that we didn’t know about. With this house it was just me and the builder working it all out onsite.”
Although the essentials of the structural rearrangement – the rear extension and the loft conversion – were fairly typical, Alice was determined that the house wouldn’t end up looking just like everybody else’s. Eschewing the ubiquitous Crittall doors in her kitchen, she designed elegant wooden sash windows and french doors to open onto the garden. In her bedroom, she wanted floor to ceiling windows looking over the garden, but avoided the usual french doors and juliet balcony with a glorious expanse of paned windows.
If you needed any further convincing of Alice’s intrepidity, her next project was to set up a business during lockdown, when she was pregnant with her third child. Fuelled by frustration in finding the kind of lampshades she wanted, she simply set about making her own. “I had been obsessed with decoration for a long time, but I had no experience whatsoever,” she says cheerfully. Nonetheless, her bold striped shades with their informal pleats and frills have become an instant hit, immediately recognisable in stylish homes everywhere. “When people started actually buying them, I wasn’t really prepared,” she admits. Later on in 2020, therefore, she hired a seamstress, and has since expanded into cushions and valances, alongside a selection of Moroccan lamp bases and rugs. The red and white stripes that are her signature have been joined by embroidered fabrics and block-printed patterns, which work together to form a fresh and playful style.
Alice’s buoyant aesthetic and brisk approach to DIY are evident throughout the house. There are elements of the English country house style at work of course, but joined by plenty of vibrant inspiration from travels in Morocco, India and the Caribbean, a good deal of inherited and vintage furniture, and some stylish new purchases such as the striking BGFG wall hanging in the sitting room. A palette of yellow, green and terracotta pink prevails, with plenty of bold stripes in her own lampshades and cushions, which create a recurring theme throughout the house. She is enthusiastic with a paintbrush, lime-washing the ceiling of her kitchen to match the characterful raw plaster walls, painting patterns on her children’s walls, and adding colour in every possible context, from woodwork to ceilings. “I think it’s madness that everyone is expected to have white ceilings,” she remarks. “Using colour there can actually make rooms feel bigger, although everyone says the opposite.”
Alice’s favourite things in the house are all handmade, and include splatterware tiles in her bathroom, which she made when she couldn’t find the exact earthy look she wanted, and the graceful canopy over her bed, which she made with a friend, stapling the fabric onto a simple wooden frame. Her hand-block-printed textiles make appearances throughout, from the sofa in the sitting room to the valances on the beds. Designing everything yourself is certainly one way to make a house feel unique and coherent – if only we could all do the same.
Owen Gale1/16In the airy extension at the back of the house, Alice has left the walls in a raw plaster finish, and lime-washed the ceiling to match. Her own lampshades and cushions in ‘Tangier red stripe' decorate the seating area. Alice found the rug in the souk in Marrakech. The pendant lights are from Pooky.
Owen Gale2/16Alice designed the sofa herself and had it made to her specifications, upholstering it in Ian Mankin's ‘Grain Stripe’ linen. The prints over the sofa were a wedding present from OKA, while a portrait of Alice's husband Nicholas and their daughter Margarita by Leonie Gibbs hangs next to the sofa.
Owen Gale3/16The extension culminates in elegant sash windows looking out over the garden.
Owen Gale4/16Alice in her dining room.
Owen Gale5/16Alice found the old schoolteacher's desk on Ebay, and created a small gallery wall above it, including a landscape painting by Russel Scott, an abstract portrait by Michel Debieve, and (at the top) a painting of Mevagissy Harbour in Cornwall by Margaret Marks. The striped side table is from OKA.
Owen Gale6/16Alice designed the kitchen herself and had it built by Joinery T&D. The cabinets are painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Vert de Terre’.
7/16Alice found the backsplash tiles at Habibi Interiors in Kensal Green. The floor is done in a limestone tile from Mandarin Tiles.
Owen Gale8/16Alice painted the woodwork in the hallway in ‘Turmeric’ from Francesca's Paints. The tiles are the original flooring that was hidden under carpets.
Owen Gale9/16The hallway opens into the sitting room, which has walls painted in Little Greene's ‘Aged Ivory’ with a wallpaper effect by the decorative painter Hughie Turner. A BFGF wall hanging, framed by Harry Eagle, takes centre stage. The rug was another find from Marrakech.
Owen Gale10/16The sofa is upholstered in Alice's blue ‘Callaloo’ hand block printed fabric. Alice painted the stripes on the fireplace using ‘Oxblood’ from Francesca's Paints.
Owen Gale11/16In the baby's bedroom, Alice painted stripes in Farrow & Ball's ‘Foley Green’ on the ceiling.
Owen Gale12/16The children's bathroom has panelling painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Breakfast Room Green’, while the window trim is in ‘Foley Green’.
Owen Gale13/16In the children's bedroom, Alice hand-painted the bunting pattern around the top of the walls herself. The beds feature headboards and valances in Alice's ‘Callaloo’ fabric, and Indian embroidered kanthas from Sourced by Holly.
Owen Gale14/16The rug in the children's room was inherited from Alice's grandmother.
Owen Gale15/16Alice's bedroom occupies the loft extension on the top floor of the house. She created the bed canopy herself, and the bed is made up with a quilt from OKA, a stripey Jigsaw duvet cover, and cushions in Beata Heuman's ‘Palm Drop’ fabric.
Owen Gale16/16The adjoining bathroom is decorated with splatterware tiles that Alice made by hand herself.
