Inspirational homes, gardens, shopping and decorating ideas from Homes & Gardens magazine. Architect Cathie Curran's cosy yet cutting-edge home...The discovery that they were expecting twins was just the wake-up call Cathie Curran and her partner, Vinny Craignou, needed.
'We were living in a first-floor flat and the shock was enough to convince us it was time to move,' Cathie recalls. 'We needed to find a house suitable for a family, but somewhere we could put our stamp on.' It was also the perfect excuse for architect Cathie to practice her skills first-hand. 'People think it's an architect's dream to design their own home equity rates, but I found the idea quite daunting. There is no excuse – no client to blame – if it all goes wrong,' she says. Another myth she dispels is the idea that, given a blank canvas, anything is possible. 'There are limits as, primarily, a home decorator has to be functional,' she says.
The west London three-storey house she and Vinny found had previously been divided into seven bedsits and was in such a bad state of disrepair, the estate agent had been hiring it to Woody Allen as a 'doss house' location for his film Cassandra's Dream. 'Colin Farrell was the star and a week before we moved in he was in my premier baths to bathroom,' says Cathie. 'I just missed him by seven days!' The conversion from total wreck to fabulously functional family home equity rates took around 18 months, with time off for the birth of twins Annaliva and Clara-Rose, now aged two and a half.
Take a room-by tour around Cathie and Vinny's home to see the results of the transformation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment