Tour this Brighton terrace with Scandi-industrial style
With exposed copper pipes, worktops made from flakeboard, an industrial-style kitchen and surprising shots of bold pattern, Alienor and Simon Falconer's three-bedroom terrace in Brighton has plenty of inspiring corners.
'This is the fourth house we've renovated together and, by now, we know whether we'll like each other's ideas,' says Alienor. 'I suppose you could call our style industrial-meets-Scandi, as it is a mix of rawness and comfort.'
Their home was far from comfortable when they moved in during August 2013. 'We wanted to be by the sea so our children could enjoy the freedom and clean air. Simon had grown up on the coast, but I'd been living in London since my uni days and I felt that our new home needed to be in an interesting town so that it wasn't too much of a culture shock for me!’ says Alienor. 'We needed to be able to commute into London for work, so Brighton was the perfect choice.'
Not as perfect was the neglected three-storey Edwardian terraced property with flea-ridden carpets that they viewed. 'Our London home was a Victorian terrace and very conventional in layout,' explains Alienor. 'This place, like many in Brighton, was far from regular, but we could see how we could make it work. When we viewed it, there was a bedroom and sitting room on the ground floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor and a kitchen and second sitting room with a dingy corridor in the basement.
'It had been let out as rooms, each with a bedroom and living area. We could see that the downstairs could become one kitchen-living space leading out onto the garden, which was one of the biggest we had seen on our viewings in Brighton. The house sits on a hill, so keeping a bedroom at the front, while unusual, meant that we could have a sitting room at the back, making the most of the fabulous views over the town.’
The property was also in a good catchment area for schools and within walking distance of Brighton seafront. 'Corwin was two-and-a-half when we moved, and Effie just three months,' says Alienor. 'It was horrible at first, as they kept getting flea bites, the roof leaked and there was damp, but once the carpets were up and the original floorboards sanded, everything became a little more manageable. We didn't have any regrets though, as we knew the potential was there to make this into a great family home.'
Having decided to move out for the builders to move in, the couple rented a house nearby for three months. 'It was great being so close as we could pop back and make key decisions quickly,' says Alienor. The builders rewired, replumbed and reroofed the house, knocking the basement space into one. 'We did have to convince them that we wanted to keep some things raw,' says Alienor.
'They really weren't sure about our copper pipework idea for the bathroom and were concerned about the quality of their soldering. However, once I explained that this was exactly the look we were after, they came around to our way of thinking, even suggesting the mirrored bath panel in the bathroom, which we love!'
Alienor turned to her builders again when she couldn't find the kitchen she wanted. 'I was after something really flat, with holes for handles, but couldn't source it anywhere. We'd had a white gloss handleless kitchen in our old home and I wanted something really different. So the builder asked his carpenter to make the kitchen units.'
Alienor painted them herself after getting a quote for £1,500 from a spray painter. 'I set up a painting station in the sitting room and did them all for about £50,' she adds.
For the worktops, the couple wanted flakeboard or OSB (oriented strand board), having seen it on Pinterest. 'It just had the right industrial feel,' says Alienor, 'and we thought it was really cool, but everyone is using it now. I also love how it’s made from recycled wood.'
Downstairs, the couple have extended out under their front path to make a handy downstairs loo. ‘On moving day, I got here before the van and Simon, so our neighbours invited me in. They had extended to create this extra toilet and I decided that we should do that too, especially with two young children and our only other bathroom being two floors up,’ says Alienor.
Luckily, their twist on Scandi-industrial style has meant that the couple haven't had to compromise, as lots of the materials were cheap. Plus, their choices in furniture mean things are easily found on eBay and in charity shops. 'We weren't going for a highly polished look,' says Alienor, 'so it wasn't very expensive to do.
'Looking back, 2013 was a crazy year. We had Effie, moved here and I launched my business selling children's nightwear and bed linen. Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat... We're already on the hunt for home number five – and, yes, I can see exposed pipes making a reappearance there too!'
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