{"id":14138,"date":"2022-09-10T09:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T07:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=34805"},"modified":"2022-09-10T09:59:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T07:59:10","slug":"a-victorian-home-filled-with-art-antiques-and-collected-items","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-victorian-home-filled-with-art-antiques-and-collected-items\/","title":{"rendered":"A Victorian home filled with art, antiques and collected items"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jo Leevers\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 10 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Lisa Mehydene combines a collector\u2019s eye for detail with a talent for seeing the bigger picture. This came to the fore when she and her husband directed the renovation of their south-west London home from almost 7,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were living and working in Singapore, so all the conversations with builders and decorators happened over Skype,\u2019 she explains. \u2018The first time we saw the results was when we moved in. We\u2019d viewed the house on a trip home, and the style of the property and the area were familiar to us \u2013 we\u2019d previously lived just around the corner \u2013 so it wasn\u2019t as scary as it sounds.\u2019<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there were no nasty surprises when they finally opened the front door. Key changes included sealing up the original doorway to the living room and replacing it with larger double doors further along the corridor, subtly giving the house a more open feel. Meanwhile, double bedrooms that had been split into two were returned to their original layout, creating spaces that worked better for Lisa, her husband Hil and their eight-year-old twins.<\/p>\n

Lisa has always loved antiques<\/a> and vintage<\/a> pieces, something she traces back to her grandmother on her father\u2019s side. \u2018She was a great collector<\/a>. As a child, every summer I would go and stay with her at her home in Lymington and she\u2019d take me around all the local vintage shops<\/a> and fairs. Her house was full to the brim with trinkets and she was always moving her furniture around,\u2019 Lisa remembers. \u2018She lived until she was 103 and interiors remained a link between us. When we moved in here, she loved to hear what I was putting where.\u2019<\/p>\n

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A vintage find her grandmother surely would have approved of hangs in Lisa\u2019s dining space \u2013 a set of framed paint swatches. \u2018One very cold winter morning at Sunbury Antiques Market I found a brown folder full of pieces of paper daubed with paint colours, including notes about how they were mixed up. The woman selling them said it had been a paint salesman\u2019s portfolio,\u2019 Lisa says, adding that she fell in love with the story behind the papers as well as the colours. The entire folder cost her less than \u00a340. Lisa framed them simply and an expert friend hung them en masse, so that they almost combine to form a larger-scale artwork. \u2018Together, they tell a story and inject colour into our home, which makes me very happy,\u2019 she adds.<\/p>\n

What Lisa also remembers is how the dealer didn\u2019t want to sell the papers individually. \u2018Like me, she recognised that they belonged together. A find like this makes you realise how easily they could have all been thrown away or divided up, and how one person\u2019s junk really is another\u2019s treasure.\u2019 This curiosity about the person behind an item links with Lisa\u2019s shop, edit58, which sells ceramics<\/a>, rugs, baskets<\/a> and textiles by makers who are adapting age-old skills. Lisa began sourcing items in Morocco and Portugal, but increasingly works with UK makers, such as Lisa Hardy and Kana London.<\/p>\n

\u2018For me, there\u2019s always a story to a piece, whether it\u2019s about the craft or how I met the maker,\u2019 she says. One of her earliest lines was a range of whimsical papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 animal heads made in Porto by M\u00e1rcia Barbosa. \u2018I was visiting a girlfriend who lives there and she said, \u201cYou have to come and see this woman\u2019s work and studio, you\u2019ll love it.\u201d I did, and M\u00e1rcia\u2019s work ended up being sold in Liberty and The Conran Shop, so she was thrilled.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Lisa\u2019s love of quirky finds is also expressed in the gallery wall<\/a> in her living room, where family photos mingle with a Norman Parkinson fashion shot and an oversized letter \u2018A\u2019, bought on the couple\u2019s honeymoon in Argentina. The display hangs above an apothecary cabinet, which is a much-loved piece. \u2018It\u2019s disappointing to walk into a room and feel your eye drawn to a massive TV. Instead, this is a focal point that captures your imagination,\u2019 Lisa explains. She also loves that it represents a piece of shop history, and it even has all the original branding of a chemist in Old Street, London hidden away on the back.<\/p>\n

Many of the items in their home have been with Lisa and Hil for a long time, but a set of Kai Kristiansen chairs were bought especially for this house. \u2018I wanted a spot where we could read the papers over coffee and I love the shape of these chairs and their dusky pink upholstery,\u2019 she says. \u2018I know we\u2019ll use them for years to come.\u2019<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the case with the family\u2019s green velvet sofa<\/a> by Pinch, which has worked equally well in a modern apartment in Dubai, a traditional shophouse in Singapore and now in this Victorian home in London. But Lisa says the hardest working piece in their home is the French farmhouse table in the kitchen. Castors were added, which raised it to a better height and also means it can be wheeled into the garden for outdoor dining in the summer. \u2018Everything happens around that table, from food prep to the twins\u2019 craft projects,\u2019 says Lisa.<\/p>\n

It suits the mood of the kitchen, where cabinet fronts are reclaimed and shelves are loaded with vintage glassware and ceramics. From a hefty worn kitchen table to the smallest handmade bowl, this is a home where everything has a story to tell.<\/p>\n