ARTISTIG touch

Art historian Stephanie Souroujon's home was always going to have creative flair - as the mix of pretty pattern and colour illustrates

- EMMA J PAGE

Bohemian elegance is how art-historian Stephanie Souroujon sums up the renovated 1970s London home that she shares with her toddler Leo. With its natural materials, including washed linen throws and rattan dining chairs, plus some unexpected touches, such as playful red tapware and cupboards fronted with marbled paper, the house offers a fresh take on 1970s style.

'When I came across the property, its interiors hadn't been touched in 40 years, so I knew we had some work to do,' says Stephanie, who was raised in Mexico City. But it's wider than an average Victorian terrace and I liked its original elements, including finger parquet flooring and a wall-hung teak sideboard in the sitting room. The biggest challenge was to rework an unintuitive layout that saw the original kitchen accessed from the hallway but not from the dining area, and a top-floor room with a glass shower enclosure right in the middle of the space. There was also a lack of storage, which almost persuaded Stephanie to forego one of the bathrooms in favour of a new utility room. 'I had a lot of ideas that needed harnessing,' she says. "So I started working with interior designer Sidika Owen (studiosidika.com) who I came across through a friend. Together, we found some creative ways to reinvent the footprint.'