‘I brought this blank canvas to life with colour’

For furniture artist, Victoria Taylor, bold and bright was the only way to go when she and husband, Jarrod, decorated their first home together with upcycled finds

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When Victoria and Jarrod Richards were ready to buy their first home, this house ticked all the boxes. ‘We were renting at the time,’ says Victoria, ‘but we needed more space and wanted to start a family, so were looking for a house with a garden. I knew I wanted a Victorian property, and when this came up, I fell in love with it straight away.’

The house had tons of original features, and the couple really liked the quirky sunken kitchen. ‘Also, the whole house was painted white, so felt like a blank canvas, and it didn’t need any building work, which was a bonus,’ recalls Victoria. But, after moving in, the couple realised that the house wasn’t as polished as they first assumed. ‘The previous owners had obviously wanted to sell the house quickly and had literally gone round with a pot of white emulsion and painted absolutely everything – floorboards, stairs, walls, ceilings. But when we moved in, we started to discover the reality of having white everywhere: it wasn’t really practical as dust and dirt showed, so we got rid of the white floors fairly sharpish,’ explains Victoria. ‘We decided to strip them back and started doing it ourselves, but quickly realised the intense labour involved, so we brought in the professionals to do the rest of the house.’

COME ON IN...

WE ARE Victoria Richards, 45, a Furniture Artist at HandsomeVintage on Etsy, my husband, Jarrod, 43, a Geriatrician, and our two daughters, Iris, eight, and Nelly, five.

OUR HOME IS a Victorian four-bedroom terrace in Bristol, which we bought in December 2012.