After growing up in Bristol and then spending a few years living in London, Orima Kamalu and her husband Joel decided to move back to the south west to be closer to buy a home and start a family.
'We wanted to put roots down and start a family of our own,’ says Orima @alittledetached. ‘Whilst renting we looked at loads of potential properties but whereas I fell in love with places that weren’t always practical, thankfully Joel was more sensible and had a clear idea of what would work for us.’
Living room
‘I didn’t see this house before we put our offer in because it was during Covid when the property market was fast moving and it was hard to visit places because of lockdown restrictions, so Joel came by himself. But we knew the location was perfect, and the images online showed a house that didn’t need too much reno work which suited us because at the time we had limited DIY skills.’
'He made a video tour whilst viewing the place which I scrutinised a thousand times before we actually moved in, and because we had the estate agent photos and floorplan I was able to think about the decor. I also did lots of amateur designing on an app called Floor Planner.’
Kitchen-diner
‘When we moved in, the walls and carpet were white which didn’t suit us, especially as we have a dog, but the previous owner had done a lovely extension at the back and had looked after the property really well.'
'The main issue was that the original small galley kitchen was closed off from the living room and dining area, so we decided to open up the space to create one large, open-plan room.’
‘We knew nothing about the process as we’d never done any sort of renovation before so we did a lot of research on how to find a builder, the costs of removing a wall, how much a new kitchen would be, and we had a whole range of other queries which felt really daunting as we’d heard lots of horror stories about people getting swindled.’
‘We originally wanted the whole kitchen wall knocked down but a surveyor explained the wall housed lots of piping and to re-route them would cost far more than our budget allowed, having spent most of it buying the house. As a concession we kept a slice of wall which now hides the fridge and bin so it’s actually worked out well.’
‘The initial quotes to replace the kitchen cabinets made me worry that we weren’t going to be able to afford a new kitchen until we realised there were hundreds of kitchen companies and styles on offer.’
‘So after more research we finally went with Howdens cabinets, not only because they were recommended by friends who were also doing a kitchen reno, but also because some companies had sourcing issues due to the pandemic, but Howdens products are all in the UK, and as I was impatient, I didn’t want any delays.’
‘We were recommended a builder who managed to slot us in fairly swiftly because our job was relatively small and straightforward, and at the same time we had luxury vinyl tiles laid throughout the ground floor as a low-maintenance alternative to the white carpet.’
‘The main building work only took two days but there was a lot of dust flying around and noisy hammering for a few weeks which was tough because I was working from home. Luckily that was as bad as it got and the whole process went fairly smoothly.’
‘Once the kitchen and floor were installed it was time to start adding colour to the walls. We both love green and wanted to define the living area whilst complementing the green kitchen cabinets, so we tested a lot of different shades.'
'We did consider Studio Green by Farrow & Ball but it was far too dark for the way the light lands in the room. Then we discovered their archive colours and loved the look of Carriage Green, but we couldn’t try it first as Farrow & Ball don’t sell testers in this product, so we took the plunge and thankfully it was the perfect addition to the room!'
‘My sister came to visit and introduced me to the idea of colour-coding our books; it makes them look cute and creates a feature out of an everyday object.’
Master bedroom
‘The next room we focussed on was our bedroom. The previous owner had fitted wardrobes up-and-over the bed which gave us loads of built-in storage, but neither of us liked the original burgundy colour, so after considering buying new doors, I realised the simplest solution was to paint them.'
'I discovered a paint that included a primer so I took the doors off, sanded the shiny surface, then painted them and sprayed the handles gold.’
‘It took about a week to do, fitting it in around work life and waiting for the doors to dry, but the transformation was a really proud moment for us.'
'Adding the mural to the back wall was the finishing touch, although one of my biggest regrets is that we hung it too low before putting the bed against the wall, so there’s a bit too much sky and not enough trees showing.’
‘The drawers were left behind by the previous owner so I painted them to complement the fitted wardrobes and turned this corner into my dressing area.’
Office area
‘We’ve been working from home a lot since the pandemic so we had to find a space for a desk and this corner was perfect for our Ikea home office set up.’
Bathroom
‘We decided to leave the bathroom as it was, because this isn’t our forever house so it didn’t make sense to rip it out. Plus the neutral design means it’s good enough.
Boy's bedroom
‘The final push was to decorate our son’s room. We’d used a lot of green around the house so Joel suggested using yellow to complement the black Ikea nursery furniture, and we decided to mirror the three-quarter colour-block paint effect we’d created in the living room.’
‘Once that was done it was so nice to sit back and see all that we’ve achieved in this house. It may not be perfect, but with our skill level and budget, we’ve created a beautiful family home that feels welcoming and relaxing, and I couldn’t be prouder.’
