City Homes
Designer Natalie Tredgett Transforms Her Victorian House With Bold Color And Daring Design
Published on January 9, 2024
From the outside, it looks exactly like every other house on the southwest London block: Victorian terrace style, traditional red brick, with a wrought-iron gate leading to a glossy black front door. But once inside, hang on to your hat. In the hallway, vibrant peony pink walls lead the eye to a curvaceous leopard-print sectional beyond, the view framed by a classic Victorian archway topped with a cornice pressed from a mold made from tennis balls. There’s not one but three living rooms, each a different color and mood. “I wanted our home to feel joyful and unexpected — full of surprises,” says designer Natalie Tredgett, an effortlessly elegant Montreal-born Canadian, who once hung a trapeze in the living room for her three children. She describes color the way a chef would the ingredients in a favorite recipe, likening the custom shade of her kitchen ceiling to “the purple-tinged pink of a ripe raspberry mixed with a bit of rhubarb.”
It’s hard to imagine Natalie immersed in anything but the world of design, happily plucking inspiration from fashion, music, art, architecture and movies like a style magpie. But when she met her husband, Jon Tredgett, a London funds manager who’s also Canadian, Natalie was working as a management consultant. She longed for “a change and a bit of an adventure.”
Unexpectedly pink walls set the tone at the entry. “I would define my style as artistic-led and colorful, but it’s also purposeful,” says the designer. Keenly aware of the mood-altering power of color, Natalie uses a carefully calculated palette throughout the house, creating rooms attuned to their function and the natural light that’s so elusive in long, narrow terrace homes. “I wanted to create zones for different activities,” she says. “Formal, less formal, morning rooms, night rooms, working and sleeping.”
The family’s most-used living room is an informal pasticcio of modern English style. “I try to put a bit of chintz in each project I do,” says Natalie. “It’s even better next to a contemporary piece.”
“The vintage furniture in this room is the epitome of fun,” says Natalie. She confidently paired a metal table with rustic bamboo chairs and commissioned the sculptural chandelier.
“I designed the kitchen as a glorified hallway,” says Natalie. “It’s almost as though you can’t really tell it’s a kitchen, which was the goal.”
At the front of the house is the cosy formal living room. Deep teal walls are high-gloss to reflect and maximize light. The armchairs are vintage Milo Baughman designs.
In the second-floor living room, guest room and study, the designer cleverly panelled the walls to conceal built-in shelves storing winter clothes and ski gear. “We’re always desperate for storage in these terrace houses,” she says.
The principal bedroom’s soothing palette is a serene counterpoint to the more public areas of the house. “The wallpaper is like a giant watercolor that makes you feel calm and enveloped,” says Natalie.
Natalie had inconspicuous, wallpaper-covered closets installed in the principal bedroom, rather than having a wall of wardrobe doors.
Hand-painted tile inspired by a London subway station adds pattern and personality in the ensuite bathroom.
In one of Natalie’s daughter’s bedrooms, moody blue walls riff on a tonal color palette taken from the wall hanging.
In another daughter’s bedroom, a fun table lamp and dresser are joyful elements against a backdrop of vibrant pink.
The south-facing garden room at the back features crisp, white walls decorated with happy decoupage patterns. “Designing our family home has been a creative departure for me,” she says. “I looked at those blank white walls and began to think, Why shouldn’t wallpaper be decoupage? When I started my business, I sourced things that I liked, but now I feel free to create what I envision. I love a full, busy, happy house.”
Rachel Smith
Natalie Tredgett