Home Décor Ideas: Five tips to renovating with Katy Wilson

How to renovate a traditional home without losing its charm? Katy Wilson, interior stylist and content creator, shares how she magically transformed her 1930s home with character and warmth. Read her five tips and get inspired.

1. Use panelling to create a common thread between the old and new

Marrying traditional style with modern elegance, @placefortyeight created the ultimate "before and after" and won our hearts in the process. Her 1930s home is a stunning example of how mixing eras and elements: “It still looks like a classic 1930s house, and we have added an extension that’s more about modern family living, but we wanted it to be true to the original house," shares this busy mum and in-demand content creator. "We wanted to keep the original features but try to put a contemporary spin on it."

Katy shares that the common thread throughout the house is panelling that created a visual narrative and anchor. "In the room with an Arlo & Jacob armchair, we tried to keep it traditional, but the panelling brought in the sense of modern living."

2. Mix industrial and botanical

Boldy, Katy layered her sunroom with a mix of classical elements and botanical prints. Crittal style doors and chintz? It certainly creates a twist.

“We introduced Crittal style doors that featured glass, and the juxtaposition of the modern aluminium makes the room feel more spacious," Katy explains. "We love they work with the armchairs' chintz."

"The actual fireplace is also very light and uplifting, " she adds. "We could have kept it more traditional, but by having the flume go straight to the top off the roof, it plays with scale."

The lightness of the Douglas Fir extra-wide floorboards, alongside the streamlined fireplace, and the aluminium doors, opens up space and makes it luminous.

3. Bring as much greenery into a traditional home as possible

“I know that green is in and I really liked the Greenery on the Agatha armchair because again, I think it was quite traditional, but it was also quite playful as well, " shares Katy.

To maximise the room's garden view, Katy replaced the original window with a dropped one. "We wanted to have a view that takes you out into the garden. So we asked the architect could he do a dropped window and that pushes light back into the room and creates a really nice frame to the outside."

4. Experiment with a mix of styles from Victorian to contemporary

“I don’t mind trying things, and I always think what's the worse that can happen?" shares Katy. "I would rather follow my heart and what makes a room sing, as opposed to following the latest trends."

Katy loves how her sunroom feels unique and tells a story. "It feels anchored and that everything is in the right place, even though it’s a complete mix of materials and colours, but it somehow works."

5. Don't be afraid to reinvent your furniture's usage

"We could have gone down the coffee table route, but I wanted to be able to relax with a footstool as an option. It's on castors, and you can take it out and wheel it back in, and use it for books and all sorts of things."

"I am really pleased that we did that instead of going for a coffee table and I think it makes it more comfortable a room."