Welcome to the first of three posts featuring my fellow Sassyhomestyle hosts.

In January myself and business owner Nickie Kelly @nickiekellydotcom set up the UK interiors hashtag #sassyhomestyle on Instagram. Its a real pleasure running an interiors hashtag getting to see all the fabulous posts and chatting 'sassy style' with fellow interiors lovers as our weekly winners got to co-host with us for that week.

 In June we decided it needed a bit of a shake up so we decided to add a limited edition 'winners print' designed by Nickie, a monthly prize and too also add another host to add another perspective to it all. We thought it would be a tough call to decide who we should bring on board, but it was made fairly easily in the end due to lots of fun behind the scenes with two recent winners- our decision was made, we would have another two hosts- we just had to hope they wanted to join the sassy team....... Luckily for us they did! So in July we brought onboard two new fabulous co-hosts Kristine aka @restoringlansdowne and Greg aka @manwithahammer. We absolutely made the right choices! Apart from having amazing style themselves,  Kristine and Greg have given us a new perspective and fresh ideas for the hashtag, along with lots of laughs and interiors chat behind the scenes.

So, this is the first of my three posts introducing you to the #sassyhomestyle team and today I'd like to introduce you to the fabulous Kristine and her gorgeous, recently renovated home. 

Kristine lives in London in a 4 bed Victorian mid terraced house with her husband Dan. Their home has been renovated and extended over the past 5 years and is now a beautifully stylish, calm haven for them and their two (naughty) cats. I absolutely love the colours and texture in Kristines home, in fact, I could quite happily move in tomorrow if truth be known..... Like me she loves both a grey and a blue wall such as the Farrow & Ball Inchyra Blue in the glamorous sitting room, its one of my favourite colours at the moment, and it looks particularly beautiful against the original pine floorboards, enhanced by Kristine's eye for styling in this elegant room. 

Kristine replaced what was a naff 70's fireplace in the sitting room with a new reproduction fireplace and teamed it with a black hearth, making a feature of it, but not distracting from the other period details. The touches of gold add a hint of glamour along with the beautiful velvets on the furniture and the modern light fitting from royaldesign which adds the perfect lighting centrepiece to this 'dark glam' room. The addition of plants and pattern work so beautifully here, everywhere you turn there is something interesting to look at. 

At the other end of this room is the dining area and the stylish home bar.... The waterford crystal glasses twinkling in the light next to the beautiful vintage mirror.... now that is somewhere I can easily see myself sitting with my Friday night Gin! Well, lets be honest, can't you?

In the dining area Kristine picked up these beautiful vintage ernest race chairs on ebay, the green and grey colours of the chairs sit beautifully against the black table and Inchyra blue walls, this is also a great example of how plants can bring the finishing touches to a scheme.

Ok, its time I handed you over to kristine to tell us about herself and her wonderful home..... 

Hi I'm Kristine a 35 year old American expat, half-Scottish,  I grew up outside of Chicago. Expert procrastinator and perfectionist to the point of absurdity. I’d probably be a total recluse permanently in pajamas surrounded by animals and whispering sweet nothings to my plants if I could get away with it.

I studied art and photography at SMFA/Tufts in Boston then moved to Edinburgh in my early 20’s. I worked in visual merchandising for a furniture business before moving to London where I slipped and fell into a career in banking of all things. Eventually I was managing a large programme designed to help women start their own businesses, which was really rewarding but the corporate world just wasn’t for me. I left in 2016 to project manage our home renovations and wear slippers full time. I’m now contemplating my next move and would love to launch my own creative business.

I live in North East London with my husband and two really badly behaved cats. I love this area because it’s easy to get into the City but it’s quiet, neighbourhood-y, super affordable (cough), full of forests and green spaces, unpretentious, with beautiful homes and good amenities. Well don’t I sound like a proper grown-up talking about amenities.

When husby and I met he owned a Victorian midterrace that was in need of full back-to-the-brick renovations but had beautiful bones and so much potential. It had been full-on 70’s-ified: shag carpet, salmon and olive green bath suite, period features boarded over and bodged DIY jobs of questionable safety standards all over the place. We tackled the renovations in stages over 5 years, first doing the bedrooms ourselves and then getting some professional muscle in to renovate the kitchen, build a double loft extension, re-fit bathrooms and knock the lounge and dining room into one. I’m very fortunate to have a partner with serious DIY skills as we didn’t have the budget to renovate to the standards we wanted without doing a substantial amount of the work ourselves.

I think we can all agree that Kristine and Dans renovation has been a huge success! They have turned this previously dated Victorian terrace into a stylish, modern home through a lot of hard work, dedication and vision. I love a renovation story where the owners have used and learnt their own diy skils, it makes us feel that this standard of home is more attainable I think. Kristines style and attention to detail on the finishing touches is also exceptional..... On all the renovations I've carried out, however bad the disruption and dust gets, its always lovely to know that the fun bit of bringing a scheme you've had in your head for months (or even years!) together is just around the corner......

I asked Kristine if she'd do it all again..........

'We’re just getting to the end of the renovation mayhem now so it’s probably too early to say if I’d do it all again. The first half of my 30’s seems to have vanished into a cloud of brick dust and I’m looking forward to having a ‘normal’ life again for a while…but maybe in a few years I’ll start getting the itch again. Ssshh don’t tell my husband I said that.'

In the kitchen Kristine and Dan decided on grey cabinets from Mereway Kitchens teamed with oiled iroko wood  worktops. Once again using greys, whites and natural materials to achieve the calm, pared back vibe they wanted for their kitchen. 

I asked Kristine what she thought her signature style was?........

'I love so many different styles and my home is a mashup of all of them. Mid-century and scandi with an industrial edge, Victorian features, a sprinkling of dark glam and a generous dusting of cat fluff?

I love colour and do appreciate a good maximalist home, but I crave calm surroundings in my own space so lean towards a pared-back look, natural materials for warmth, wood, black/white/grey and touches of muted colours. I appreciate good design and quality. Mixing old and new, finding unique pieces. Cat-proof design decisions are essential for my sanity. Looking at you cats – you’re the reason we can’t have nice things.I realised early on in the renovations that Pinterest interiors can be depressingly unattainable for normal-people budgets, whereas Instagram is amazing both for seeing aspirational homes and connecting with other interior nuts for sources/tips/general renovation commiseration when the going gets tough.'

I tend to agree with Kristine here, the Instagram interiors community is a great place to be! I do love Pinterest too but it is so easy to look at all those fabulous photos of rooms when you're first starting out on a renovation and feel that they are unachievable, pinterest is a fabulous tool for ideas and inspiration and I love it for that, but we can all have our own take on those wonderful homes we see, after all, who wants to copy someone elses room piece for piece eh?

In the bathroom these dark grey metro tiles look just great alongside the paler grey walls..... But, for me, it's the gallery wall that really stands out in the bathroom, a mix of frame sizes and styles next to the round mirror really makes for an interesting corner of the room..... Who says you can't have artwork in a bathroom? On this display I think we all should!

The original floorboards are once again on show in the master bedroom, alongside various vintage finds styled to perfection. The fabulous duvet cover from West Elm just makes you want to jump into that bed doesn't it? The room lacked a focal point after the original cast iron fireplace had to be replaced as it was broken and tragically as they removed it for repair the original limestone surround crumbled into dust - a definete low point- So Kristine added a reclaimed fireplace bring back the character and giving her somewhere to display some of the beautiful vases she has collected.

In her dressing room Kristine moved away from her blues, greys and whites and went for soft pink walls which work as a beautiful backdrop to the eclectic furnishings and original fireplace in this room. I particularly love the patterned mirror from West Elm which matches the rug and adds a sense of fun, and the glass pendant light picking out the pinks and greys.

My final question for Kristine was for her to share a bit about being a #sassyhomestyle host....... 

'Being a #sassyhomestyle host is great because we’re all totally mad for interiors but it’s not limited to a certain style…well, apart from SASSY. The Instagram interiors community is 100% lovely, creative and hilarious so it’s a lot of fun being a part of it. I love seeing what people create in small spaces, or with limited budget, or amazing transformations of otherwise humble homes. Sassy Greg has an awesome beard and an even awesomer home, Captain Sharon loves to get her kit off for the camera in her Insta-famous kitchen and Nickie sells the most punk rock posters going. And they all have great banter - talk about a winning combo!'

I do hope you've enjoyed learning more about Kristine and her home renovation as much as I have ..... Thank you so much Kristine for sharing your fabulous home with us, I feel this may be the time to inform you that I'm packing my bags and I'll be moving in next week! 

Sharon x