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When designer Alison Lloyd bought her flat in 2004 she was four years into running her bag and accessory company, Ally Capellino, which she began after her marriage and clothing brand ended in 1999. Sixteen years later, shes at the helm of a successful handbag and accessories brand, best known for its functional aesthetic and leather and waxed cotton rucksacks.Her home, spread across the bottom two floors of a four-storey Victorian house in Dalston, shares a similarly measured aesthetic, but it is balanced out with what a good dose of what Lloyd refers to as ‘organised clutter’ – from a collection of decorated eggs to a neatly arranged line of postcards. Here, she talks to us about her love of salvage and the joy to be derived from creating a garden with not a slice of lawn in sight.
Alison: “After I split up with my husband in 2000, I put all the money I had down on a mortgage for a flat in Mile End where I lived with my then teenage son, Hamish. It didn’t have a garden, but it was on the canal and surrounded by a park and playing fields.
“I sold the flat after a couple of years, and amazingly doubled my money on it. It’s the most money I’ve made in my life. We rented and moved around a fair bit, while I hunted for somewhere with a good garden.
“I spent ages and ages looking, and eventually saw this place near Hackney Downs with its high ceilings and big garden. I was the first person to see it and offered the full amount, but then the owners started to dither as they thought they could get more for it. I ended up bribing them with handbags.
“It’s an upside down flat, with the bedrooms downstairs in the basement and the kitchen and sitting room upstairs on the ground floor. I lived here for a little while and started to make a few changes when I could afford to.
“Downstairs, I carved some space out of the two enormous bedrooms to create a bathroom for each of them, and then turned what had been the bathroom, just off the stairs, into a third small bedroom. My housemate, an artist, has been living in that room for almost a year.
“I decided to swap the concrete floor in the basement for reclaimed pine boards that had apparently come from the British Museum. It is brilliantly laid, with the boards butted up closely to one another. I’ve left them as I bought them, but I’m thinking about perhaps painting them. On the ground floor, I’ve painted the original floorboards black – it’s reflective rather than oppressive as the ceilings are so high up there.
“In the kitchen, I moved the existing cooker and sink and added a set of double doors and a balcony, with steps down to the garden. The kitchen table is the two-and-a-half-metre-long counter from the shop we used to have in Soho. I love cooking big dinners, but I’m quite spur of the moment when it comes to organising things. That table is one of my favourite places to sit.
“I spend most of my time at home in the garden, although I find it impossible to just sit down. It’s big, but I ended up buying half of next doors garden after a bit of negotiation. I tried to have a lawn, but it just didn’t work and became a mud bath.
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发表于 2020-8-11 14:58:33
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