Interior Design in Muswell Hill
Interior Design in Muswell Hill: Making the Most of a Beautiful Period Home
What I love about designing a home in Muswell Hill… for starters there is the architecture, the leafy streets, the sense of community or simply the fact that you can still pop to an independent shop and have a proper conversation about paint colour, flooring or kitchens. Whatever the reason, Muswell Hill has an appeal that makes it one of North London’s most desirable places to live.
The Character of Muswell Hill Homes
Much of Muswell Hill’s residential character comes from its late-Victorian and Edwardian homes. The area was developed extensively between the late 1890s and the early 1900s, creating the beautiful terraces, semi-detached houses and larger family homes that define so many of its streets today. These houses often come with generous proportions, high ceilings, original fireplaces, stained glass, timber floors and wonderfully detailed architectural features.
For an interior designer, these properties offer a fantastic starting point. The challenge is not necessarily to make them feel modern, but to make them work beautifully for modern life without losing what made the house special in the first place.
That might mean restoring an original fireplace while introducing a contemporary sofa, combining traditional joinery with a bold kitchen colour, or using wallpaper and lighting to bring warmth to a long Victorian hallway. Extensions and open-plan kitchens are also popular, creating an interesting opportunity to balance the old and the new rather than treating them as separate worlds. Muswell Hill’s Edwardian homes show just how successfully original features can sit alongside contemporary materials, furniture and layouts.
A Village Feel with a Creative Design Community
And then there is the location itself. With Alexandra Palace and its park on the doorstep, excellent local amenities, independent shops, cafés and restaurants, Muswell Hill has that rather elusive combination of village atmosphere and easy access to central London. It feels established and connected, but still creative and individual.
For anyone renovating here, the local design community is another huge advantage. Sally Bourne Interiors on Muswell Hill Broadway is something of an institution for anyone who loves colour and pattern. The shop offers an enormous selection of paints, wallpapers and fabrics alongside accessories and eclectic curated finds. It is exactly the sort of place where you can go in looking for one thing and leave with an entirely new colour scheme.
Flooring is equally well catered for, with local specialists such as Muswell Hill Carpet & Flooring and Brocklehurst’s, with its wonderful array of carpets and runners. Both offer useful resources when choosing everything from carpet to timber flooring. For kitchens, businesses including Point 5 Kitchens and Perfect Fit Kitchens & Interiors add to the wealth of specialist knowledge available locally.
Designing Homes That Feel Personal
For me, that is part of what makes designing in Muswell Hill so enjoyable. Good interior design is not simply about choosing beautiful things. It is about understanding the house, the light, the architecture and, most importantly, the people who live there.
Muswell Hill gives us some wonderful ingredients to work with. The trick is knowing which ones to preserve, which ones to refresh and where to introduce a little personality, and that is where a thoughtful interior design scheme can make all the difference.
I also design homes in Highgate, Islington and Hampstead, and across North London.
If you are planning more than one room, see my full house interior design project in a North London Victorian home.
Written by Lucy Kelvie, founder of Lucy Kelvie Creative and interior designer working across North London.
Create a home that feels unmistakably Muswell Hill, but completely and wonderfully yours.
View from Hillfield Park, Muswell Hill — Simon from London, CC BY 2.0