Jul 4

Jul 4 Angela Bunt Queen of Colour

Today's Home Tour is with Angela Bunt of Angela Bunt Creative, self-confessed Queen of Colour. Angie loves decorating and has a lovely eclectic style. An avid collector of art and vintage items, an up cycler and florist, her home is a lovely mix that you can only get when you are brave enough to mix colour with pattern with art.

Angie is an interior decorator/designer and she runs workshops from her home. If you are interested in finding out more you can here

Read on to find out what inspires Angie and her style.

I'm Angela, ex professional cellist, florist and data specialist and since 2014, interior decorator & stylist. I’m a Kiwi by birth and moved to London in 1977. I lived in Italy for 12 years (having married an Italian) before settling back in London in 1990. I'm a fan of beauty in all its forms, kind people, oysters and champagne. I’ve always mentally repainted and restyled every room I’ve walked into since I was a teenager.

In 2014, after extracting myself from 15 years in the corporate world, I set up Angela Bunt Creative to finally start doing what I do best — helping people transform their homes with colour. I sometimes say I was put on Earth to decorate it not fix it.

I’m an interior decorator but what I really do is inspire people to understand what makes them tick and to reflect it in their surroundings; your home should be a reflection of your personality. I also run workshops from my home on how to use colour, flowers and painting furniture with chalk paint. If you want to know more click here to access my website.

I have two grown-up sons who both now live in Sydney. Who knows, I might decide to move to Sydney myself one day.

I’ve lived in my home for 28 years having rented it for the first 12 years. It’s a first floor, two bedroom and spacious Victorian maisonette in Balham, South West London. The reason I’ve lived here so long is because the flat is full of natural light and looks over Tooting Common (a common is a large expanse of common land for public use). It’s so unusual in a large city to have a view of this kind and I don’t have to mow the grass!

However, the apartment doesn’t have a share of the back garden so the only outside space is the little parapet looking across the Common and the top of the outside steps at the kitchen door. I refer to the latter as my three-square feet of outside space because it’s the sum total of the space which I’ve maximised with plenty of potted plants and a vintage table. I also bring the outside in with a window ledge of vintage bottles with offshoots from the plants.

I’m passionate about colour in the home. This doesn’t mean brightly coloured walls in fact my home has a mainly neutral backdrop (apart from the bathroom which is a vivid citrus green) which I’ve enhanced with colourful artwork, furniture and accessories. I’ve spent the last four years transforming my home with a mix of classic, vintage and contemporary pieces and there’s always a vase of fresh flowers in each room. If I had to describe my style it would be eclectic and elegant but most of all comfortable. I am not wedded to any particular style. I like to use plenty of colour, patterns and textures with some clashes as you can see from my entrance hall below. I designed the stair runner from three antique Peruvian handmade rugs and creating a wow factor when you open the front door. Rather than a “meh” effect, I like to create the “ta-dah” effect on opening the front door. This is one of my trademark designs and clients often ask me to recreate this effect in their own houses.

I get my inspiration from several sources. I grew up in New Zealand where the light and colours of nature are so vivid. My father was a florist for 54 years so our house and garden were always full of flowers and colour. I trained and worked as a florist for several years so flowers are a huge source of inspiration. Having lived in Italy for 10 years I’m inspired by Italian fashion and design – using colours that many would consider to be clashing.

My signature trademarks are colour, flowers and artwork. I use artwork on walls, shelves and even propped up on the floor. Gallery walls of a mix of artwork and other items are a feature in every room in my home including the bathroom. They are the perfect economical way to fill a wall space and their versatility means you can move the art around to refresh the look. I always encourage my clients to buy artwork that they love and not what they think they should buy.

The sitting room seems to be the star attraction on my Instagram account, especially the sofa (I’ve had three velvet sofas in the last 8 months, the latest being an Edwardian sofa in mustard velvet). This large room spans the width of the front of the property. It is my favourite room because of the light and the view. I usually work on the kitchen table but on sunny days I transfer to the desk in the sitting room. The original Victorian architectural features in the room are aesthetically beautiful – cast iron fireplace, picture rail, coving, ceiling rose and most of all the beautiful sash windows. I like to respect these features but not have a room that is a pastiche of the past, rather an eclectic mix of old and new.

I have a passion for mirrors for both aesthetic reasons and also to reflect light into dark recesses. At the last count I had 35 mirrors which include a group of 14 convex mirrors.

The heart of the home is the kitchen/diner. It was originally a galley kitchen and separate dining room but became one large space long before I moved in. It is north and west facing so gets a lot of late afternoon sun. It is a very sociable space and since I am a massive foodie and love to entertain, it is great to be able to be able to converse with guests while cooking & serving the food. Clients always say it is a very happy room and has a good vibe. That’s enough for me!

I’m passionate about upcycling furniture with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and have painted numerous pieces for my home as well as running workshops teaching others how to paint furniture. Here are a couple of my favourite pieces.

I love vintage and antique items because they have history and a depth of quality. It’s hugely satisfying rooting around vintage fairs and shops as well as market stalls and stumbling across something really special.

As an ex florist, flowers play a huge role in my interiors. I cannot live without fresh flowers in each room so a good part of my weekly shopping budget is consumed by purchasing flowers! It’s not always about creating huge vases of flowers; sometimes one beautiful rose will suffice.

Given my love of flowers I also love botanical prints and have used them in both bedrooms above the bed - one as a headboard and one to enhance the existing headboard.