60's mid terrace - please give me hope

[southpacificgoat]

We are looking to move into a small mid terrace house built in '68. Not my first choice of house design but in catchment area of good schools and better area to current house. I just wonder what I can do to make it a nicer house. I am looking on Pinrest but can't find anything that remotely looks like the house we are looking at. It's a 3 bed, quite low ceilings, strange shaped long bedrooms with not very big windows. Downstairs has a guest toilet at the front and a small hall with stairs to first floor and door to a decent size kitchen and another door to the dining/living room area. The dining area is very small but it is semi open to living area with only a fireplace separating both (can walk past it on both sides. There is a hatch in the wall between kitchen and dining area. The flooring is sone awful tiling in kitchen and hall, laminate in dining area and carpet in living room. Everything is tired looking and there is some very questionable patterned wallpaper. What can I do to make the place more modern looking and a bit more stylish? I can't spend much and don't have much time either. Where should I concentrate my energy and can you point me somewhere for realistic inspiration?

Have you looked for "mid century" style on Pinterest? We moved to a late 50s house a couple of years ago. It was like, out with Emma Bridgewater, hello Orla Kiely.

I think these type of homes can be made lovely.

My Aunt used to own one.

A couple of ideas.

• don't forget you can paint over wallpaper assuming it's still adhering to the wall properly.

• re: long rooms, they can be a bonus. You have the option to optically foreshorten the using a few tricks. For example painting the "long ends" in a darker shade. You can also (as my aunt did) use storage to act as a partial divider to the room. In her case some (cheap) shelving she bought and painted. She placed it to square off the lounge/dining (a shelf on each side to "frame" the dining area) iyswim and filled it carefully so you could see through to keep the space light.

• re: small windows, think of blinds rather than curtains and place them as high as you can to not obscure the light. If you have a sewing machine you can buy diy Roman blind kits and make them yourself. I've done a couple in the past using amazing fabric remnants I got from Laura Ashley (for a song) and I'm no sewing expert by any means.

• tiles...I've had good experiences with tile paint and decals. It's fiddly, but not hard and a lot cheaper than replacing tiles you don't like (assuming they are in ok condition). Simply paint the tiles, then use a grout pen to refresh the grout and then apply tile decals if you want a design on the tiles or you can even get decals that cover the whole tile so you can just do that then refresh the grout.

• re: the hatch - go with it. I actually love them :-) your kids will probably love passing stuff through it!

• keep colours light a fresh and don't be scared of patterns. There are some great 60's style prints out there. Again, if you have a sewing machine, making cushion covers is easy.

Good luck!

Ooh some great advice here.
Ours is a 1930s semi but layout and issues sound similar... plus no cash.
Great ideas above, might give some of those a go myself...

Thank you so much for the superb advice! @NotMeNoNo mid century on Pinrest looks fantastic and would really suit the property. Thank you for the tip. @DeRigueurMortis thank you so much for the great and detailed advice. Really like the idea of deviding the rooms with shelving and will explore colour options. I have sewing machine and do love 60's prints so will try my hand at the Roman blinds and odd cushion cover. I agree about the hatch - it's kind of cool and with a proper 60's style decor could really work. Thank you - you have definitely given me hope!

You're very welcome :-)

It's just knowing how to brand it. There are quite a few vintage fairs around where you can pick up Ercol and G plan furniture.

Also "scandi" style goes quite well with this look.
Happy planning

Sorry just of another thing my Aunt did.

She didn't have a lot of cash for pictures, so she bought a load of frames in the same style but different sizes, then filled them with free samples of retro wallpaper (different prints but tonal colours). Then put them on the wall a bit like the picture below.

Filled a lot of wall space and added interest/pattern without spending loads on designer wallpaper.

Looked fab.

Sorry - thought of -typo!!

@DeRigueurMortis what a great idea! I feel actually quite excited now - just need to get DH on board - we have some serious taste clashes!

Alice in Scandiland (the blog) has a 60s mid-terrace I think and she's made it look incredible.

If you are going to make curtains and soft furnishings, have a look for Scion and Missprint, they have some lovely designs. You can pick it up on Ebay sometimes, and there is a factory shop near Lancaster which sells Scion

You are very likely to find wooden floors under carpets, so cheap to sand and varnish and will look fabulous