Stumped and uninspired with small, boxy terraced house - help!

[Chinchillaa]

Just bought a house - ex-council, built in the 1930's, it's a box, very plain, and I am at a loss as to what to do. Floor plan attached for reference.

I always wanted a lovely period property and was even up for buying a flat in a converted Victorian house but DH was not keen, let us say [hmmm] and so here we are with this house!

Every single idea I had - bold, rich, dark walls, bare floorboards and lush rugs, pink front door (I know!), ceiling rose - will look ridiculous and out of place in this house because it's so bloody small and lacks the ceiling height to pull off that kind of look.

There are literally zero features. Everything is boxy. Every room is painted beige or white at the moment and I know that in theory it's a blank canvas, but I am just so uninspired. Looking on pinterest just makes it worse because beautiful period properties come up when I search for "terraced house inspiration" and remind me that I am a long way off from my dream house.

And yes, it is up to me to decorate because DH thinks the house perfectly fine as it is because it's functional. But it's so devoid of personality it's making me depressed at a time when I should be getting excited about my first home. When pushed, he thinks a feature wall is the height of design and it's stressing me out.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for how to translate some of those bold period house styles into something that will work, or been in this situation and successfully decorated a tiny, characterless house?

As an example, I like this kind of stuff

Definitely look at what was "in" in the 20s - 40s with a contemporary twist.

We have yet another 60s house (not my choice AGAIN) and the 50s-70s era is just what works best.

I'm another one with a drawer full of Anthropologie knobs lol.

I'd probably knock through downstairs. It looks like you could get a skylight or two in the kitchen? Might brighten up the whole downstairs if that wall was gone. But I know some people dislike open plan.

The very first thing I would do is paint the front door some really cool colour. And think about coordinating painted shutters or a colourful voile at the front window.

And get a really fab rug for the front room. Actually, get really cool rugs wherever you can fit them. You can get amazing modern ones - a lot of the house magazines feature them. If you have an amazing rug you can get away with plain boring walls. All you have to do then is buy shit loads of prints for the walls, put in cheap ikea frames.

Also mirrors are your friend, as you can buy them in whatever style you like, they take up no space, can be a really cool feature and bounce light around.

My fave magazine is House and Home as it seems to favour "old style with an affordable modern luxe twist". I have actually bought stuff it featured which I normally never do.

My first home was a 1924 terrace, red brick. Our lounge did have high ceilings and picture rails but we went for fired Earth dragons blood red and it was amazing, you can totally get away with strong colours in these houses if you work the right things in with it. Have fun - add lights and accent features, soft furnishings and it will be lovely

Moondancer73

Oh yes, it's a red brick as well - not even a pretty red! What colour did you do your door? Mine is white uPVC and I'd like to paint it as a stop gap. I want to replace it eventually, but I think that will be last as I don't want it getting damaged with materials coming and going from the house as we do the bathroom and kitchen etc.

The current door is basically like this one.

No, it's this one. https://www.johnlewis.com/halo-groucho-medium-2-seater-leather-sofa/riders-nut/p308201

Have to say, I had no idea how expensive it was! Seeing my parents through whole new eyes now

ElizabethinherGermanGarden

Ah that one's lovely!

That sofa is divine need it for my house...

@ElizabethinherGermanGarden ah yes ! I've been lusting after this sofa for years...

I’d go with a fresh Scandi look - pale wood floor, white or pale grey walls, minimal look but nice cosy fabrics and interesting prints on the walls plus a few plants. We live in a 1960’s house and a couple of the rooms have ceiling roses (put in by previous owner) and they look nice to be fair and not out of place. You can still add character with nice fireplaces in a more modern house. You can have a wood burner as long as you’ve got an external wall if that’s what you like, or build a fake chimney breast and add a nice character fireplace.

Just to say as well I used to live in a house very similar to yours and it was a red brick terrace too and I like the same style you do - we just did it anyway and it totally worked! Put a lovely grey front door on with patterned glass, added Victorian style fireplace etc. There’s no reason at all that you can’t still follow the style that you like, it will work fine. The only adjustment you might have to make is sticking to lighter colours if you think it’s too small to take a dark wall.

I have owned a terraced house but it wasn’t smaller than a semi! I think you just need to use colour and light to make the most of it.

West Elm are great!!! Only buy in the sake though. We have been very pleased with our purchases.

Thirties houses take colour really well I think! Little greene have a range of 30s colours, take a look at those.
I've recently moved from a thirties flat to an early fifties house. I've all white here, but in the flat (with smaller rooms than yours) we had so many colours, different in each room and loved it. Including a deep red "study" (glorified cupboard...) which was gorgeous.
I'd also look at the more downmarket mags- style at home, and home style, both £1.99 - fewer grand houses to depress you! And lots of nice bold ideas for smaller spaces.
I wouldn't paint upvc, it's likely to peel off and make it even worse.

With the little greene 1930s colours, can you just take a swatch and get them colour matched by Dulux?

How about white internal shutters to offset strong colours on the walls?

I would also go scandi- pale or honey coloured wood floors, Dulux Tumeless walls and white and/or cream furnishings with splashes of colour. Mid century spindly sideboards and coffee tables would look nice too.

Our original door was a royal blue I think but when it finally fell apart we went for a nice plus wood that had a window to let lots of light into the dark hallway