With crisp black and white walls and a roofline that zigzags its way out towards the garden, the kitchen to this family home is both practical and beautiful. “Which is just as well because, since March, this room has become our classroom/office/Zoom meetings/everything room,” says Alina Karypidou. “The kitchen is definitely the heart of our home – for the best of times and the worst of times.”
Alina lives in this north London home with her husband Stephan Roussounis and their daughters, Evie, seven, and Stella, nine, and their kitchen extension was part of a full-scale overhaul of their Victorian semi. “It took two years for us to find this house, because we wanted somewhere we could renovate from scratch, a place where we could express our ideas while breathing new life into a house,” says Alina. The house was unmodernised, but still had its original features and a good-sized garden, which meant that adding a side-return extension wouldn’t eat up too much outside space.
The extension was the work of architects Bureau de Change and the kitchen’s distinctive pleated roof shape was designed to make the most of the house’s unusual setting. “There is a nature reserve and parkland walk behind the garden and the angled roof lights mean we can see the tops of the trees while we’re sitting inside,” Alina explains. The view is even visible from the family room in the centre of the house, a windowless space that could otherwise feel dark and enclosed. “Because the roof lights are slanted rather than flat, the light flows more directly into the middle room. The angle also means our neighbours don’t directly overlook our living spaces. It’s a really clever design.”
The unconventional pleated shape of the roofline is mirrored in the kitchen cabinets that run alongside the dining area and contain food and crockery, plus a small concealed workspace behind foldaway doors.
by UK street artist Xenz, and Ikea chair. Photograph: Anna Stathaki/The Observer
While the kitchen is ultra modern, elsewhere the house’s period features, such as stained glass windows, original shutters and plaster mouldings, are integrated into bold decorative schemes. Alina, a linguist and educational advisor, has always combined her academic career with more creative work, including fashion styling and PR. “If you’re a good Greek daughter, which I was, you listen to your parents and study subjects that lead to a ‘proper’ job. But I was always interested in design, fashion and interiors,” she says. “By the time we collected the keys to this house, I had already made a set of mood boards with the colours, fabrics and furniture that I wanted to use.”
Some of the light fittings were shipped from Restoration Hardware in Boston (Stephan, who is a business development director working in education, was seconded there) and vintage pieces were bought in London shops and markets.
In contrast to the monochrome kitchen, warm yellows run through the house, from a woven sisal wallpaper in the living room to a turmeric paint shade in the bathroom and a mural of bronze birch trees in their daughter’s bedroom, painted by UK street artist Xenz. “I loved his work so I got in touch, but didn’t hear anything for ages as he was away working on a US project. Then, out of the blue, he called me up and said, ‘I’m in London, are you still interested?’” A fan of the gallery wall, Alina has mixed pictures by their daughters with exhibition posters and photographs bought online from galleries in Europe on the landing and in the hallway.
Lockdown has made Alina and her family appreciate the way their home has been designed all the more, as it gives them enough space to work, play and study – not to mention escape from each other every now and then. “Being indoors for such long periods has also got me thinking about interiors and all the new things I could do here,’ she says. “Of course, I haven’t been able to visit new places or go to galleries for inspiration, but I’ve loved seeing online exhibitions, and Instagram is a fantastic way to discover designers and artists.”
