Elizabeth recently met with Olive Wakefield who runs one of our favorite interiors Instagram accounts, @periodpalavers, and gave her a tour around her seriously stylish Hampstead home as part of #ARoomofMyOwn series - A series, peeking inside the homes of some of Olives favourite ladies!
Introducing Olive... @OlivesW is Talent Editor at Net-a-Porter’s digital magazine, PORTER Edit- commissioning covers, culture and travel content. She is also doing up a Victorian period property and location house over at @periodpalavers - where you’ll find her series #ARoomofMyOwn.
Over to Olive...
It’s really no surprise that Lizzie- founder of her luxury homeware label Elizabeth Scarlett - knows how to dream up the perfect abode. Every corner of her sun-soaked Hampstead home is a nod to her innate creativity and eye for style- from her statement (yet sentimental) art collection down to the perfectly paired fabrics and beautiful trinkets she’s collected on her travels. Thanks to hours spent poring over pantones, colour is intrinsic to Lizzie. She’ll add a psychedelic print to a serene blue wall and use clashing motifs (often her own designs) to pep up a muted corner. It’s only since doing up my own period property that I’ve come to appreciate details like these; obsessing over scatter cushions and contemplating the different feelings a mustard, as opposed to a turmeric, can rouse– a madness Lizzie knows all too well. Earlier this year, nine months pregnant and on a rollercoaster ride of a renovation, I started an Instagram account @periodpalavers to document the do-over. Whilst creating my dream space I became curious about the interior lives- in every sense- of all the fantastic women I know. Just how does their personal space influence their working life? So, A Room of My Own was born: a series peeking into the homes of these highly creative, accomplished ladies (Lizzie a prime example). Because, what is more crucial to creativity than your own space?
“This room was what sold me,” says Lizzie of the soaring ceilings and golden sunshine beaming through the tall Victorian windows in the master bedroom. With all the original cornicing and a vast cast iron fireplace looming large, the room is almost hotel-like in its grandeur. But, the piece de résistance has to be the brilliantly decadent gold-leaf, bespoke wardrobes…
Mantelpiece shelfie goals in the bedroom: the print on the left is Lizzie’s own artwork, inspired by artist @StellaMariaBaer who paints using earth from the California desert. Lizzie is a hugely gifted artist, often hosting still-life drawing classes in her front room and, in her spare time, painting with acrylics and oils to unwind.
This beautiful dove-grey linen headboard is paired with two mid-century side tables Lizzie picked up at an antiques fair. The portrait is by a street artist in Provence who had captured the very spot where Lizzie and her friends had a spent a dreamy summer afternoon. Lizzie’s signature embroidered lemon bedding adds the final touch to the room….
Farrow and Ball’s Borrowed Light, a muted blue, gives the room an easy, breezy feel…a good choice for emphasising high ceilings. Spot
Lizzie’s palm-tree embroidered cushions, in different colorways, on the sofa.
Yet more fireplace goals, with bespoke artwork carefully and deliberately commissioned by Lizzie and Alex. On the left is a print by
@alexproba. She created it on the day Trump won the election as a reminder to stay united and hopeful during the turbulent times to come. To the right is a delicate line drawing by @fredericforest that Alex had been coveting for a while
Alex is a hugely talented pianist. He writes his own ballads - often love songs for Lizzie - and performs them. Music is a huge part of their marriage, whether watching live shows or having a playlist on in the background.
Lizzie lives and breathes art. On the far-left, this Hockney-esque oil painting was her study of a veranda in the Bahamas. The lady in the top center is a
@lynnie.z print- an artist she discovered on Instagram.
The natural light casts picturesque shadows in the living room.
Lizzie and her beloved cockapoo Lamu cuddle up on the sofa.
A quiet corner where Lizzie sketches out the intricate motifs that form her collections. She is mainly inspired by her travels round the world; from lemon groves in Sicily to the earthy tones of the Kenyan landscape.
In their classic cream Shaker kitchen is where you’ll find Lizzie and Alex testing out new products for his company All Plants, the plant-based meal subscription. Living with another entrepreneur is great for sounding out new ideas, but they have to consciously to leave their work at the office too.
Just one of many grand romantic gestures in the Petrides household…for their first wedding anniversary (paper) Lizzie’s husband Alex commissioned Margate-based artist @melanie.johnson to create this print. The words are lyrics to a song Alex wrote for Lizzie and sung to her at their wedding. Even the font colours were taken from the pantones used in the Elizabeth Scarlett Kenya collection. Alex called the girls in the office on the downlow to send him the exact pantones.
Alex is a huge Ray Charles fan, so Lizzie sourced this print and had a bespoke frame made for him as a gift.
The left-hand print is the famous Frida Kahlo quote, “I love you more than my own skin,” which Lizzie says pretty much sums up her and Alex’s relationship.
Head over to
@periodpalavers to see more imagery and to follow the
#ARoomofMyOwn series!
