{"id":191153,"date":"2025-10-10T19:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/191153\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:23:16","slug":"inside-an-artists-budget-friendly-london-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/191153\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside an artist\u2019s budget-friendly London flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a quiet street in Stoke Newington, north London, is a loud flat. Not in terms of architecture or size, or because it\u2019s filled with animals or kids \u2014 rather because its decorative decibels score high. It belongs to the 33-year-old artist Christabel MacGreevy, who, since moving in in 2021, has through colour, textiles, pattern and art made it feel as though she has been there longer than she\u2019s been alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn retrospect it\u2019s quite peculiar,\u201d she says of never having considered the interiors of her first non-rented home prior to getting the keys, or even what her interior style really was. Money was scarce, if it existed at all. \u201cThe only thing I could afford was paint. Luckily my boyfriend at the time was a painter-decorator and an angel,\u201d she says, gesturing to the hand-stencilled geometric floor, the panels and the door frames in the entrance hall-cum-dining room, that are coated with no fewer than seven different colours.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Inside ceramicist Martha Freud\u2019s art-filled east London home<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

MacGreevy in her \u201cindoor garden\u201d lounge, which is painted in a hand-mixed shade of green. The antique chair was reupholstered in the Soane fabric Seaweed Lettuce<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Above the sofa, which is covered in a Tibetan rug, MacGreevy\u2019s grandma\u2019s tablecloth has been reimagined as a piece of art. The rug is Garden Maze by Nordic Knots<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

MacGreevy comes from a long line of female artists who passed down their skills, as well as their belief that art was not only something you made, but also something you could \u2014 and should \u2014 build a life around. \u201cWithout them I don\u2019t think I would have believed I could make a career out of it,\u201d she says. Her grandmother Anthea Craigmyle, whose paintings are propped up in MacGreevy\u2019s lounge and whose wooden sculpture is displayed in place of a television on top of a plinth, was painting until the end of her life.<\/p>\n

Craigmyle\u2019s story has been stitched into a Victorian lace tablecloth, a ginormous worn thing that spans the width of the lounge wall, that MacGreevy has embroidered with vintage Liberty fabric samples and the words \u201cshe knew my face indelibly\u201d.<\/p>\n

MacGreevy trained at Central Saint Martins, but it was during a stint at the Royal Drawing School that she honed her drawing style, which leans heavily on folklore, myth, bold lines and colour. Over time she has expanded into ceramics, which she found, like the rest of us, during lockdown. On the morning we meet she has just returned from New York\u2019s biggest art fair, the Armory Show, where she was displaying fired and glazed stoneware ceramics. Attention now turns to Art Basel Miami Beach, where she will be exhibiting in December.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Inside the family home of the woman who curates art for Soho House<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The simple bathroom is a restful shade of light brown<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The kitchen, painted in Mikado by Papers and Paints, is filled with cermaics MacGreevy has collected from the likes of Irving & Co, Troy Town and Henry Holland Studio<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Different shades of green are layered in the living room, including this vintage lamp<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Colour is MacGreevy\u2019s weakness. The lounge, imagined as \u201can indoor garden\u201d, is painted a juicy, almost lurid, green that she hand-mixed in her studio. The sunny mustard bedroom took her five tries to crack (settling on Farrow & Ball\u2019s Babouche). The kitchen, meanwhile, is a satsuma orange (Mikado by Papers and Paints), and the hall a teal with architraves and door frames in a sexy racing green. The chairs around her foldable 1970s table \u2014 wedding hire chairs and cheap as chips \u2014 are lacquered in a brilliant red.<\/p>\n

She reels off art, textiles and her sprawl of stuff with oblivious nonchalance. The sconces by the bed? \u201cOh, a flea market in Guadalajara [Mexico].\u201d The risograph print Arabic pamphlets came from Cairo: \u201cI went in February and saw the pyramids for the first time.\u201d A Tibetan rug, inherited from her grandma, covers a knackered floral sofa with bust springs that was \u201cfree to a good home, from a house sale\u201d.<\/p>\n

MacGreevy takes a similarly carefree approach to what fills her wall. While she admires immensely the work of her good friend Joe Sweeney, the cool crowd\u2019s go-to artist, she admits: \u201cI just need stuff to put on the walls.\u201d The same goes for her own pieces: \u201cIf it\u2019s something good, it\u2019s probably sold, so you know this is kind of second tier, but that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

The dining area and hall feature hand-painted geometric floors and panelling<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

MacGreevy sources items from flea markets, junk shops and antique stores<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The wooden sculpture in the living room was inherited from her grandma<\/p>\n

TRENT MCMINN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Seduced by her English eccentricity and general design prowess, the fashion photographer \u2014 and her friend \u2014 Harry Carr charged her with helping him with his house, just down the road. There are now antiques, ruffles and colour combinations so camp they require a clap. It was MacGreevy\u2019s first shot at an interiors project in an official capacity. She\u2019s now in demand, and needs no convincing: \u201cJust never at the expense of my actual art,\u201d she says, while perhaps realising that her home ranks among some of her finest works.<\/p>\n

@phoebejmcd<\/a><\/p>\n