Tasteful friends - what do you make of this newly renovated London mews house?

Bland, boring, white - stripped of every drop of character -but that’s what people want. It’s “new”. True of NYC too - every historical interior detail has been stripped by rich people wanting “new”.

Charming on the outside, updated modern asylum on the inside.

So inviting and cozy.

White boxes round the world.

Mews houses inevitably feel like converted out buildings with scant natural light (which they are) - all the blinding white paint and mirrored surfaces in the world aren’t going to change that.

This one looks like it was renovated to be an Airbnb (turning the upstairs into an open space with a couple of beds?) that wishes it was a dental office.

It looks like it's been set up as one of those clinics people go to in Switzerland for assisted suicide.

[quote]Mews houses inevitably feel like converted out buildings

The London ones were usually stables to house the horses. I think there are very few left - but I do know one.

Where is Harry Potter supposed to sleep?

Harry Potter lived in a mews house?

It’s rather attractive from the outside.

I would have made it homey and cozy. But that's who I am.

My 50s tract house is oozing with character in comparison. I like my house, and usually feel even better about it when I read these threads.

It’s in a very good area and it looks nice. But I don’t think I would pay £1m+ for 73 m2 with no garden. This is priced probably about right for London and for that area, tbh, but this is why I think there’s a gigantic housing bubble here.

Did anyone take the "virtual tour"? (scroll down)

Is he the designer? The estate agent?

Yikes.

Honestly I’m a little sick of seeing these houses that is never be able to afford to even rent the basement in. It was fun for a while but now with these prices it’s sickening.

[quote]Honestly I’m a little sick of seeing these houses that is never be able to afford

I know what you mean, but would you buy this if you COULD afford it?

I find it depressing that a tiny ex-garage is £1m.

Well, it's ghastly. It's just ghastly!

How does a house have “two bedrooms” when there are no doors to separate sleeping areas?

It's absurd - it's so badly designed, how the fuck are you supposed to sleep with skylights above your fucking head and yes the "bedrooms" have no walls.

[quote] I know what you mean, but would you buy this if you COULD afford it?

Like R20 said, it's not two bedrooms, it's fucking two beds. It's a studio with a loft, but probably not overpriced for London

Really like the location though.

No walls between the two bedrooms?

yes, r23

>>

The location is not all that good. It's not Pavilion Road for instance where there are mews houses in a better location.

That weird second bedroom with no privacy would make the whole thing a 'junior four' here in the Colonies. Contemptible.

R25. Yeah, but that area is REALLY expensive.

Earls Court used to be the "gay" area of London. You still see a few old gurls around from the heyday.

Nuni!

No private place to fuck.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Decorated in Stupid Rich Cunt.

It looks like somewhere you’d do an autopsy.

It actually gives me the creeps.

What sort of weirdo would choose to buy it and live there? That's what I want to know.

There's a good gay brothel nearby, so there's that.

It looks like they did the first 80% of the renovation work and whoever buys it is supposed to do the remaining 20% - - adding color, charm, and above all, walls and doors.

[quote] a tiny ex-garage

This mews was built as a horse stable wasn't it. The garage door is large enough for a Morris Minor.

I hate it.

I don't mind all white interiors (though I'd want colorful art, furniture, pillows, etc), but that white is too white. You really can see the difference in the 100 shades of white,

[quote]This mews was built as a horse stable wasn't it.

yes - some of them still look like stables

[quote]The garage door is large enough for a Morris Minor.

There's a big problem in London now all the private garages built PRE-2000 often won't handle modern yuuuge cars.

Crazy inconsistency with windows.

Windows obscured by cupboards; windows at ceiling level.

"I put it in a white box somewhere..."

Maybe It’s so expensive because it’s where Judy Garland ODd on the toilet.

^ BIZARRE comment

With those doors at least there is room for a pony.

I don’t know what’s more outrageous: the price for the poorly thought out renovation. It’s a blaze of white nothingness with an Airbnb feel. I guess the orgy upstairs will be fun if you don’t mess up all the white.

R31, stop spamming threads with your stupid fucking *T*R*A*N*S*P*A*M*.

Hate it.

Who would block windows with cupboards, especially when there is so little natural light? That seems like such a bizarre choice.

Mews? Does it smell faintly of horse manure when there's a lot of rain?

The horse manure has long gone.

[quote]Did anyone take the "virtual tour"? (scroll down) Is he the designer? The estate agent?

He's Neil Mercer, the estate agent at Keller WIlliams.

Yes the whiteness is unpleasant but this is a flat that has recently been renovated or decorated and has been made neutral to sell it. It could easily be improved with a violet sofa, a sea blue wall, a Kandinsky in the kitchen but the seller will let the new owner decide.

I can imagine Sarah Beeny's face when she saw the "second" bedroom and saying to the developers "You really don't want to make it a separate room? Really?"

I suppose if you WANT to live in central London and can AFFORD a million quid for a one bedroom flat then it's a nice enough property.

[quote]Mews? Does it smell faintly of horse manure when there's a lot of rain?

I grew up in a London mews house in Belgravia (in a much nicer house than this shithole) and late at night you'd hear the sound of many horse hooves on the cobble stones at the entrance to the mews. God knows what that was about. One time I mentioned it to my very down to earth father and he said he'd heard it many times as well. Some sort of time warp. Say gurl puhlease and eye-roll as much as you like.

Where do I put it?

Is that front door set high enough, or what? Damn, a little person would have to use a step ladder to get in that place.

Ugly as can be, but I guess it could work as a pied-à-terre for someone who lived far outside the city. Needs to be completely repainted.

[quote] a little person would have to use a step ladder to get in that place.

LOL

Little people are not welcome.

I'll be the estate agents get a view count - they must be wondering what the hell is going on.

[quote]a little person would have to use a step ladder to get in that place.

There is a step between the door and the cobbles - but thank you for your consideration.

Zooming in on one specific feature, I really hate 'kitchens' like this one that are just an entire wall of cabinetry and counters built into the living room. To me, a space like that could never feel anything like home. It feels like an extended-stay hotel room. If they're not fully enclosed, then kitchens at least need some kind of dividing wall to define the space. Maybe as a starter condo at $250k, but for over £1 million? Nyet! Jamais!

filthy amount of money for a stable turned into a house in a central district of a world capital. It's DARK, don't let the photography and white paint deceive you. Dark and SMALL. I find all of this puke inducing.

2 beds in one room are not 2 bedrooms.

And for that matter, EVERY SINGLE picture in this slide show is HIGHLY lensed into ridiculous points of view. Not one interior photo is honest. Of course they use Ghost chairs, and look how stretched they are here, to give the staircase the illusion of depth going back into the house. NOPE.

Could a tall person even stand in that bathroom? Why is it elevated?

The neighbouring building with the Tardis blue doors has a different layout, putting spiral stairs in the corner.

What's the problem? A little paint, some cozy furniture. It'll look great.

[quote]Could a tall person even stand in that bathroom? Why is it elevated?

Not sure why it's elevated but the house opposite (number 1) has an elevated kitchen on the ground floor which also wouldn't suit a tall person. There's no space between the cupboards and the ceiling.

Very odd that you have steps to get into the house and then inside you step up again to get into certain rooms.

[quote]Could a tall person even stand in that bathroom? Why is it elevated?

So now it's not only the little people who can't live here because of the high step, but also the tall people who can't stand up straight in the bathroom. Who's left? The horses, I guess. Just turn it back into a stable and be done with it.

The kitchen in the place next door is FAR superior.

To be fair R70, at least in pictures ,the place next door is far superior. Cozy and charming.

Great place to film a crime scene.

White! I would need my sunglasses..

Well, we don't know the height of the ceilings or anything r71, but I'd say the appliances and the cabinetry that we can see in the photo makes it far better than the one in the OP's listing.

I think they should call in Babs to decorate. She likes white and has every shade of off-white in her home.

[quote]Well, we don't know the height of the ceilings or anything [R71], but I'd say the appliances and the cabinetry that we can see in the photo makes it far better than the one in the OP's listing.

You can guess the height of the ceilings from the gap between the cabinets and the ceiling.

The space in the 2 square mews flats makes it an ordinary sized kitchen - in the White Flat you can see the gap between the cabinets and ceiling is a bit bigger than normal and compares with the raised bathroom.

In the Tardis flat next door the gap between the kitchen cabinets and ceiling is quite normal.

In the rectangular house opposite with the blue garage door you can see the gap between the downstairs bathroom door and the ceiling is unusually big, that the steps up to the kitchen are quite steep and that there is no gap between the kitchen cabinets and the ceiling.

Do I look like a footman's wife?

No. Horrid. Tiny. Ugly.

And no marble.

Bog standard mews house renovation. It's so white and so modern it will date quite quickly... it will cause the same design backlash against modern than modern is presently reflecting against traditional (though to be fair there probably wasn't a lot of traditional involved to begin with... mews houses were for horses and carriages and cars.)

Decorated for Arabs who want to think they're too cosmopolitan for gilded tat.

I hadn't realised they'd squished in two bathrooms one on the ground (first for Americans) and one on the first (second) - so unnecessary. But people are obsessed with multiple bathrooms these days.

And of course the only "colour" in (barely) evidence is grey. People will laugh at all the grey in contemporary decor in years to come.

However did this has NO respect nor interest in the historical details of the interior. They made the inside look like an ART GALLERY.

Like someone here said this happens a lot in NYC. People think it's sophisticated if you're house/apartment/condominium has the look of an art gallery- ALL white walls and emptiness.

That area of London is very dangerous.

[quote] ALL white walls and emptiness.

I think it is pretentious. I mean, really, where do you put your collectables?

[quote]However did this has NO respect nor interest in the historical details of the interior. They made the inside look like an ART GALLERY.

They were buildings to house horses and carts, possibly with staff living above.

A history of the Mews.

An exhibitionist's dream.

The designer has chosen the worst spot for the stairs imaginable.

Maybe if your buying this you don’t care but where’s the washer dryer go? In the unseen cupboard at the end of the kitchen?

[quote]They were buildings to house horses and carts, possibly with staff living above.

Yes, the coachman would have lived above with his wife.

When cars arrived, same thing with the chauffeur and the Rolls Royce.

Remember Thomas & Sarah in Upstairs Downstairs? That was their arrangement.

The upstairs shitter has a window! This place must share a back wall.

How the fuck would you handle trash? Daddy knows it’s cheaper to buy than rent, so I’ll keep bins inside, next to the front door?

[quote]The upstairs shitter has a window! This place must share a back wall.

The block doesn't share a back wall. The back overlooks the gardens of bigger more expensive houses, possibly the houses that the mews were part of.

The downstairs rooms have small opaque glass blocks and the upstairs bathroom has an opaque window that might not open. The mews would have needed planning permission to convert into residential properties and one of the conditions would have been that the new house doesn't overlook the existing garden.

That said, neighbouring property has the lovely roof garden and the property next to that has big windows.

Living on what's little more than an alley way would not be my cuppa at that price.

It's dreariness would be a constant reminder that you lived in Earl's Court. The exterior is rather charmless and cobbled together - yet not the more or less mirror image house next door looks much better for the blue paint instead of the stark white.

99% of the UK now favor the dentist's surgery look for their houses: stark white, pale floors, a bit of trickery to suggest lightness, and some bits of old beams or brick or stone wall exposed from beneath original plaster meant to conceal it; a kitchen that looks as though it reheats the carryout for you by intuition and technology; and a bath for Silkwood levels of hosing down. Everything geared for trendy appearance and nothing to quality.

Had to the same work been donen to the house to a high standard, I wouldn't mind it at all, but we're meant to look beyond it's cheapness to appreciate that it's what other people - lots of other people- are doing right now.

The space itself is not bad, its use is not well considered and the quality and finishes worse.

[quote]99% of the UK now favor the dentist's surgery look for their houses: stark white, pale floors, a bit of trickery to suggest lightness, and some bits of old beams or brick or stone wall exposed from beneath original plaster meant to conceal it; a kitchen that looks as though it reheats the carryout for you by intuition and technology; and a bath for Silkwood levels of hosing down. Everything geared for trendy appearance and nothing to quality.

You know painting a house white is something developers/homeowners do prior to putting a property on the market, so it looks bright and clean and becomes a blank canvas for prospective homeowners to imagine living there?

Yes R93, I know. Do you know what interiors land in design magazines, in TV renovation and home design shows, in the lifestyle pages of the tabloids and The Times?

No one says you have to live with the paint colors on the wall at the time you purchase a house, but they do if it's white. The aesthetic of lottery winners, footballers' wives, cowboy contractors, hair salon owners, and dental surgeries prevails with its white blank slate. It's not just for selling houses...selling houses is everything now, people buy their dreams in staged blank slates and that's exactly what they want because they can't imagine anything beyond what they see.

What's the soundproofing like in these mews houses? Do they have paper thin walls?

NO, r95 - they're Victorian stables, not 1990s flats in Hounslow.

seems to be back on the market

They've added 1/4 million pounds to the asking price.

And its still fucking hideous inside. I wouldnt know where to start with this, it is one of the rare cases where a gut reno actually seems like a good idea

Like all mews, it probably has the very faint smell of horse poop when it rains a lot.