Mixing eras gives our home personality

With a blend of modern, vintage and mid-century pieces, Ali Cowie’s home illustrates how combining different eras can work a treat

Welcome to my home

A bit about me

I’m Ali Cowie and I live with my partner Marc Burns, our four-yearold daughter Maggie and our cat, Sadie.

Where I live

My home is a midterraced Edwardian house in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

What I wanted to change

Although the house was structurally sound, it had a heritage colour scheme with muted colours that didn’t suit our style of furniture. We also had grand plans to extend the kitchen into the side return, but soon realised our budget wasn’t big enough!

How I made it my own

Bringing vintage finds together with retro-style buys and items from our travels

My favourite part

I love the rear sitting room as the dark blue walls make it so cosy and atmospheric, and it’s such a contrast to the orange living room.

Living room

With lots of light flooding through the bay window, this front room has been given a light and bright modernist meets-mid-century makeover. The deep red walls have been painted white and the beige carpet ripped up to reveal the original floorboards. ‘We knew we would spend the most time here and wanted a complete contrast to the cosy blue room at the back,’ says Ali. ‘It’s quite a big room, so needed lots to fill it. We’ve gone for a mix of contemporary, vintage and reproduction pieces – mixing up different eras has created an eclectic, colourful feel.’