Before she had even set foot in her South London home, Katja Behre was feeling positive. After several months of house-hunting without success, the estate agent’s photos of a Victorian maisonette really caught her eye. ‘Even though it was in an area I’d not properly considered, the rooms looked so bright and spacious in the pictures,’ she recalls. ‘When I came here, I realised the location was great too, which was a nice surprise.’
Inside, Katja found a large, threebedroom maisonette, laid out over three levels. Although the interior was bland and the kitchen and bathroom were quite basic, the flat was freshly decorated and ready to live in. ‘The natural light was fantastic and it felt like home straight away,’ says Katja. ‘Even so, there was a lot that wasn’t really to my taste and I definitely wanted to make some changes.’