Origin

The birth of Modern Nostalgia

Completed

Project Timeline: 2020 - 2023

This project is my family home and the foundation of my design approach.

Purchased by my parents in 1982, the house became the centre of our family life after they emigrated from Mauritius to the UK in the 1970s to work in the NHS. It is a home shaped by aspiration, adaptation, and continuity. A place that held everyday routines alongside long-term hopes for stability and belonging.

The renovation was approached as an act of care rather than reinvention. Instead of removing the home’s history, the design works with it, refining proportions, improving flow and light, and rebalancing the plan to support contemporary living while retaining a sense of familiarity and warmth. Existing rhythms informed new interventions, allowing old and new to sit comfortably alongside one another.

This project gave language to what I now describe as Modern Nostalgia: an approach that respects memory and lived experience, while expressing them through a modern, considered design lens. It reflects my belief that homes should evolve thoughtfully, preserve emotional resonance, all while meeting the needs of the present.

More than a personal project, this renovation became a reference point for how I work today; designing spaces that feel grounded, coherent, and quietly meaningful.

A before image of a living room that has red chesterfield sofas against a beige coloured wall, a mahogany coffee table is placed in the middle, brown patterned curtains adorn the window
An old black and white image of a couple is being held over outside the front of a house, lining up to show the old and new together
An after image of the same living room and red chesterfield sofas are now in an updated designed space, teal green walls with a gallery of framed pictures and prints, the space is decorated further with a yellow lamp and grey futon style piece that i
A before image of a dining room showing an old style dining table in the centre of the room, behind the entrance to a kitchen, the room is beige with brown wooden flooring
An old colour image of a family in a dining room is overlayed the reality of the same space to show how the before and after interplay, the image is lined up to try and show the space has evolved
An after image of the dining room that still has a modern industrial style dining table in the middle, however the space is modernised with teal green walls and a rust-effect feature wall, a concrete-style piece of artwork hangs on one of the walls,
A before image of black and white kitchen with an island in the middle. The kitchen is bare
An overlay of a coloured image of three young children standing on a footstool next to a set of stairs. The image is overlayed the reality to line the stairs up with the real life version to show how the space is evolved
An after image of the kitchen which is now painted pink and black. The kitchen island is in the same position but is filled with kitchen paraphernalia, and the rest of the space is decorated stylishing
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