Wealden Times | WT214 | December 2019 | Guide to Christmas supplement inside

An impressively large parlour palm turns out to be, like all the house plants, a
very good fake – and an amazing bargain. “I noticed they were taking down
a display in River Island’s flagship store on Oxford Street,” says Kimberley
“and they were getting rid of all the fake plants. I bought this one from
them for £8 and managed to get it home to Hackney on the bus.”
threshold. The first thing you see on the wall opposite the
front door – only about four-feet away in the very compact
hallway – is a set of splendid French double doors.
The scale of them in the confined space, draws
your attention to the lovely high ceilings and gives an
immediate sense of grandeur, plus an understanding
that this might be a small place, but it has big idea. It’s
also the first of the many professional styling ‘hacks’
that Kimberley has used to make her flat so special.
Another is that she found the doors, plus a matching
set, for a very reasonable price on eBay. So many of
the brilliant effects in the flat have been achieved
with minimal outlay, either because of the places she
sourced them, or through thinking laterally how to do
something, as with the dolls house kitchen cupboard.
Stepping into the sitting room, another example of savvy
sourcing comes into view. An impressively large parlour
palm turns out to be, like all the house plants, a very
good fake – and an amazing bargain. “I noticed they were
taking down a display in River Island’s flagship store on
Oxford Street,” says Kimberley “and they were getting rid
of all the fake plants. I bought this one from them for £8
and managed to get it home to Hackney on the bus.”
London is Kimberley’s base, but after she inherited
money from her late mother she decided to invest it in
a getaway. Like many people who buy in Hastings, her
familiarity with the town came from a South London
childhood, with many outings to that stretch of
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