LAURA MAGEE AKA Deco Dwelling, is a fashion buyer who won Real Homes’ Home of the Year in 2021. Magee has worked in the fashion industry throughout her career and brings her eye for colour and style to her Victorian home in East Belfast. Having previously lived in both London and Cardiff, Magee shares her home with her husband Jonathan and her two cats George and Raff and has amassed over 100k followers on Instagram.
Laura says that her favourite part of her home is most certainly her open plan living/ dining area. It’s the area that she spends most time in – whether that is catching up on work, entertaining guests or chilling out after a day at work. “The living/ dining area of my home was designed to flow as a colour or decor scheme from when you enter through the hallway and then navigate through the open plan living space into the kitchen,” says Laura. “The colour palette is mainly green and pink, with highlight colours of red, and this cohesion of colour connects each part of the rooms downstairs. I love colour and being bold in my choices and I think you really get a sense of this when you enter my home.”
Laura says this convivial space is very reflective of her personality and her love of socialising and she recently added a bar to the space replacing a previous Mid-century modern style sideboard.
I recently added a home bar to my living/ dining area as I love to entertain,” says Laura. “This has definitely become a talking point when you walk into my home. I think it says a lot about me and my love for socialising. It has become a focal point in my dining area and I have done a lot of entertaining in this space over Christmas and New Year.”
Laura is no shrinking violet when it comes to the use of colour in her home. Her living/ dining area features a bold combination of Alhambra Stone from Craig & Rose paints and Green No. 6 by Lick. Her hallway is painted in Glasshouse by Graham & Brown and her bathroom features a pink sink complete with green and pink walls in Mansard and Factor Fifty by COAT paints.
While she admits to being something of a magpie when it comes to collecting she says that she has refined and honed her taste over time so that each piece in her home is carefully considered. “Unless the object fits into my decor scheme it’s not coming home with me!” she says.
I would consider my style to be colourful and bold yet considered. Every piece of decor has its place in my home. Every piece of art or textile has been thought through in terms of its colour, texture and relevance to the overall feel of the space.”
“I take a lot of my inspiration from the Art Deco movement and Mid-century modern design, but I like to think that I bring my own unique flair to my decor. I think that my job as a fashion buyer lends itself to my overall style and ability to create cohesive themes within my home.”
Not only does her job inspire her but Laura says that she also takes inspiration from a myriad of sources – from magazines to social media, restaurants to hotels. “I might even see a gorgeous colour palette in a fashion collection and translate this into a part of the decor in my home,” she says.
Having created such a convivial and welcoming space, Laura says that she loves nothing more than to enjoy a glass of red wine in front of her new wood burning stove or to get dressed up and host a group of friends for dinner – even better when she can focus more on the dancing and less on the cooking duties. One of her biggest home decor splurges has been her huge pale pink sofa from Sits. “It was certainly one of our biggest splurges but I am absolutely obsessed with it,” she says. It’s the most comfortable place to chill out and I spend a lot of time on it!”
While most of her fans agree that Laura rarely gets things wrong she says that one of her biggest mistakes has been failing to plaster the entire house when she initially moved in. “We did it four years into living here only because we had part of our ceiling collapse in the hallway. It meant we had to redecorate everything from scratch. That said, it did provide me with the perfect excuse to redesign areas of my home and of course add in my much-loved home bar!”
Follow Laura at @deco.dwelling on Instagram.
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