Uncompromising isn’t the first word one would use to describe Eppie Thompson. Good-natured, yes. Creative, certainly. But intractable? No. And yet, when it came to buying her first home, Eppie, the seamstress behind The Fabled Thread’s darling DIY embroidery kits, was utterly resolute. She knew exactly what boxes needed ticking – and she’d be damned if they weren’t.
It transpires that those tick-boxes took the shape of this enchanting garden flat in Dalston, currently on the market with Inigo, which she shares with her scruffy canine companion, Roger. It was, however, very different when she moved in – white, Scandi-style and not to this stuff lover’s taste at all. As it stands today, the apartment is testament not just to Eppie’s creativity, but to her pragmatism too. For while her cheerfully maximalist taste has brought oodles of character to the place (and characters too – note the embroidered circus performers dotted around), Eppie’s execution of the flat’s playful costume change – completed in just three weeks – was a masterclass in practicality. “There were quite a few spreadsheets,” she says, grimacing at the memory.
Eppie’s work has paid off. She has made it just so, which is why, she explains, leaving it will be such a wrench. It has been – as with so many people’s first homes – a very personal project. The result is a house rich in texture, both literally (one wants to touch everything, even the framed bits and bobs that generously populate the walls, many of them made by Eppie herself) and metaphorically. It is an homage to the things she loves, packed to the rafters with objects that bring her joy. “It has been the perfect first flat,” she explains, but the time has come to move on, “for someone new to come and leave their own mark on it,” for a new thread to be woven into the fable.
