WHEN fashion designers Martin Barrell and his partner, Amanda Sellers, found their north London apartment in 2001, they immediately decided that they wanted it. It was not the fact that, apart from a dribble of paint, it had not been touched for 25 years, nor was it the shoddy conversion that swayed them. It was the 75-foot outdoor space full of supermarket trolleys, knee-high weeds, old sheds and rusty bicycles that clinched it.

“For five years in our Notting Hill flat, we’d looked down at people enjoying barbecues and thought, ‘That’s what we want to do’,” says Barrell. Now he has a beautiful cottage garden, created by Sellers, in which to sizzle sausages.

The couple own Maisonette, the ironically titled suburban-glamour homestore in Kensal Rise.

Think decorative: retro, modern and vintage; it stocks, among other things, cushions made from scarves, 1970s sideboards and paintings. Their home has a strong Sixties and Seventies influence, and is a testing ground for their shop.

“We like to see what things look like in a home environment,” says Barrell, who only sells pieces he likes. “We don’t go for the Austin Powers pop look. We’re into subdued designs.”

When the couple bought their apartment, they had a budget of £35,000 for building works. They started by reconfiguring the property, turning what was a three-bedroom flat into a two bedroom one by putting a bathroom in what was the third bedroom. They also converted two other rooms into a kitchen.

“We put in sash windows and new doors, and took off some other doors to open things up,” explains Barrell, who did the spec drawings for the builders. “We stripped, rewired, replumbed, replastered and, well, re-everything.”

Then the couple painted the wooden floorboards Farrow & Ball black and the walls Dulux white. “We wanted to work off a blank canvas.” A blank canvas in a late-Victorian home with period features.

The couple have been clever at taking low-cost interior pieces and using them in a way that makes them look expensive.

In the kitchen, they have used glossy white Magnet units – including three freezer units, which create a stylish wall of cupboards – with an economical laminate worktop. “It’s £160 on work-surfaces, rather than £4,500 on Corian,” says Barrell.

In the bedroom, he has eight Ikea mirrored wardrobes.

“If you use something en masse, you make a big statement with it.”

Even the hospital-style radiators are from B&Q – juxtaposed with two stylish Bisque ones, which raise the tone.

Against this backdrop are dramatic, vintage accessories.

Throughout the flat are spectacular light fittings: in the bedroom, two 1960s tiered, textured Murano glass wall lights from Les Couilles Du Chien, while in the bathroom, a 1970s Murano glass chandelier from vintage light specialist Ollie’s “that weighs a ton”.

In the sitting room, a pair of vintage glass wall lights glow beautifully, while in the dining room, a sequin-style bronze-tinted glass pendant light hangs from the ceiling. The overall look is simple, but decorative. In the sitting room, Barrell and Sellers have two 1960s chrome-and-leather Pieff sofas, offset by a sequinned Geraldine Larkin cushion.

“She designs embroidery for couture clients and a small range of interiors pieces,” Barrell says. The sitting room also has a Danish rosewood sideboard, vintage chrome-and-rosewood coffee table, and, for warmth, sheepskin rugs and cushions made from silk scarves. On the wall is a large, retro still-life of painting-by-numbers flowers, designed by Barrell and sold as a DIY kit in the couple’s shop for £130.

Vases and a brass cherub candelabra sit on the imposing Victorian Carrara marble mantelpiece, above the fireplace.

“When we moved in, the fireplaces were all 1930s tiled ones,” Barrell says. “We found the originals in bits in the cellar. So we got this [marble one] from Retrouvius reclamation.”

The dining room is open-plan with a 1960s Arkana table and matching swivel chairs. Above the table, a Geraldine Larkin hand-stitched sequin panel echoes the room’s slightly goldenbrown Italian chandelier.

ELSEWHERE, along the exposed-brick hallway (“It was like that when we bought it. We love its textural feel”), in which a 1960s Pieff dining chair is placed, lies the master bedroom. It has a theatrical 1950s Italian gilt-and-white painted chest, French 1930s painted bed and huge black sheepskin rugs.

Sellers’s vintage shoes, clothes and handbags, hanging off handles and placed on boxes, provide a further dramatic touch.

In the corner is a Charles Eames chair. “It’s rare because it’s finished in chrome,” says Barrell.

The bathroom is lined with inexpensive white tiles and featuring a sunken Bette bath, which has towel storage in its side panel. “The bathroom floor was seven inches lower than the rest of the flat,” says Barrell. “So we left the bath at that level.”

Italian mock-slate covers the floor, which, says Barrell, is “more economical and durable than slate, because it’s made of ceramic”. And, “for hiding everything”, there is a a wall of mirror-fronted, bespoke cupboards, lit from beneath.

There is one other thing that is hidden. Secreted behind a door, there is a labyrinthian cellar-cum-studio, from where Barrell creates his floral canvases, and looks up happily at his barbecue.

WHERE TO GET THE LOOK

For 20th century design
Maisonette: 79 Chamberlayne Road, NW10 (020 8964 8444; www.maisonette.uk.com)
www.sit-on-it.uk.com: 07815 841573
Les Couilles Du Chien: 65 Golborne Road, W10 (020 8968 0099)
Repsycho: 85 Gloucester Road, Bristol (0117 983 0007)

For vintage lights
Ollie’s: 69 Golborne Road, W10 (07768 790 725)

For the bathroom
MC Stone: 69a Goldney Road, W9 (020 7289 7102)
The Tile Shop: 4-6 Chamberlayne Road, NW10 (020 8968 9497)

Paints
Farrow & Ball: 01202 876141; www.farrow-ball.com
Dulux: 01753 550555; www.dulux.co.uk