Inspiration of the Week: a Georgian delight just right for the 21st century

When it comes to buildings, those Georgians were on to something. All these years later, their tall ceilings, huge sash windows, perfect proportions and plaster cornicing that’s crisper than a wedding cake’s still have the power to make us weak at the knees. But – to state the obvious – life is different to how it was 300 years ago. So how do you make a home constructed then make sense today? A vicarious tour of this house on Merseyside’s Canning Street – now on the market – may go some way to answering that.

All the rooms here strike a careful balance between old and new. In the drawing room, for instance, we’re delighting in the juxtaposition of walls painted the kind of green Robert Adam would have approved of with the red tubular-metal chairs and a mid-century sideboard. This clever clash of ages is only exacerbated by the fine egg-and-dart moulding and careworn floorboards.

Elsewhere, more mismatches work together wondrously, not least in the kitchen, where sleek steel cabinets find a counterpoint in the textural depth of stripped-plaster walls. Opposites attract after all – and isn’t tension what makes things interesting?

But the draw of this place runs deeper than just decoration. Its current owners have taken great care to restore this Regency townhouse – once home to the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, between 1843 and 1850 – with an emphasis on authenticity. Having moved in, they removed Victorian picture rails and later additions, ensuring the Georgian fabric of the house has been allowed to shine.

None of this is to say this home is stuck in the past, however. Making the most of contemporary tastes for craft, a garden studio – which could well be used as an office – has been carved out of a former coach house, while the garden has been paved and filled with low-maintenance pots, perfect busy city-dwellers. Though, frankly, with spaces so spectacular, it’ll be hard to leave the house…