Surrey Homes | SH13 | November 2015 | Gift supplement inside

Above: A toy-filled corner includes a model boat which Francine bought for
her husband, when they got married, from a shop in Peckham
Left: A sculptor’s revolving plinth holds an arrangement of dried allium heads
and artichoke-style candles
book, All My Eggs in One Basket, a journal of village and
family life, from season to season. The sequel, Flying
the Coop, covers her decision to leave after more than
30 years, her move to Joy Lane in Whitstable, Kent
and the process of creating a new home and life.
In her ‘new’ garden, a pretty, colour co-ordinated hen
house is crying out for a fresh flock of apricot-coloured
Orpingtons. “I like to stick to a limited palette,” says
Francine, who has dotted the golden colour of her home’s
London stock bricks – and the hens – around the house
and garden. She has also repeated the dark bluey-grey
of the slate roof on woodwork and window frames.
Indoors, the palette is limited and considered
too: Francine’s office-cum-living room is painted
with Dulux’s Steel Symphony, a strong bluey-grey,
which sets off her collection of family paintings to
perfection, as well as matching the huge wooden
shelving unit she brought with her from Suffolk.
Her office doubles-up as a shop on the occasions when
she open her home to the public, at Christmas time
and each year as part of the National Gardens Scheme
in June. This open-plan space, with enormous Arts
and Crafts-style windows, was formerly a downstairs
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