Wealden Times | WT167 | January 2016 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Above: Amber’s room is painted in a ‘simple white’ but livened up with bright and cheerful fabrics. Kate, rescued the miniature wrought iron day bed from a
florist’s shop, where it was being used for display. Original oak mullion windows throughout the house are a reminder of its 1920s origin
More glass doors lead into the drawing room, this
time doors with more regular-sized panes and then more
bi-folding doors with larger panes open out into the garden.
This means, optically speaking, that the entire garden
becomes part of the kitchen. “The window manufacturers
and fitters were seriously concerned that the large panes at
one end of the room wouldn’t match the smaller ones at
the other,” says Kate, “but we worked it out in the end.”
The fireplace was pretty much as it is today except that
the grey tiles have been replaced with slate. Kate has retained
the oak mantle above it. “When we came to look at the
detail, so much in this house may have dated back to the
‘50s and beyond but, given a slightly different treatment,
looked very contemporary -- so we retained as much as
we possibly could.” This included the oak mullions of the
windows, which were stripped, and a stunning staircase that
again was stripped to put the natural oak centre-stage.
The two high sofas are from the Sofa Workshop gather
round a Habitat glass-topped coffee table, while underfoot
the original oak flooring has been stripped and limed. The
rug is from Homesense and the TV unit from MADE.com.
The study is not so much a mere study but a cool
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