Surrey Homes | SH17 | March 2016 | Fashion supplement inside

Above: A drop-down cinema screen is hidden between the huge oak beams of
the drawing room. Emma sometimes holds ‘Dinnerma’ evenings, where guests
enjoy select films and home-cooked food Right: One of Emma’s cats poses
underneath Sidney, an old photographic prop found in a junk shop and used
by Emma’s father who was a photographer. Her father’s work, including many
pictures of Emma, is displayed around the house
The minute she saw a picture of the lodge in an agent’s
window she knew she’d found her new project.
“It looked like a child’s drawing with a pointy
roof and pretty casement windows,” she says. “I
was immediately obsessed with it.” One of the big
attractions was a vast soaring studio room that once
housed the carriages and which still had a hatch to
the hayloft between the heavy oak beams. It was a
room that was destined to become a dramatic drawing
room and dining room – the heart of the house
and a space brimming with wonder and interest.
The first thing that hits you as you walk in is the
spectacular beamed ceiling, now bleached white. Also
vying for your attention is a terrific window at the far end
of the room – although ‘end of the room’ is not entirely
accurate; Emma has created an evergreen courtyard
outside which means that the room, as an experience,
ends beyond the glass. This window, in hand with two
more, and a half-glazed door along another wall, floods
the room with light which bounces, reflects and generally
has fun amid the mirrors, crystal and glassware.
In every room there is an antique mirror of beauty
and originality – often more than one – but the
vast eight-foot patinated mirror in the drawing
49 www.wealdentimes.co.uk