Surrey Homes | SH21 | July 2016 | Interiors supplement inside

Above: The main bedroom is an oasis of calm and order – helped by muted colours and the addition of an en suite dressing room and hidden cupboards
is an aged oak bench. The woodburner is double-sided and
also serves the playroom next door. Originally the fireplace
itself went through to the playroom which seemed a good
idea at the time. “But it didn’t really work for me so we
thought about it and decided to make a division between
the two fireplaces and just have the woodburner common
to both,” says Martine.
In the playroom, one wall used to be open shelves
piled with all the boys’ books and games but the couple’s
seriously talented carpenter, Greg Buchan, has created
a wall of doors that now hide all from view. As in the
drawing room, the TV is set into the oak panelling. Next to
it are four Bella Pieronis. On the other side of the chimney
breast is a desk and Ghost chair. A large, welcoming
L-shaped sofa is scattered with Design Forum cushions.
And so up the pine-panelled stairs with their solid steel
handrail designed by Andrew and past a vast mural with a
plaster and concrete finish of a gilt and silver ‘crack’ – also
designed by Andrew and running the length of the hallway.
“Perhaps not one of Andrew’s best ideas,” observes Martine,
though its resemblance to a jagged mountainside makes
it seem rather appropriate for this house. Above are three
nested and recessed industrial/theatrical spotlights.
One’s first impression of the master bedroom is that it
seems a little muted after the fabric-fest downstairs – and
that’s exactly what Martine intended. “After looking
at fabrics and patterns all day we wanted a neutral retreat,”
she says.
However, for ‘neutral’, do not for a moment read ‘dull’.
It’s all elegant greys and whites with warmth provided by
For ‘neutral’, do not for a moment read ‘dull’. The master bedroom is all elegant
greys and whites with warmth provided by a wall of oak panelling.
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