Surrey Homes | SH21 | July 2016 | Interiors supplement inside
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Interiors Supplement, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Interiors Supplement, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
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Above left: An ornate mirror is a feature in the classic, welcoming bathroom, where tongue-and-groove panelling adds a country cottage feel alongside the<br />
painted wood sink unit Above right: Victorian-style taps adorn the end of a freestanding, roll-top bath<br />
distressed the legs. Surrounding it are a set of elegant Lloyd<br />
Loom chairs by Neptune, bought from John Lewis.<br />
The oak-topped dining room table was also a wonderful<br />
rescue – this time from eBay – and Tara has again given it<br />
the white-distressed treatment. She and Mark used to run a<br />
business importing Swedish chandeliers – and examples now<br />
hang over the dining room table and in the drawing room<br />
The drawing room is the oldest part of the house, dating<br />
back to the 1650s. It’s now a blizzard of light with the<br />
warmth provided by the honeyed beams and a superb<br />
Scottish bow-fronted chest of drawers the couple found<br />
in a Maidstone antiques shop. The huge and beautiful gilt<br />
mirror came from an antique shop in Dorking and the lovely<br />
candelabras from Kaizen in Rochester, the wall lights from<br />
Krebs. The two grey sofas are Kingston by Laura Ashley.<br />
The fireplace was something of a mess when they<br />
inherited it, and so has been completely renovated gaining<br />
a new slate hearth and a white Jotul woodburner. Mark<br />
sandblasted all the old dirty brickwork and renovated the<br />
oak flooring, stripping off years and layers of dark varnish.<br />
He also remodelled the windowsills in Limestone.<br />
Tara points out a heart cut in the drawing room door.<br />
“We had a heart knocker on the front door of our last<br />
house so we took it as something of a sign,” she says.<br />
In the hallway is a beautiful watercolour of the couple’s<br />
children, Miles and Imogen, painted by Mark’s father,<br />
artist Michael Leedham. Off the hallway, in the downstairs<br />
loo, is a treasured sewing box made by Tara’s great<br />
grandfather Arnold Melen, for Tara’s great grandmother.<br />
The master bedroom is white but warmed by natural wood in<br />
the shape of items such as a stunning pine wardrobe with<br />
a superb oval mirror renovated by the couple who stripped <br />
www.wealdentimes.co.uk<br />
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