Surrey Homes | SH42 | April 2018 | Garden supplement inside

Previous page: Ally commissioned bespoke bookshelves to create a focal point in the sitting room. The walls are painted in Farrow &
Ball’s Varta, to add a splash of bold colour. Above: the oak sideboard used to be in the kitchen, but Ally thought it deserved a grander
location. The chairs and sofa are from Furniture Village – to save money to spend on the bookshelves
The Weald of Kent is a very special part of the world,
with its beautiful rolling landscape peppered with
postcard-worthy villages – and an unusually high
volume of dream homes in ideal family proportions.
This house is one of them. Set along a country lane with
views from the back over a pond (and a swimming pool) to
farmland and the rise of the High Weald in the distance. On
one snowy morning visit, a robin red breast perched on the
hedge, as if positioned by a stylist, with the winter silhouettes
of trees against the sky beyond like a living Ravilious painting.
It’s a magical spot.
The house is equally blessed, a perfect combination of cosy
beams – and no fewer than three inglenook fireplaces – with
Victorian and 21st century additions which allow that modern
ideal of lateral space. The kitchen melts into the dining area
and on again to the sofas in the family snug.
It also has that lovely circular flow, which always makes a
house feel happy. You can walk round clockwise starting from
the hall, past the cloakroom, into the snug, through the arch
to the dining area, right turn into the kitchen and then back
out to the hall.
There are also various sets of French windows, so you can
pop in and out at different places, or if you wanted to get
away from everyone, there is an elegant sitting room off the
other side of the hallway.
But while the bones of the house are perfectly arranged
47 surrey-homes.co.uk