Surrey Homes | SH42 | April 2018 | Garden supplement inside

Above: The copper-lined pulley light over the dining table is by Original BTC (it was a bargain Ally found under the discontinued
clearance table.). The leather club chair was a family favourite. Ally gave it new life with cushions covered in vibrant African fabrics
brought back from Tanzania that turned up in Jo’s clear out
and blinds on the ground floor which are all made of the same
material – an Ikat-style print from Bell House Interiors in
Cranbrook, which is very wide, so economical to use.
It’s an idea which would never have occurred to me – I
was almost shocked at the concept – but once you see it in
place, using one window treatment fabric throughout unites
the layout, giving the space a chic, pulled-together look,
which makes you wonder why on earth we fuss about putting
different patterns in every room.
This is a perfect example of the kind of savvy Ally has
gathered in her nearly 30 years of experience as an interior
designer, working for eight years for South Africa’s doyenne
of the profession, before returning to continue her trade in
London, where she still does big projects, and then 15 years
ago moving down to Kent.
Another cheeky little solution learned from those years of
experience was her treatment for the less than lovely radiators
all over the house. Rather than replace, she disguised them.
“We covered them with latticed box radiator covers, but the
trick is, before you put the cover on, you paint the radiator
charcoal grey, so you can’t see it through the air vents.”
It works like magic and the box covers also created useful
– and once again, unifying – shelves, perfect for grouping
displays of ornaments and mementoes, many of which had
been languishing in cupboards.
It was with such individually small, but very effective en
masse details, rather than any big structural building work,
that Ally helped Jo transform the house.
“It turned out the whole place needed rewiring, which was a
pain, but it gave us the chance to put sockets where we needed
them, which is so important and you have to do it first before
you plaster, so it can all be made good afterwards.”
With a chunk of the budget taken up by such invisible
works, there was less left for decorating and Ally had to be
very creative.
“The first thing I do is always a floor plan. I draw every
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