Surrey Homes | SH61 | November 2019 | Gift supplement inside

Top: A rare French wicker vintage Petal chair
sits below charcoal drawings by Simon Nicholas
Above: A ceramic vessel made by Kate
This house has a great personality.”
One of the quirks of that personality are two balconystyle
railings from the first floor landings looking down
to the ground floor, which give the space a wonderful
lofty open feeling, very rare in a house with 17th century
origins – and kept me enjoyably befuddled about where
exactly I was in the house, as we walked through it.
It was Kate’s vision to change the railings from ordinary
wood to lovely old wrought-iron ones found at Authentic
Reclamation in nearby Stonegate, making them into a
splendid feature. And a practical one – their housing
has been specially designed so they can easily be lifted
out to allow furniture to be brought up and downstairs,
rather than being restricted by the narrow staircase.
The first room she called on these designer skills to
transform was the kitchen, which, although a large space,
“had nowhere to sit in it.” There was also a wrought
iron spiral staircase in one corner, which Kate pulled out
to create enough room for that lovely banquette, with
a round table and three splendid old Windsor chairs,
found online. “I can squeeze 10 in for dinner and I also
love to sit here on my own having supper and listening
to The Archers. Much nicer than having it on your lap.”
But before work could start on that fun stuff, her
builder – found via fellow villager Lisa Evans
57 surrey-homes.co.uk