Surrey Homes | SH74 | March 2021 | Interiors supplement inside

This page: The downstairs was originally three separate rooms.
Francesca redesigned the space and knocked it all into one, putting
in an RSJ and retaining the central fireplace
you enter a large space, with a spare New York loft feel –
with three walls of windows looking out over the nature
reserve from a slightly elevated position. I swear that
view could be prescribed for high blood pressure, you
can’t help sighing out the tension as you look at it.
The simple kitchen is to the left, the long dining table
straight ahead, two L-shaped sofas in a sitting area to
the right – and the space articulated just enough by a
central chimney, with a woodburner on the sofa side of
it and built-in shelves for glass on the kitchen side.
Creating this big square expanse was the big change
Francesca Rowan-Plowden made to the house. “Georgina and
Gareth really liked what I’d done at my beach house, which I
knocked through to create one big open space, so we did the
same here. It was three separate rooms and the kitchen had
a big island across it. So we knocked it all out and put in an
RSJ. The fireplace was already there, in just the right spot.”
Instead of an island to increase the worktop, the kitchen –
a short stretch of black-painted plank doors and a splendid
range cooker – has an industrial-style wheeled trolley, which
Francesca found at McCully & Crane (in Rye). “I saw it and
thought it would be great in a kitchen and perfect for this
house, because when they are hosting things like yoga courses
and need all the space, they can move it against the wall.”
If it seems like a smallish kitchen for a house which can sleep
10 (Covid restrictions pending), the capacity is cleverly
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