Surrey Homes | SH79 | August 2021 | Adding value to your property supplement inside

Above left: In the upper hall, a wonderful picture of the Queen’s head, as on a stamp, is rendered in coloured buttons by wellknown
Margate-based artist Ann Carrington – who is a friend. Next to it, French windows lead out to the garden
It is a very uncluttered house – but not at all stark and minimalist.
Everywhere the eye falls there is something interesting to look at, but
they have clearly been collected in a very considered way
Each side of the space is defined by wooden
fencing in two styles and it has been planted with
decorative ornamental plants – such as a lovely silver
birch tree – to keep it deliberately low key.
The third garden is accessed via a French door in the
bathroom at the back of the lower ground, entrance level
floor, in what would have once been the ‘area’ outside the
Victorian kitchen. Now it is a fabulous dingly dell with
big pebbles, big exotic plants – and an outdoor shower.
The bathroom itself is just as cool, with a warm-toned
terrazzo tile floor and two walls tiled with small white oblong
tiles in a herringbone design, with terracotta coloured grout.
The bathroom sink is a perfect example of Beatrice and
John Alfredo’s skills coming together. The cupboard it sits
on was made by him from dark stained cedar wood with
a black poplar burr handle. Beatrice sourced the appealing
organically shaped mirror over it. From one of the Paris
flea markets she used to go to with her artist mother, I ask?
“No, from Dunelm,” says Beatrice, laughing. “They had
it hanging the other way up, but this way, I think it looks
something by a mid-century Italian designer.” It does.
Another detail I notice here is that the bathroom door
is framed in timber the same colour as the dramatic floor
to ceiling stair rails next to it – and the dado rail from the
lower hall and up the stairs. All the work of John Alfredo,
of course, and such a simple and effective way to break up a
space, creating visual interest and drawing the eye in and up.
The same wood is used for a carpet door bar, between
the geometric tiles of the lower floor and sisal in the study.
Such a small detail, but exactly what makes this home a
complete thing – not an arrangement of attached rooms.
The study is another perfect marriage of John Alfredo’s
work in a striking sideboard – which you can find other
examples of, for sale in Ode Interiors – and a very effective
cupboard door made of a wood frame with hessian behind.
The other furniture has Beatrice’s hand on it, with
two striking Italian vintage chairs by the desk, which she
describes as ‘small and comfortable’ and a low red 1950s
chair by Osvaldo Borsani. The painting on the chimney
breast is by late Hastings-based French painter Roland
Jarvis, who lived on Tackleway in the Old Town.
Next door, in the bedroom, the same combination
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