Wealden Times | WT244 | September 2022 | Winter Interiors Supplement inside

The wonderful master bedroom is one floor up, painted a
lovely restful colour – Little Greene’s Limestone – and yes, on
this top level, the view notches up yet another gear
stand, at the bottom of the elegant stairs – it’s absolutely
full of old walking canes, with wonderful carved heads
of dogs and other animals. All treasures found by Peter.
“There are 35 of them, I’ve collected over the years,”
he says, taking prize specimens out to show me. There’s
one with a hinged jaw, to hold gloves, and a bendy one
that would have been used in a musical hall act.
I could have spent all day examining them
(I have a collection of one, which is a prize
possession…), but I’m eager to see the kitchen.
This is a galley format, as it was when they moved
in, refreshed to their tastes, painted in Farrow &
Ball’s Sulking Room Pink, which is a very unexpected
and lovely colour for a kitchen, a muted pink.
One wall is papered with bright floral Hollyhock
by House of Hackney, with the same pattern on the
fabric of the Roman blind. “The kitchen carcasses
were here,” says Berni. “We just took out the wall
cupboards and put marble on the worktops.”
On the wall opposite the sink and run of cupboards
is a butcher’s block with open shelves above,
showcasing a collection of bowls, jugs and other
interesting vessels – all in use, not just for show.
Leading on from the kitchen is another extension, filling
in a gap between the kitchen, to create a utility room and
a downstairs loo – and what a loo! It is papered on the
walls and right over the ceiling with another wonderful
House of Hackney wallpaper, on a rich pink background
– plus a disco ball. A loo first in my experience.
We then head upstairs, where a surprise awaits me – the
room that I was expecting to be a wonderful bedroom is
actually another sitting room and it would be nuts not
to make the most of this spot in the light of the day,
because that view is even more amazing one floor up.
Decorated in muted shades, this ‘day sitting room’
is a great contrast with the vivid ‘evening’ parlour
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