Wealden Times | WT256 | September 2023 | Education & Kitchen Supplement inside

Previous pages: The spacious light-filled garden room at the back of the house This page: A family kitchen that, complete with gong, sits at the heart
of the house, connecting the garden room to the dining room
just seem to go together in the space,
as though it was all meant to be.”
Nicki moved into her 18th century
Grade II listed family house, located
just outside Peasmarsh, with husband
Giles just after lockdown. The family
– who relocated from South West
London to East Sussex to be near their
twin girls, who were attending a local
boarding school – had wanted to move
down to the area, where Nicki’s father
lived, for some time. “We had lived in
Scotland when we were first married
but then life and work took us back to
London where we stayed, but as soon
as we could, we knew we needed to
make the change and to move down
here.” Standing on Nicki’s veranda
overlooking her and Giles’s beautiful
rose strewn garden, on a lovely summer
day, it really doesn’t get much more
idyllic. Their former life in London
must seem like a different world.
Nicki had first set up her interior
design consultancy in Edinburgh, and
had focused mainly on city houses. “I
decorated my first client’s apartment
in Edinburgh and it got covered in
a magazine and then one thing led
to another and I had more clients.
My sister helped set me up accounts
at the likes of Colefax & Fowler and
Osborne & Little and I was off! When
we moved to London I continued to
work, mainly on residential interiors,
but since moving down to East Sussex,
I am very excited to now be expanding
into country houses.” For Nicki her
own house is as much a labour of love
as a new business opportunity for the
family. “We bought this house, as well
as a cottage in nearby Beckley. Now
the girls are spending less and less time
at home, we see both properties as
part family home, part business. If
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