No.1
| HOUSE OF THE MONTH |
Fashion and lifestyle blogger Emma Paton has used her colourful wardrobe as inspiration to transform a dark and dated period property into a light-filled forever home for her family
HOME TRUTHS
Grade II-listed Georgian house
Sitting room, dining room, kitchen-diner, study, boot room, cloakroom, five bedrooms, three bathrooms
Suffolk
Emma Paton, her husband Liam and their two young children Finn and Violet were living a fast-paced life in Hackney when they took the plunge to take on a big restoration project in a small Suffolk market town. ‘We loved London and all it has to offer, but had been dreaming of moving to the country where the kids could enjoy the open space and life would be lived at a slower pace,’ says Emma. Their property searches led them to a large, red-brick Georgian Grade IIlisted house, once part of a big farm estate.
Having fallen immediately in love with its impressive frontage, generous proportions and period features, their enthusiasm was tempered by the huge amount of work ahead: ‘We could see great potential, but it was also a vast money pit needing a large proportion of our budget to be spent on hidden work such as electrics, plumbing and new windows,’ says Emma. After much deliberation, it was the large garden and outbuildings that tipped the balance and in 2020 they swapped city for town life.
Six months later, the pandemic hit, bringing unexpected challenges: ‘We had fears about country life being isolated, but this took it to a whole new level,’ says Emma. It did however give them time to live in the house, to get a better feel for the space and how it might be reconfigured. ‘I was desperate to get started on our extension but, looking back, slowing down our plans allowed us to see where we gravitated to in the house, where rooms would be improved by changing the dimensions or light and to revisit our ideas,’ she says.
The family worked with local architect Andrew Hugh
