When their neighbours decided to sell up, Julia and Steffan James took the opportunity to create their dream home, filled with clever design touches
Words MAXINE BRADY Photography COLIN POOLE
During a drive through the Welsh countryside one evening some 17 years ago, Julia and Steffan James stumbled across a semi-detached 1920s property that was to become their new home, situated in a small coastal village near Porthcawl.
‘When our children were babies, we’d occasionally take a drive around the local area to settle them to sleep, and passing through Newton spotted the ‘for sale’ sign outside this house,’ recalls Julia. ‘We didn’t think we stood a chance as the sellers wanted a speedy sale. But a colleague offered to buy our old home and within months we had moved in.’ The couple also got a surprise when they met their elderly neighbours, who it turned out knew Julia’s parents. ‘My dad had measured up for carpets in their house 50 years ago,’ she says, ‘and from there we became close friends.’
Although Julia and Steffan’s new home had been updated, the interior design wasn’t that practical for a young family. ‘The living room was too small, so it was quickly overrun with plastic toys; the white high-gloss kitchen cabinetry showed up sticky finger marks, and the dining area was cramped.’ As an interior architect, Julia used her design skills to reconfigure the space within a year of moving in, and over time, the couple renovated the property from top to bottom, adding a rear extension and altering the layout to make their home work better for their family.
In 2019, their next-door neighbours decided that after living in their home for over 50 years, they needed to downsize, giving Julia and Steffan the opportunity to buy it. ‘I’d dreamt about the two houses being one long before I ever thought it was possible,’ Julia admits. ‘So we did the maths and managed to pull together the money by digging into our savings – and for the first two years, rented the house out as an Airbnb, putting aside the money that we made from it.’
Luckily, the couple didn’t need planning permission to join the houses, but building regulations did insist on a water sprinkler system throughout, which ate into the budget. ‘We tried t
