Bursting with character and charm, Jojo Humes’ Suffolk home is a testament to her vision, hard work and creativity
FEATURE & STYLING MARISHA TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHS JAMES FRENCH
As a child, when I pictured my perfect house, this was it exactly. It felt so familiar, with the wisteria growing over the pretty porch and covering the red brick façade, that I felt at home the minute I walked in,’ says Jojo Humes, recalling the first viewing of her future home.
‘In 2019 we were living in Woodbridge, where I grew up,’ she says. ‘But as my eldest children had flown the nest and there had been a change in my marital status, it was the perfect time to embrace new surroundings. As one door closed, another, leading to something special, seemed to open.’
Situated in the pretty village of Debenham, in the heart of Suffolk, Jojo’s house started life as the village reading rooms in the 1800s, becoming a social club called The Institute in the 1960s and, finally, a residential property in the 1970s. By the time Jojo, founder of Sojojo Interior Design Studio, viewed it, the four-bedroom property had been stripped of its original character. ‘At some point in the 1980s rooms had been divided in strange ways,’ says Jojo. ‘So the house needed a complete renovation, but it had a decent footprint and bags of potential!’
In early March 2020, as the country prepared to go into lockdown, Jojo moved in, along with her 16-year-old son, Teddy, and their Welsh terrier, Hector. She knew that, with time on her hands, she could get a lot done and started by knocking out the cupboards in the master bedroom. Next, she opened up the dark central stairwell, creating a grand landing by borrowing space from two bedrooms and revealing an original window. As soon as tradespeople were allowed back into properties, new walls were built, and a beautiful bespoke handrail and banister were fitted: ‘The newel finials are expertly turned to match my beehive door handles,’ she says. ‘The devil is always in the detail!’
It was important to Jojo not to rush decisions. She waited over two years for the deVOL kitchen she wanted and wasn’t prepared to compromise on the quality just for a quick fix. She was
