INSPIRING
With a wealth of period charm but an awkward layout, an Edwardian villa had a lot to offer though needed to be reconfigured to suit family life. After a thoughtful update, it is now a stylish and practical space perfectly in tune with its heritage
HOME PROFILE
Chloe Campbell, her husband Ian, who owns a dry lining company, their daughters Edith and Beatrice, and English bulldog Frankie
A detached Edwardian villa, originally built as a rectory in 1910, in a market town in Bedfordshire
SITTING AREA
This page Oak herringbone flooring has been used throughout the downstairs. Double doors have been painted in Messel by Mylands. Opposite The shelving was built by a local joiner. Shelving in Portcullis, Mylands. Wall light, Pooky
What do you do when you buy your dream house, but something about it just doesn’t work for your needs? Desperate to stay in an area they loved, but pressured by a competitive property market, Chloe and Ian Campbell took the plunge and bought an Edwardian villa packed full of the period charm that Chloe adores. ‘It had a lovely old front door and all these little quirks,’ she remembers. ‘We were led by our hearts.’
While the couple loved the feel of the house, its unusual layout proved unworkable for family life with two young children. It had almost no usable garden, just a slope up from the road in front of the property with a path cutting through it. The rooms overlooking this space at the front of the house were cold and formal, while the kitchen was in the darker area at the back, cut off from everything else.
Enter interior designer Kathryn Allan of Ivy Lane Interiors (ivylaneinteriors.co.uk). Having visited Kathryn’s house and fallen in love with her chic, classic style, Chloe had complete faith in Kathryn’s ability to reimagine her own home. Kathryn’s solution: ‘We essentially turned the house round on its plot.’
Now, the entertaining and living spaces are in the light-flooded front of the property in an open-plan L-shaped space with the kitchen at its centre, a dining area in one prong and the living room in the other, opening out onto the newly levelled garden, with a stunning new extension that also houses the utility room. ‘We wanted the whole house to flow, so you can almost see from one end to the other,’ explains Chloe.
The rear of the property has become home to the more intimate rooms – a study and a snug that have a cosy feel – and useful storage spaces to hide away everyday clutter, such as school bags. ‘It feels like we have areas for every single thing now,’ says Chloe. ‘Everything works so well and is really practical for us as a family.’
Although drastic structural alterations were required – including the removal of an entire chimney stac
