INSPIRING
Peeling back the layers of an unwise 1960s update on their historic Kentish cottage, one creative couple discovered the original features of a beautiful home beneath, which they’ve filled with a curated mix of modern and vintage finds
HOME PROFILE
WHO LIVES HERE Marie Nichols, an interiors stylist, her husband Simon Ward, a branding designer, and sons Albie and Freddie THE PROPERTY A Grade II-listed, three-bedroom cottage from the mid-1700s in Yalding, Kent
LIVING ROOM
This comfortable space features a mix of furniture, including the Victorian school cupboard and ornate mirror, sourced from Ebay and junk shops. Walls painted in Pure Brilliant White, Dulux. Woodwork in Down Pipe, Farrow & Ball. Zebrawood wallpaper, Cole & Son
Stems of lacy cow parsley in a rustic stoneware vase; a slubby vintage Hungarian grainsack runner by a metal Tolix chair; glossy green plants set beside wooden beams… Marie Nichols’ house is host to myriad contrasts of rough and smooth, shiny and matt. This is no accident – as an interiors stylist, Marie inevitably brings her work home and has honed a contemporary country look in this brick-built 18th-century house on the edge of Yalding, a village in Kent. She moved here 10 years ago with her husband Simon Ward and they have since been joined by sons Albie and Freddie.
‘Simon and I are both drawn to texture and at first I was wary of detracting from it with colour, so we painted the house in tones of white and grey,’ explains Marie, who grew up in a neighbouring village where her parents still live. Earthy greens and terracotta, natural wood and shades of cream now complement the rustic decorative scheme, which could only be created once Marie and Simon had rescued the structure of the property.
‘It was a complete wreck, but we both loved it. There was no sensible person to over-rule us or to point out how much work there was to do. The whole house had been made over in a 1960s style, so we were crossing our fingers that we’d uncover some original features.’ This leap of faith paid off. Their work revealed an inglenook fireplace, which had been boarded up, and they simply lime-washed the uncovered brickwork to ‘knock it back a bit’. Wooden floorboards were discovered beneath a swirly carpet, while a beamed ceiling had been concealed by polystyrene tiles.
The house is Grade II-listed. ‘We had to liaise with planners about replacing theoriginal bathroom window with a back door in the extension,’ remembers Marie. She transformed this area by turning three small rooms into one kitchen/diner, revealing a vaulted ceiling along the way and
