IDEAL HOMES
FAMILY HOME
WHEN LUCY BURMAN FOUND HER DREAM HOUSE IN LEAFY SUBURBIA, SHE FACED A HUGE RENOVATION CHALLENGE BUT, ONE YEAR ON, HAD HER FOREVER HOME
Kitchen
‘This space has clean, modern lines with sleek dark-grey cupboards. It’s designed so that you can’t see the integrated fridge and we have a hidden pantry door which looks like it is a continuation of the units.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES Cabinets, Point 5 Kitchens. White Macabus Quartzite kitchen island, installed by Unique Stone Surfaces
RULE OF THREE This design principle – seen here in the placement of the bar stools, lights and ovens – is simple to replicate but very effective
THE LAYOUT
An open-plan living-kitchen-dining area forms the heart of the home. A boot room, downstairs toilet and utility room are tucked away in the middle of the layout. On the first floor, there is a main bedroom with dressing room and en suite, two children’s bedrooms and a family bathroom. On the second floor, there is a study and another en suite bedroom.
Lookingback, it’s no accident that Lucy Burman ended up living in this beautiful Edwardian home. She and her husband David were so determined to live on this road they stuffed flyers through letter boxes for two years before a property became available.
HOW DID YOU FINALLY GET THE HOUSE?
‘We lived nearby in a garden flat where we’d had our firstborn and I was walking past with the buggy one day and spotted the owner on the driveway, so I took the opportunity to ask if she’d seen the flyer we’d posted. She was adamant she didn’t want to sell but two weeks later, she called me. It turned out that her husband had recently died, and she was thinking of downsizing. When she found out that her son had started to arrange viewings without discussing it with her, she said she’d rather sell it to a young family like ours.’
WHAT WORK HAVE YOU HAD DONE?
‘We bought the house in 2018, completely renovated it, converted the loft, landscaped the garden then moved in 13 months later, the week before Sadie arrived. Initially we had a project manager, but things weren’t moving as fast as we needed them to with the baby on the way, so I decided to do it myself. Project managing everything with a growing bump was the ultimate motivation – Iprobably shouldn’t have been climbing ladders to check on progress when I was heavily pregnant, but it had to be done!’
WHAT MAKES IT PERFECT FOR YOUR FAMILY?
