DREAM HOME
A BLEND OF SALVAGED MATERIALS AND ANTIQUE FURNISHINGS ENSURES JOSEPHINE MAYDON’S NEW BUILD LOOKS AS THOUGH IT EVOLVED OVER CENTURIES, NOT MONTHS
Boot room
This welcoming space is often used as the main entrance, so is decorated at Christmas time.
Try Plaid Designers Choice flooring, price on request, Amtico. St Ives Harbour light, £55, Garden Trading. Try The Round Window Company
The Maydon family live in a gorgeous Georgian property, sensitively extended during the Regency and Victorian eras. That, at least, is what the casual observer might at first glance assume. In truth, the property isn’t period at all: it’s a cleverly designed new build, constructed in 2014. ‘We moved from North Yorkshire in 2009 to be closer to family, so our girls and their cousins could grow up together,’
Josephine explains. Having found a gem of a plot, with a down-at-heel house on it, she and her husband Will wrote to the owners to ask if they might consider selling. ‘To our delight, when they did, we were given first refusal.’
Josephine’s vision was to sustainably transform the site into a hub for creative events, a location for film and photoshoots, and an Airbnb, as well as the base for her interior design business (gonetoashbrook.com). But that was some years off. The house was originally a farm worker’s cottage with a hotch-potch of extensions. The family spent a year living in it, trying to figure out what to do. ‘We had always planned to renovate, but friends pointed out how crazy that was, so eventually we decided to start again from scratch.’ They knocked down an old shed and built a three-bedroom cottage in its place, providing somewhere for them to live while they demolished the old house and built the new. ‘We were careful to salvage as much as possible: floorboards were sandblasted and re-used, masonry crushed for hardcore for the drive and bathroom fittings dismantled and cleaned,’ says Josephine. ‘Anything not wanted we sold on eBay, so we created very little waste.’
Sitting room
‘So many rooms like this are reserved for best, but ours is in constant use,’ says Josephine. ‘With the house often let for photoshoots, we can’t be precious about it.’
Signature sofa, from £5,952, George Smith. Try Oasis Cream/Rose rug, £203, Benuta. Try Valentin footstool, from £400, Sofa.com. Velvet cushion, £37.50, Biggie Best
