DESPITE DECORATING IT REMOTELY WHILE LIVING IN HONG KONG, NANCY AND BEN GARLAND’S PROJECT HOUSE EMERGED AS A BEAUTIFUL GEORGIAN GEM
Living room
‘We replaced curtains with shutters, copied from the originals, to let in more light.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES
Boho sofa, from £1,745, Loaf. Chair, Always Sunday; try Cozy Living Club chair, £449, Danish Collection. Targua coffee table, £1,398, Anthropologie
THE LAYOUT
The house is arranged over six floors (not all shown here), with a kitchen/ breakfast and dining room on the ground floor, two connected living rooms on the first floor, a guest suite on the lower ground floor, and a wine cellar (both not shown on plan). There are five bedrooms in total, and the main one has an en suite.
Property websites have revolutionised buying a home, from the guilty-pleasure snoop of the casual scroll to an invaluable tool when you want to relocate. Nancy and Ben Garland credit Rightmove and Google Earth for helping them buy and create a home in the UK, while they were all the way over in Hong Kong.
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BATH?
‘We had been overseas for more than 15 years and had reached a crucial point in our careers. Either we committed to another five years or moved back. We didn’t have any connection to Bath but knew we wanted to be west of London and in a city surrounded by countryside.’
HOW DID YOU VIEW HOUSES?
‘Through property sites, but we were lucky that my dad could go to viewings. He used to be a kitchen designer before moving into renovations so he has a good eye and could cost up any work that needed doing. He liked this house and another one up the road so we flew in for 24 hours, had a look and put in an offer.’
HOW MUCH WORK NEEDED DOING?
‘This house needed work on every single wall, floor, ceiling, kitchen, bathroom. We hadn’t been looking for a project of this size and I don’t think we realised the enormity of the task. The house is Grade-II listed so it was mostly the décor that we could concentrate on, but the decorator and plasterer had to be specialists.’
HOW HARD WAS IT CHOOSING FURNISHINGS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE?
‘Far from having the luxury of living in the house, we had hardly seen it. I put together a lot of colour schemes but then decided to go neutral, with the idea of addin
