FAMILY HOME
NICKY ALDRIDGE ’S FAMILY CREATE THEIR OWN PERSONAL DÉCOR, CAPTURING A TIMELESS STYLE THAT WILL GROW WITH THEM
Living room
‘I love the fact that we painted the living/dining room windows in a deep shade of grey. The back windows face out to woodland and as soon as we painted the frames dark, that greenery entered the room.’
PAPER DECORATIONS
An affordable and simple addition to ceilings, light fittings and curtain poles
THE LAYOUT
The front door enters onto the ground floor, with a large living and dining through-room to the right. A staircase at the back gives access to the lower ground floor, where the kitchen and breakfast room lead out to the garden. Upstairs on the first floor there are two bedrooms and a family bathroom and on the second floor there are two further bedrooms as well as a shower room.
Nicky and Jason Aldridge moved here more than six years ago with their daughter and twin sons and are still filling their home with their own style and busy family life.
WHY DID YOU MOVE HERE?
Our former house was only four miles away. We needed more space and wanted a garden as the children were growing up. When we first moved in, the house had bright orange wallpaper and turquoise curtains. There was no bathtub, which we needed for the children, so we removed a chimney breast to create a better sized family bathroom. Other than that, no major structural work was required – just a huge redecoration!
HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE PROJECT OF REDECORATING THE WHOLE HOUSE?
Builders did up several bedrooms, the bathrooms and the kitchen at the same time. It was great to blitz it all at once, but it meant that everything was out of action for six months. We had a microwave and a washing-up bucket in the living room, and we showered at a nearby leisure centre! We did as much of the manual preparation as we could, and I tiled the utility room and decorated the downstairs loo. There were so many decisions to be made and lots of 2am nights; I would come home from a day at work and still have to choose paint colours so the builders could carry on the next morning.
WAS IT FUN AND ADVENTUROUS?
It was
