FAMILY HOME
BECKY AND BEN INSHAW’S RENOVATION FOCUS WAS TO RETAIN PRECIOUS MEMORIES –AND MAKE ADREAM HOME FOR NEW ONES
FEATURE CHARLOTTE LUXFORD
Dining/living area
‘We always envisaged it being a sociable house, so we chose a U-shaped sofa for big family gatherings. Having the hob on the island means that when I’m cooking I can chat to everyone.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES
The mid-century sideboard was sourced from Just Be Retro. The Big Chill sofa, £4,489, Snug, is similar. For a similar hanging chair, try Beliani
HOME NOTES
Becky Inshaw, an NHS physical activity consultant, husband Ben, a forensic accountant, and their twoyear-old son Maxwell.
A five-bedroom detached Victorian house in Bearwood, West Midlands. It was previously Becky’s nan’s three-bed home.
THE LAYOUT
Off the hallway is a formal lounge and a playroom, as well as a generous open-plan kitchen-diner/living area to the rear, plus cloakroom and utility. A bedroom, Maxwell’s room, a study and main bathroom sit on the first floor, with the master suite and a further bedroom on the top floor.
When Ben and Becky Inshaw bought the doer-upper next door to Becky’s nan’s, it gave them their first taste of renovating. However, when her nan sadly passed away in 2018, the house had to go on the market. Ben and Becky weren’t looking to buy, but decided to make it their family home while honouring her nan’s memory.
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE TO BUY THIS HOUSE?
‘I couldn’t bear seeing all our childhood memories being ripped out of Nan’s home, so we took the opportunity to create our own family home from scratch. Nan’s house had so much potential but she wasn’t fussed about interiors at all; there were so many clashing patterns – it was definitely maximalist! Given we had the rare advantage of knowing the house inside out beforehand, we started to rip stuff out straight away in early 2019, while Ben and I moved in with my parents to save on rent. It was always a freezing house, so one of the first things we did was insulate the entire property. We lost a couple of inches off each of the rooms, which also meant losing some original features, unfortunately, but we managed to have the plaster mouldings remade.’
HOW DID YOU UPDATE THE LAYOUT?
‘The original house was made up of lots of small, dark rooms, with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and kitchen, living room, dining room and cellar downstairs. Luckily, we were able to extend into the garden by 8m to create a huge open-plan kitchen-diner and living space at the back, while also adding a utility and cloakroom to the side.
