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Sarah and Tobin Aspinall jumped at the chance of a Hamptons-style home in the heart of rural Shropshire
When you’re first approaching Sarah and Tobin Aspinall’s home in Shropshire, you feel you’ve been transported across the Atlantic to the Hamptons. The classic design echoes the architectural style of the east coast of America and conjures up romantic images of relaxed, sophisticated living. So it’s no surprise that when the couple spotted the five-bedroom detached property on the website Rightmove, they booked a viewing for the very next day.
‘Our house wasn’t even on the market,’ says Sarah, who owns interior business Wren & Regan, ‘but we instantly fell in love with the impressive white facade. It was certainly not a property you see every day in Shropshire!’
The couple had been living in a barn conversion close to Shrewsbury, with Tobin’s two boys – Leo, now 16, and Sam, 14 – and their daughter L’Wren, now seven. ‘We needed more space and Tobin wanted to move further into the countryside, but I was keen to stay closer to town,’ recalls Sarah. The location offered the perfect compromise, surrounded by farmland, but within walking distance of the local village. And the property, built in the early 1970s, didn’t disappoint, either. Although dated, it had been well maintained, and with a large footprint and grounds, the couple could see its potential.
Renovation work started almost straight away. The house was rewired, the windows and doors replaced, the main bathrooms updated, and in the grounds, the couple designed and had built an office and garages for Tobin, who owns a motor vehicle company.
However, the biggest element of the project was rethinking the kitchen and dining room, which involved knocking down the dividing wall between the two spaces and replacing two small windows with large French doors. ‘The separate rooms just didn’t work for us as a family, so we created one open-plan area, with new doors that flood the room with light and allow us views of the garden and beautiful countryside beyond,’ says Sarah.
When redesigning the room, the couple wanted it to feel spacious and bright but in keeping with the traditional elements of the house, so steered away from colours and materials that felt too modern. Instea
