After the stress of organising a big wedding, most of us would want some downtime. Instead, Jeremy and Isobel Thomson-Cook spent much of their honeymoon, on the palm-fringed Yucatan coastline in Mexico, planning their next project: the creation of their dream home.
‘We did relax for a couple of days, but we did quite a bit of research on Rightmove,’ says Jeremy, 36, an economist.
‘We were living in a three-bedroom flat by Peckham Rye Park, in south-east London, but knew we wanted to take on a house that we could really put our own stamp on. So we earmarked a few properties that looked like they had potential.’
Reality bit, however, as soon as the house-hunting process began.
‘We must have looked at more than 20 properties in the East Dulwich area, but none of them were quite right,’ says Isobel, 31, who is a behavioural research consultant.
We knew that to transform it would need a lot of time, energy, vision, luck and renovation budget — but we could immediately see its potential.’
‘But then we saw a Victorian, three-storey, five-bedroom house near Dulwich Park, on the market as a probate sale. We knew that to transform it would need a lot of time, energy, vision, luck and renovation budget — but we could immediately see its potential.’
Unsurprisingly, other house hunters could, too, and Isobel and Jeremy had to win a bidding war to secure the house, which had a price tag of about £1million. In November 2018, they moved in.
‘There were polystyrene ceiling tiles, a window that had been wallpapered over and a mint and salmon-coloured main bedroom,’ says Jeremy. ‘We redecorated a few of the rooms we knew we’d use the most while speaking to architects and waiting for planning permissions.’
Their vision was to transform the house, which had a traditional layout with a warren of rooms downstairs, into an extended, flowing, light-filled space.
A huge L-shaped, open-plan living area and showstopping kitchen, by Herringbone Kitchens, would feature at the rear, with lots of glazing and a sleek utility room, while the front of the house was to have a more formal sitting room.
On the second floor, where there are three bedrooms, plans were drawn up to create one luxurious family bathroom, and the two bedrooms and bathroom on the top floor were earmarked for a makeover once the rest of the house was complete.
At one point the house was simply four exterior walls, a roof and some floorboards. That was pretty daunting.
The process, however, was not without its hitches — the first being that Jeremy lost his job just a few weeks before building work started.
‘It meant I was able to spend almost every day on site as a learn-on-the-job project manager, and to save more cash by doing all the decorating myself,’ he says.
‘But there were certainly some very stressful times. At one point the house was simply four exterior walls, a roof and some floorboards. That was pretty daunting.’
An exploding boiler, newly laid polished concrete floors awash in rainwater that had ruptured the roof, and a demolition team that ripped up the floors at the top of the house — a job not yet scheduled on the list of works — posed further challenges to overcome.
‘Once they had started, it was too late to stop them,’ Isobel says. ‘And by then our contingency fund had disappeared, along with the fireplace that ended up in the skip. On the positive side, that very same day we found the original fireplace tiles in mint condition underneath some cheap laminate flooring. We cleaned them up and they now take pride of place in our snug.’
It’s this relentless positivity (and sanguine acceptance that their original renovation budget of £220,000 would be blown) that has resulted in a perfectly reworked Victorian home, which the couple share with kittens Bennie and Jet, and which they plan to also rent out for shoots to provide an income.
Against a backdrop of Farrow & Ball shades, including gentle blush Pink Ground and stormy, dramatic blue-black Railings, the smaller details help the home sing out: the reinstated marble fireplaces and cast-iron radiators, Osborne & Little wallpaper and vintage ceramics from Wild Horses in Forest Hill.
Upstairs, the main bedroom’s ceiling glows in sunset orange but it’s the kitchen that gets the gasps. For this, the couple gave Canterbury-based Herringbone Kitchens a strict brief, with a budget of around £50,000 covering both the main cooking/entertaining space and adjoining utility room.
The kitchen was to be for entertaining, wine drinking and newspaper reading, but also to have every possible chef’s perk.
With sage green and turmeric yellow cabinets from the firm’s Westminster range, it features a traditional pantry, boiling water tap (with satin brass finish to match the handles) and an island that also serves as a bar, lit by a trio of art deco-style green pendant lamps.
Open marble shelving is used to display cookery books and plants, but most spectacular of all is the bespoke floor-to-ceiling dresser, picked out in yellow to provide a rich pop of colour, and backed with antiqued glass.
‘It was that special something that made the kitchen truly ours,’ Jeremy says.
There is still plenty to tick off on their to-do list, however, with the hallway and the two top bedrooms up next. Designs for their outdoor space are also being finalised, with the help of London-based garden guru Emily Hillier; an outdoor kitchen and dining space will provide focal points, with areas for wild flowers and veggie beds.
Trust your interior choices
Approaching the end of their renovation journey, the pair have learned much along the way.
Jeremy’s key piece of advice to wannabe renovators would be to ‘always have a contingency budget for your contingency budget’, he says. ‘And remember that not everything has to be done at once, so there is no need to make imperfect choices.’
For Isobel, spending time as a couple away from the house is key. ‘And trust your interior choices,’ she says.
‘Others might question them, but chances are they’ll always love the finished result.’
Instagram @228locationhouse; herringbonekitchens.com
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/12/couple-share-how-they-transformed-a-rundown-victorian-house-into-their-dream-home-13259360/
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