Interiors
Remarkable Renovation
When curtain maker Annette Poole decided to move from Battle to Hastings, she researched lots of properties before finding a hillside home to suit her family. After three years of renovation work, she has created a unique interior to reflect...
Minimalist Chapel Renovation
When Nick and Sonja walked into Goudhurst’s old disused Methodist Chapel they knew they could make something truly special from the 2,000 square feet of space bounded by solid Victorian brick and soaring Gothic windows. A year and a half...
Mynthurst Mansion – Victorian Splendour
After deciding to sell a home in Camberwell and let another in Canterbury, Dan and Chris made the decision to settle in a graceful apartment in an elegant Victorian house. A little over three years later, and after an extensive...
New Build Home with Scandi and 60s Design
When Jenny and Doug Branson decided to make a move to Dorking they initially set their sights on Victorian properties. But for interior designer Jenny, a chance viewing of a new build property proved to be an irresistibly blank canvas.
Novelist’s Charming Victorian Home
For twenty-six years Debbie Rix and her husband Tony have been evolving their generously proportioned Victorian home to suit the various stages of family life. Peaceful and calm, the beautiful gardens which surround the house now provide Debbie with the...
Vita Sackville-West’s Grandaughter’s Home
In light of the release of her new book Have You Been Good? Vanessa Nicolson shows Wealden Times around the house that was once owned by her grandparents, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. Following a few alterations, Vanessa has created...
Monochrome Home – Remarkable Rebuild
After years of rural living, seasoned property renovators Catherine and Rupert decided to move their growing family to a spacious Victorian townhouse in the heart of Sevenoaks. After extensive modernisation, in a very short timeframe, they have succeded in creating...
Victorian Townhouse with a Modern Twist
After years of rural living, seasoned property renovators Catherine and Rupert decided to move their growing family to a spacious Victorian townhouse in the heart of Sevenoaks. After extensive modernisation, in a very short timeframe, they have succeeded in creating...
Harry Potter Jeweller’s Magical Home
When jeweller Catherine Hills and her family decided to relocate from the hustle and bustle of Islington to Tunbridge Wells they happened upon a Victorian villa tucked away down a peaceful street. Several years later, and with a wonderful new...
Luxury Coach House B&B
When Nina and Nick found Chilverbridge House, a stunning 17th century, Grade II-listed manor house with a semi-converted granary and coach house in Arlington, they knew it was exactly what they had been looking for. Over the last eight years...
Barn Conversion with Moorish Charm
Blending soaring ceilings with middle-eastern furniture finds, the success of Lorraine Kerr’s barn conversion lies in her ability to inject a little quirkiness into a traditional, beamed interior to create a stunning family home.
The Forever Family Home
When Jenny Tudor and her husband moved into their spacious double fronted Victorian house they knew they had found a home to settle in. After a few careful moderations this sizeable property is now perfectly suited to accommodate the couple’s...
Vibrant 60s Design Home
Using her keen eye for vintage and unusual design, Sam, with the help of her husband Richard, has transformed her family’s award-winning sixties-built home into a haven for unique and fascinating finds.
Courtyard Cottage Open-Plan Living
When Christine and her partner Kevin decided to downsize they chose to design and tailor the perfect space to meet their new requirements. Through careful planning and a knack for maximising on space, they have transformed a small courtyard cottage...
Contemporary Gadget-Filled Home
When Katie and Richard yearned for a change from their 1960s family farmhouse, they embarked on an epic project to realise their dream home from scratch. Twenty-one months, and 35 tonnes of Turkish marble, later the couple have created a...
The Home of Pickle Pie Gifts
Over a relatively short period of time, Sandra Dowse has grown her idea of creating personalised homewares and accessories into an incredibly successful online business with orders coming from all over the world. John Graham-Hart finds out how she and...
Port Lympne’s Dramatic Restoration
When John Aspinall acquired Port Lympne in the 1970s, he rescued the impressive mansion from decades of neglect. Flanked by endangered species on all sides, this grand building opened as a hotel and wedding venue in 2014, and offers a...
Artists’ Vibrant Hastings Home
When Anna Deacon and John Taylor decided to downsize, Hastings’s art scene lured them to the coast where they have transformed a hillside property using their enviably creative approach to interiors.
The Christmas House – Tudor Restoration
After five years of painstaking restoration, chef, writer and photographer Alastair Hendy has succeeded in returning his Grade II listed 16th century merchant’s house in Hastings Old Town to its pared-back Tudor glory.
Pelham Hall – Opulent Burwash B&B
Inspired by the Charleston principle – to seek out only the most beautiful or interesting pieces to furnish their interior – Matthew Fox and his partner Chris have transformed a dilapidated antiques shop on Burwash High Street into an enviably...
Creative Couple Relocate to the Countryside
When creative London couple Roni and John decided to relocate to the country, they initially set their sights on a Kentish Georgian property. But once they’d happened upon a pretty 17th century cottage they knew they had found what they...
Seagulls & Stripes Hastings B&B
Following the birth of their first child, Jon and Sara decided they would like to return to England from Stockholm to begin a new life. Having always talked about starting their own business, the couple decided on Hastings to begin...
Beautiful Butterfly Cottage
Over the years Tina Atkins has turned her love of homemaking into a successful business, Liberty Bee. Taking inspiration from her travels across the UK and Europe, Tina has steadily grown her brand whilst maintaining a busy family lifestyle.
Artist Luke Hannam’s Residence
When Luke Hannam and his wife Tess decided to relocate from their South London home to a sleepy village near the South Coast, they found the perfect place for their young family to grow and stumbled upon an ideal opportunity...
Triumphant Burton Home Restoration
When Louise Convert and her family bought their seaside home they’d already tackled the renovation of three local properties. The building they had settled on – a Burton, in a lovely secluded position – had been converted into three flats,...
Lidham Hill Farmhouse Near Rye
Sally and Rob yearned for a change of scenery, making the decision to move from bustling city to tranquil countryside. After a two year search, they finally found their dream home and embarked on a considerable renovation which would see...
Treasure Trove in Tenterden
Having downsized from a large Georgian property where they ran an award-winning bed and breakfast, Pippa and Mike Carter decided to move to a small cottage just down the road in order to buy a place in France. Having devoted...
Fantastic Eco Conversion
Vicky and James have converted a cluster of former farm buildings into a superb, eco-friendly 21st century family home that won them the Ashford Borough Council 2009 Design Award for Building Conservation.
Fashion Insider Transforms Georgian Hastings Property
Fashion insider Lionel Copley’s home is testament to his unique eye for design. The Georgian property is the latest in a succession of transformative projects that Lionel has undertaken across Hastings Old Town as well as being a wonderful showcase...
Victorian Grange Transformation
Philippa MacKinnon has employed her enviable organisational skills to sensitively transform her Victorian grange from a dilapidated space, untouched since the 1960s, to a chic and functional family home with ingenious storage solutions.
Vibrant Georgian Home of Ragged Rose Furnishings
Keen to embark on a new challenge, Dawn Rose has capitalized on her experience as former head of Home Buying for both Selfridges and House of Fraser to launch her own homeware and soft furnishings business, Ragged Rose, which she...
Interior Designer’s Tunbridge Wells Home
Interior designer Phoebe Oldrey and her husband Miles moved out of London in search of somewhere that could offer growing space for their two young boys.
Flamboyant and Creative Seaside Family Home
Carmel and Mick have transformed their seaside home into a flamboyant and creative space perfect for their family to pursue their musical talents.
Georgian Farmhouse Transformed into Colourful Family Home
Much is written of the Georgian house – its perfect proportions, its soaring rooms, its windows that allow light to flood into every nook and cranny.
Humble Garage to Gorgeous Guesthouse
Converting a building that was never designed for human habitation into an attractive home can be a rewarding challenge.
Medieval Hall House
The most iconic building in the Weald is, of course, the oast and it’s understandable that, once their commercial lives had come to an end, so many were converted into family homes.
Stunning Renovation
The drawing room was probably once the pub’s main room. One wall has been stripped back to the sandstone and brick and in the old fireplace stands a lovely antique Godin stove
Heritage Conversion Success Story
Taking a building that has lain derelict or neglected for decades, perhaps centuries, and breathing new life into old stone and brick can be a hugely rewarding experience.
Victorian Townhouse Doubles As Antique Showroom
An American catching sight of a friend’s particularly fine painting, sculpture or piece of furniture would have no hesitation in paying the appropriate compliment and casually adding ‘Waddyagiveforit?’
Renovated Period Cottage
Renovating a period cottage is always a challenge. The lives we lead are very different both from those of the 17th century villagers and farm workers for whom these homes were originally built and from the families who have updated...
Promenade Paradise
There are things in this world that go effortlessly together. Things that seem made for each other. Bagels and cream cheese, Bogey & Bacall, Champagne and caviar, Farrow & Ball – and it’s the same when we walk into one...
Coach House Conversion
Arriving at Alli Williams’s home on the Kent-Sussex border, it’s almost impossible to remember that you’ve come to write about a house and not merely draw up a garden chair, pour yourself a glass of something crisp and white and...
An Enduring Legacy
Decimus Burton was quite a gent. Born in 1800, the son of James Haliburton, one of the most significant builders of Georgian London, he studied under John Nash and designed his first major public building – Colosseum in Regent’s Park...
State-of-the-Art Country House Apartment
It’s an impressive approach to David and Louise’s apartment, through large gates and into immaculate country house style grounds. It’s situated on the third floor of a large, elegant block so we take the lift. There are stairs, of course,...
Remodelled Victorian Home
As a six-year-old child, I had just one ambition. Not to be a train driver or super-hero, not to slay dragons and rescue damsels in distress, not to ride into the western sunset with the Lone Ranger
Wow-Factor Wealden New Build
Philippa and Stephen’s new house in East Sussex re-ignites – should it need any re-ignition – the important debate surrounding the question of how and what should we in the Weald be building for the future
Kitsch & Chic Family Home
Hannah Gee’s house is set back from the road, much further back than all the others, hanging back, in case anyone notices that it doesn’t look like the rest, that it isn’t a period house
17th Century Farmhouse
Stella Hayes initially fell in love with the property's glorious garden. She has gone on to create a beautiful home.
