When its current owners, Alice and James, first saw Ash Cottage it wasn’t love at first sight, rather a growing understanding of its potential and what it could one day be to the couple and their growing children. “I used to come here for piano lessons and knew the house well,” says Alice. “Then, one day, the owners mentioned that they planned to sell and I started to see the house in a new light. I began to imagine what it might be like if it was empty of furniture and possessions and stripped back to basics – a blank canvas.”
The kitchen has undergone a complete make-over, stripped to the bone and refitted. The floor is dramatic – Dalsouple deep purple rubber – and the units and iroko surfaces are the Glendevon range by Howdens
Centrepiece of the dining room is a wonderful heavy oak, contemporary dining table from Heals flanked by benches rather than chairs
The service hatch runs through the wall diagonally from the kitchen to the dining room to ensure it remained centred in the walls in both rooms
A beautiful painting by Julian Vilarrubi of the Tuscan town of Certaldo, where Alice and James spent their honeymoon, takes centre stage in the drawing room. Another key piece is a breathtaking circular gesso mirror from Ochre in London
The sizeable hallway serves as a useful space. The walls are painted in Marston & Langinger ‘Umber’
A chest of drawers in Alice’s dressing room is home to some of her jewellery
Upstairs in the guest bedroom, the star is another Vilarrubi of Hampstead Heath
In the master bedroom the pride of place over the bed is given to a lovely sketch of Venice by artist and former Conservative MP Brian Batsford which Alice bought at auction for £25
The couple’s daughter’s room is the perfect nine-year-old girl’s room with a pretty wrought-iron bed and a stripped pine double old school desk
Modular storage unit provides an attractive display whilst at the same time keeping the floor free of clutter
Up a tiny staircase in the vaulted eaves is her son’s room, all Airfix and Boys Own stuff
Outside is Alice’s pride and joy. With a jewellery degree from Central Saint Martins, she has now returned to jewellery-making after spending much of her working life in marketing
Her studio in the garden, designed by James, is based on an old shepherd’s hut
Alice’s garden studio
“Most of my pieces are simple, tactile, elegant and really wearable,” she says
A convertible Morris Minor, inherited by Alice when a friend moved abroad, is parked proudly outside the house
- Foxhole Antiques www.foxholeantiques.co.uk Hurst Green 01580860317
- Julian Vilarribi www.julianvilarrubi.com
- Marston & Langinger www.marston-and-langinger.com 02078815700
- Ochre www.ochre.net
- Stephen Robson www.greenwich-printmakers.co.uk/index.php?/project/stephen-robson
- words: John Graham-Hart
- pictures: David Merewether
- styling: Lucy Fleming
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