Having completely remodelled their 1970s home on the edge of Hastings, Kate Richards and her partner Steve set about finding the perfect interior designer to help them transform their new interior. Cue Sam Grigg – who has ensured their colour schemes and furniture choices flow as beautifully and effortlessly as their spacious new home design

Old folklore says that once you have lived in Hastings, you will always come back. For Kate Richards, despite studying and working in London for some years, the pull of her family home in East Sussex proved too strong and in 2009 she returned, buying a 1970s detached house on the leafy border between Hastings and St Leonards. “I liked the house,” says Kate, “but I really bought it for the garden, which is amazing, looking down to the woods, it’s completely secluded and always so green.” However, it wasn’t until Kate’s husband Steve, an architect, got involved that Kate could really start to see how the couple could make the most of the house’s location and bring the outdoors inside. “Steve said we had to get rid of the walls, so you could see the garden from the moment you walked in the front door. It took a few years to make it happen, but we have finally done it and it’s completely transformed how we live.”

The house, which has been totally re-modelled from its original 1970s brick exterior, is unrecognisable and is now an essay in the art of light-filled open plan contemporary family living. As well as changing the roof line, the couple have completely opened up the rear of the house, adding large black frame contemporary windows to both the front and back of the property. Steve designed a spacious two storey side extension with huge corner hung sliding doors on the ground floor. The couple also removed all but one central supporting wall downstairs, to enable the flow of space and light all through the ground floor. Upstairs a soaring double height apex window has been added to the master bedroom which now overlooks the garden, mirroring the living room below. A skylight has been added to the main bedroom’s en suite shower room.

A spacious upper landing has been created leading to the family’s four bedrooms, a bold pink terrazzo tiled family bathroom and a utility room, which Kate says is a life-changer. Outside the entire house has been reclad in vertical Canadian Redwood timber panels and slate effect solar tiles on the roof from Welsh company GB Sol. “The house works so much better now. I can see the kids’ playroom from the kitchen and the dining room area. We are so much more rooted as a family due to the way the space flows and how it all works. Nothing feels shut off, and the house now connects us all,” says Kate.
As a Hastings girl, Kate was keen to use local trades as part of the extensive renovation work. Local builders DLB Construction were brought in to do the build, bathrooms were supplied by WC1 Bathrooms in Ore, timber for the shelves, bench, dining table and bar were supplied by Elephant Timber.

When Kate and Steve realised that they needed someone to help them with their interior design, another local expert, Sam Grigg, was asked to come and help the couple with the look and feel for the main family space on the ground floor. “I love creating atmosphere,” says Sam. “I also love colour, as I have been a stylist for brands such as Dulux, John Lewis and Ikea for many years and so it felt like the obvious thing to add interior design to my skills. For me, helping my clients to embrace ideas that they might not have known about or to just help them feel emboldened to use colour and texture are all things that I love about this job. Ultimately, I think my background as a stylist gives me a different outlook to someone who just does interior design. I really want to help to create a happy home for my clients, to create a place with a soul.”

Sam guided Kate and Steve towards a naturalistic look, conscious that she didn’t want to overwhelm the couple who had been previously thinking of doing the house all white. “With the garden as the focus,” continues Sam, “I decided to keep the colours of the paints, which are from Dulux and Little Greene, in line with that feeling. Everything of course had to connect, due to the open plan of the space, but I also wanted to zone with colour to give some definition to the different areas. The soft Guild Green (by Dulux) of the living room merges with the natural Clay (by Little Greene) of the kitchen and dining area. It all works in harmony.” Sam has used natural textures to complement the paint colours. Leather, raffia, rattan and wood lead the eye through the space.

“I wanted it to be stylish, but it all had to be practical as well with young children around, so leather and wood and the parquet floor tied it all together and seemed like the obvious choice. I was so pleased that Kate and Steve also embraced all the black touches as well,” continues Sam. “Having a designer help you, it makes such a difference to how you feel in your home,” adds Kate. “Rather than it all just being about practicality, it’s also about looking and feeling lovely as well. Sam got us to do things we would never have thought of and they all work, from choosing black windows rather than grey, having black switches and sockets, using the black paint on the original wood staircase and the underneath wooden shelving alcove and other things like having wall lights rather than downlights.

Marrakech wall tiles from Your Tiles have been used as a splashback in the kitchen alongside Glass Dome Wall Lights from Industville. Glossy copper-style doors from Wren Kitchens conceal the all-important white goods
Marrakech wall tiles from Your Tiles have been used as a splashback in the kitchen alongside Glass Dome Wall Lights from Industville. Glossy copper-style doors from Wren Kitchens conceal the all-important white goods

I would have always picked things that matched, but now I know it’s all about how things connect, rather than having to be perfectly matching each other. It’s all these elements that add up to really make the house feel so special, considered and well designed.” Downstairs, Sam’s influence is immediately apparent. Alongside Steve’s architectural changes that all ensure the flow of light and space are maximised, Sam has added a palette of colours, textures and accessories that join one element with the next in an ongoing conversation of style, but with a light touch that doesn’t overpower the family. “Because we learnt how to use colour with Sam, we felt bold enough to choose something a bit different from Wren Kitchens, like the gloss green cupboards and the copper style doors for the fridge, which we then took across as doors to the pantry cupboards that lead between the kitchen and the snug,” says Kate. “We also had the confidence to add pattern with the Marrakesh wall tiles (from Your Tiles) which are just perfect,” she continues.

A major motif of the project is the lighting, from pendants to table lamps to wall lights. “Lots of people don’t consider lighting when they are designing their homes,” says Sam. “Lighting is so much more than something to help you see in the dark, it can create moods and atmosphere. Kitchens don’t have to be bright and unforgiving and it’s nice to have wall lights that reflect the different ways you use a space, rather than loads of bright downlighters, there’s no need for them. I much prefer lamps and wall lights, they add so much more to an interior. I sourced wall lights from Industville and the island lights are Lindby ‘Enrique’ from lights.co.uk.”
Sam has also been involved with helping choose the furniture with Kate and Steve. Again, naturalistic tones and textures work with the inside/outside look, with both the larger soft brown leather family sofa and the smaller orange velvet sofa, both from John Lewis, offering different moods to suit the areas.

The wood and marble coffee table and side tables from Atkin & Thyme sit on top of a large natural fibre rug from La Redoute which adds a touch of softness to the wood below. “I wanted carpet initially, in the living room,” says Kate. “But the reality of the wood floor with the rugs is so much better when you have kids running in and out of the garden, especially when the doors are all open. Carpet would have been a disaster in retrospect!” The dining area now overlooks the front garden, a large black framed window having been added to the front of the house. A semi-transparent natural raffia style blind allows the light to pour through yet affords just enough privacy and, like the rear of the house, the pops of green from the garden make an appearance. “Having it so open from the kitchen at the back to the dining area at the front, which used to be accessed by an archway, means that we use this area so much more as a family than ever before,” says Kate. “We actually eat together now, sitting around the table. It’s so good to connect.”

A large John Lewis leather corner sofa works perfectly with the naturalistic tones and textures that Sam has chosen to fit the inside/outside look
A large John Lewis leather corner sofa works perfectly with the naturalistic tones and textures that Sam has chosen to fit the inside/outside look

In the dining area, Sam has created a wonderful Ikea hack. Avoiding expensive joinery, she has used Ikea Billy bookcases and then fronted them with MDF to create the rounded alcoves which offer essential storage for the family. A floating shelf from Elephant Timber sits above a cosy wood burner. The leather dining chairs from Cult Furniture connect with the leather bar stools from Olivia’s which in turn talk with the leather sofa in the living room. It all just works effortlessly.

“Steve and I come home from work and we feel so happy and relaxed,” says Kate. “The kids love it as well. It’s such an easy place to manage, there’s no stress in this house and I love that, it’s a happy house, it’s a real connection that we now have here as a family. We trusted Sam and through her we have created a home that is filled with light and colour (and storage) that just helps us to all breathe. I couldn’t be happier.”

Address Book

To find out more about Sam Grigg Interiors
visit samgrigginteriors.co.uk
and follow her on Instagram @sam.grigginteriors

A&M Architectural amarchitectural.co.uk
DLB Construction dlbconstruction.co.uk

  • words:
  • pictures: David Merewether

Brand new Chapter

Scale and impact abounds in Alex MacArthur’s captivating monastery in Rye. Undertaking the huge challenge of restoring this 14th century building single-handedly, antiques and interiors specialist Alex has succeeded in not only creating a breathtaking space in which to showcase...

Little house Next Door

Alex MacArthur’s Georgian cottage, attached to his remarkable 14th century monastery in Rye, is another example of his genius ability to imbue interiors with dramatic impact A small inconspicuous doorway leads from The Monastery, the magnificent scale-defying business end of...

Good Fortune

With a rich and fascinating history, Laura Walford’s elegant Surrey home doubles as the perfect exhibition space for the artists she represents through Belgravia Gallery Every house has a story to tell. A history woven within its walls, by those...