It’s pretty difficult to turn a stately home into a space fit for a modern family. It’s something that has eluded most of the country’s landowners, whose houses have been, in the large, converted to flats or wedding venues. However, one family in Kent might have just managed to achieve what, for many, seemed impossible. They have transformed a very large and very Victorian edifice into a cool, contemporary (and very warm) home that is entirely fit for purpose – it just happens to come with its own ballroom! 

Justin and Jaime Cooke live in Bayham Hall with their three children Alberta, Gibson and Monty, as well as several pets, including a growing collection of chickens, who have just moved into their new home underneath the kids’ tree house. I am standing with Jaime in her huge family kitchen. Dressed in cutting edge sportswear and baseball cap, Jaime has just rushed back home from teaching a spin class at her new fitness boutique, SPN in Tunbridge Wells. I am not sure if the original owner of Bayham Hall, the Marquess of Camden, could have envisaged what his pile would have looked like over 150 years later, but Jaime and Justin have definitely shepherded the hall firmly into the 21st century – and things are looking good. 

Although the house now seems to be the most wonderful home for a growing family, it wasn’t a destination that Jaime ever thought she was going to undertake. The couple had originally bought the hall in 2003. Justin was growing his digital agency Fortune Cookie and Jaime was running her fashion brand MUKS. They had no children and were living a carefree and urban life, happy in their minimal white flat in the centre of London. The idea of becoming chatelaine to a large country estate in Kent was not on Jaime’s agenda. So it came as a bit of surprise when nine years and two children later, the couple decided to pick up the project they had begun at Bayham and move in. Having originally bought the West Wing, a new life and two years of extensive renovations beckoned. 

“I never thought I would leave London. I had moved to the UK from Canada to be in London, and so it was a bit of a shock to be honest. But now it all seems so perfect and I couldn’t wish for a better place to raise my family.” 

The link to London was something the original owner of Bayham Hall, Lord Camden, was also rather obsessed with. So much so that he famously built a road from the house all the way to London. If you have ever been to Bayham Street in Camden then that is where you might have found him. 

We begin our tour of Bayham in Jaime’s kitchen. Like every home, it’s the heart of the house yet like everything in this particular home, it’s on a vast scale. The room had once been the library, complete with tooled leather wallpaper. Jaime stripped it back, as she had in the rest of the house, pulling down 1970s partitions and stud walls, lifting old carpets and bringing back the sense of scale from the original floor plan. As with the rest of the house she kept the colour palette to neutral whites and greys, allowing the room’s original features: a wonderful ornate plaster ceiling, huge windows and original shutters and an impressive veined marble fireplace with gilded overmantle, do the talking. 

Jaime and Justin commissioned a series of handmade floor to ceiling cupboards to match the panelling of the shutters that provide the majority of the room’s storage, whilst a free-standing kitchen sits elegantly in the middle of the room. The stone of the fireplace has been subtly mirrored with a grey granite across the worktops. Kitchen cabinets have been painted in a soft dove grey to complement the tops and a darker grey picks up the detailing on the room’s painted cornice. Combining style with practicality, the huge dining table was designed especially for the space. 

“One of the issues with owning a place this size is that we can’t buy much off the peg,” laughs Jaime. “So we got the designers to come down and see the space for themselves and they made the table to fit perfectly. Luckily we’re a big family and are always having people over, so even though it’s massive, it actually works well for us.” 

Around the table are a series of Kartell Masters chairs by Philippe Starck and above it is an antler chandelier. But as we will see, this is just the baby version. 

One of the most impressive spaces in the house is the double height inner hallway around which a carved wooden staircase floats. A cathedral-like stained glass window dapples the area with softly coloured light. 

“One of the first things we did, when we moved in,” says Jaime, as we sit and stare up at the enormous big daddy antler chandelier that hangs from the ceiling, “was to have a heat engineer come round. You can paint walls and rip up old carpets, but the one thing that was a major issue in the house was the cost of the heating. When we first moved in we were hit with a monthly oil bill of thousands, and that was just for the West Wing. We had to sort out the heating before we could move the kids in, so we sunk a geo-thermal ground source for the heating and put in solar panels for the hot water. We had to put in chimney balloons to all the fireplaces and get permission for secondary glazing, including the stained glass window. It was losing so much heat it was like a money sponge.” And they were right to do so. It’s the lack of all those draughty dark corners, synonymous with stately homes, that is one of the key elements that has truly transformed Bayham Hall beyond recognition. 

We walk up the sumptuous stairs and find ourselves on the upper landing that acts like a minstrels’ gallery overlooking the hall below. It could make you slightly giddy. Jaime spots me peering down. “That is exactly why we had to put some glass barriers up the staircase, with three young children it was a no-brainer. Lord Camden certainly didn’t have a six year old running around when he designed this!” she laughs. Again, it’s the scale of the place that has dictated much of Jaime’s decorating choices. The landing is so wide it easily eats up several sofas, two half-moon hall tables, mirrors, armchairs and two chandeliers. However, once again, it’s the clever touches that keep that sense of family, such as the rugs, plants and statement cushions. 

When Jaime and Justin moved their family down from London they also brought much of their art collection with them. That and an obsession with the fabric company House of Hackney. It seems only fitting that a company that takes vintage prints and subverts them through modern context and colour combinations should appeal to a couple who have applied the very same approach to the home in which they live. The distinctive acid florals can be seen on standard lamps and cushions throughout the house. “We love it!” says Jaime, “Justin and I buy rolls of their fabric, it’s a bit of an addiction.” 

One of the other themes that also peppers many of the rooms and hallways is taxidermy. As a Canadian, Jaime is very un-squeamish about it. “I grew up with moose heads and antlers everywhere, so it’s something that is part of what makes a home to me.” It is also one of the few motifs that the original Lord Camden might have once featured in the house and, of course, it works majestically. 

The sitting room is yet another case of how furniture and fabric have been employed to create a liveable space. As with the rest of the house, Jaime has kept the colour palette to neutral greys and browns with white detailing, Again, she has stripped the floors, letting the double aspect windows take centre stage, the gardens of Bayham providing the most wonderful landscape which is mirrored in the artwork by local artist Sandy Dooley. The accessories of rugs and cushions are another area where Jaime has ramped up the colour. 

One of the joys of living in such a house as Bayham Hall is that there is such a great sense of space that wonderful vistas appear at every turn. From the kitchen to the living rooms, to the upstairs landings, even though the house is packed full of family life, there is a serene and calm atmosphere. None more so than the bedrooms, where Jaime has taken a love of travel and high-end hotels to create a master bedroom and guest room suites that you would happily move into and never leave. Luxurious curtains and sofas, chic four-poster beds and a carpet so thick it licks your feet as you walk, are just some of the touches of luxury within. The master bathroom is so spacious that the walk-in shower and roll top bath just disappear as you look out onto the canopy of green trees that surround you. A better place to escape and luxuriate in warm soapy water, I have yet to see. 

Jaime and Justin have managed to pull a house, designed for a different age entirely, into the modern world and make it work. It is testament to their vision that they have created a home that both they and their kids can thrive in – and the chickens look pretty happy too!