NEW BEGINNINGS
Pattern and texture enhance the interior of a newly retired couple’s remodelled Victorian cottage in Devon
After Amanda and John Willmott retired in 2015, they moved to this riverside village in Devon, having had a holiday home here for many years. ‘Previously, we owned a boutique hotel in Bath,’ says Amanda. ‘We lived in a village not far from Bath, but we’d started to wonder what we should do next.’
That was when fate took a hand. A hotelier unexpectedly came forward with an offer to purchase the hotel, neighbours declared an interest in buying their home... and a house they’d long admired in the heart of an historic Devon village was put up for sale.
‘We know the village really well, having had a holiday home here for almost 30 years,’ says Amanda. ‘We’d spent so much time here with our children, Henry and Poppy, who are now grown up, and our terrier cross, Billy. When everything fell into place, it felt it was meant to be.’
The house, however, was not as it was meant to be. ‘It was originally a tiny Victorian cottage, but over the years had been remodelled,’ says Amanda. ‘There was a warren of tiny rooms which made everywhere feel dark and cluttered.’
Amanda and John had a clear idea of how they wanted their home to look. ‘We were effectively downsizing,’ says Amanda. ‘So we wanted all of the space to be used.’
Once the work started, the couple stayed in their holiday cottage nearby to oversee the renovation. The footprint of the house was reconfigured to become both practical and more aesthetically pleasing: walls were removed and a new extension built to incorporate a large open-plan living space – with a master suite upstairs – and a conservatory-style dining room. A separate guest wing was also created at the one end of the house.
After eight months of work, the couple were able to move in. The blank interior canvas invited them to make their mark. ‘While the new plasterwork was “settling”, we decided to paint the house white as a temporary measure,’ says Amanda. ‘But we loved the way it brightened the space. It’s a great backdrop – and doesn’t dominate.’
The open-plan layout meant a lot of the couple’s existing furniture didn’t work. ‘We sold a lot of it at auction and only kept the things we really loved,’ says Amanda.
The sleek new furniture, subtle colour palette and carefully chosen artwork personalise the space without cluttering it. ‘We want this to be an easy home to live in and a pared-back look achieves this,’ says Amanda. ‘It’s a wonderful new way to live in an area we love. We feel very lucky.’