SURREY STABLE CONVERSION
COMPLETE WITH CLOCK TOWER, BECKY COOPER’S CONVERTED STABLES HOME DRAWS ITS INSPIRATION FROM THE CLASSIC SWEDISH STYLE
A Scandinavian love of light informs the Swedish style of this unusual home complete with clock tower
Theclock tower caught our eye every time we drove past it,’ says Becky Cooper of her home’s distinctive feature. ‘You couldn’t see much more of the house than the roof because it was tucked away behind a hedge.’
Becky and her husband, Andrew were living in a new-build nearby but were on the hunt for a house with character. ‘We wanted a home we could make our own but that was quirky and special – somewhere with space for our children to grow into.’
However, it wasn’t quite love at first sight when the couple stepped inside. ‘It was very dark,’ says Becky. ‘It had been converted during the early 1980s and there were a lot of dark brick walls. I have a Scandinavian love of light as my mother was Swedish and I spent some of my childhood there. Andrew and I were put off at first, but then we went upstairs. The owners had described the house as a Tardis and that’s when we realised that it had all the space we would need. Although there was plenty of cosmetic work to do, we knew we could do it in our own time.’
The priority when the Coopers moved in was removing any unsympathetic features, including lots of the secondary glazing and the dining room’s aluminium sliding doors. Woodchip was stripped from the walls and rooms gradually redecorated. ‘I had fun making small but impactful changes, such as replacing the balustrade on the main staircase, which we felt made a striking statement in such a big room,’ says Becky.
As time went on, she was able to do bigger projects such as installing new bathrooms, plastering to successfully cover up the dark brickwork, laying light-oak flooring throughout the house and giving a new lease of life to a hand-built kitchen by re-painting all the units.
Becky’s love of interior design was influenced by her parents. ‘My mother had an eye for making a beautiful home and my father was an architect,’ she says. Although Becky was brought up in a highly contemporary Scandinavian home, she is a fan of Swedish Gustavian furniture. ‘The first piece of furniture I bought was a Mora clock and over the years I bought lots more things, both in the UK and from Sweden,’ she says. ‘By the time we moved here, we were overflowing with Gustavian furniture and we had fun spreading it all out so it had space to breathe!’
This love of painted furniture inspired Becky to handpaint Swedish decorations and also to begin restoring and painting furniture in Scandinavian style, which she sells through
Scandi Living, as well as working directly with private clients.
Mixing classic and contemporary has worked to great effect in Becky’s house, set against a soothing palette of soft greys and whites. ‘I like impactful strong colour, too, and have used it to give a contemporary look in the children’s room and in the kitchen, where I mixed charcoal greys with paler greys,’ she says.
Inevitably, all the family love the end result. ‘We are so glad we took a leap of faith,’ says Becky.