Welcome to my home
After many years in London, the Staffordsmiths moved back to their old stomping ground of Cheshire. ‘With two young kids, we decided it was time to move back home and give them the sort of childhood we had, with family around. We wanted to be in a semi-rural area and identified villages near Knutsford as the best locations. There wasn’t a lot of choice, so we viewed around 10 properties.’ The barn stood out because of the space and possibilities it offered. ‘We wanted somewhere we could put our stamp on and some places had only recently been done up. It would have been criminal to rip out new kitchens and bathrooms.’
Keelie could see the potential behind the pine and thick carpets throughout. ‘It was unloved,’ she says,
‘but the basic structure was sound. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and was making signs to my husband over the estate agent’s head!’ With a budget of £60,000 for the renovations, Keelie, who had given up her job as a homeware buyer on leaving London and started her business, Vert Noir Interiors (@vertnoirinteriors), got to work. ‘I ripped up all the carpet downstairs and had a concrete floor poured and polished. It worked out at £3,000 – a fraction of the price of wood.’ Every bit of woodwork has been painted black: ‘I’m so fed up with seeing grey everywhere. I find it boring. Painting things black gives an instant industrial feel.’
Keelie planned every space to make sure the whole house was fully used. ‘You have to make sense of every room and not let any of them become dumping grounds,’ she says. ‘Identify your needs and how you use the space. We spend lots of time in the kitchen, but use the more formal living and dining area at other times, so this layout really works for us.’
Dining room
‘A well-placed piece of vintage furniture can instantly lift a room. It gives a space individuality, plus I like the idea of something being reused.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES Similar sideboard, £495, Vinterior. Banana Leaf wallpaper, £31.30 a roll, Etsy
Kitchen ‘As the kitchen was in good condition, we simply painted it and added new brass handles, a brick-tile splashback and gold bar stools to refresh the look.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES Units in Off-black estate eggshell, £62 for 2.5ltr, Farrow & Ball. Brass handles, £4.95 each, Etsy. Midas bar stools, £145 each, Rockett St George Dining area ‘The cute chairs were a job lot from ebay at £180 for 10, so we snapped them up. The butterfly pictures make a real statement on the back wall and add a bit more colour to the space.’
BUY THE KEY PIECES Butterfly prints, £75 each, Kitty Mccall. Tram chairs, £69 each; Lyra metal pendant lights in Black, £39 each, all Cult Furniture, would work here
“I love black. It’s a great colour to team with green, pink and white ”
Dining room
‘We bought the dining table from the previous owner for £100 as it was too big to move and the funky moulded chairs are reproductions of a design classic. The vintage drinks trolleys were found in charity shops,’ says Keelie.
BUY THE KEY PIECES Panton chairs, £137 each, Pop Furniture. Round mirror, £100, Laura Ashley. Sloan rug, £359, Modern Rugs
Landing
‘The big space at the top of the stairs was too nice to be ignored, so I’ve made it into a seating area with some lovely old wicker chairs that belonged to my parents,’ says Keelie.
BUY THE KEY PIECES Afaw rug, £280, La Redoute
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
“Be smart and realistic about what really needs redoing. If something’s good quality and can be upcycled, keep it. We kept the kitchen units, which were well made, but painted them, and one of the bathrooms was fairly new, so we revamped it instead of ripping it out”