RECYCLED & RELOVED
Interior designer Kay Prestney filled her home with timeworn treasures
HOME CV
WHO Kay Prestney, an interior designer and stylist, shares her house with her husband, Andy, and their children, Bella, 13, and Finn, 10, as well as their red tri Australian shepherd puppy, Seren. The couple bought the house in 2007, when Kay was expecting Bella.
WHAT This five-bedroom house, built around 1980, sits in a small Essex village on the edge of Constable Country near the Suffolk border. RENOVATION ‘The place had been done up well by the previous owners, but it wasn’t as rustic as I’d have liked,’ says Kay. However, partly due to Bella’s arrival, Kay didn’t give the house a swift overhaul, but treated it as a long-term project. Her distinctive approach is sustainable design, working with existing materials where possible and using salvaged, secondhand or recycled furniture and accessories. When it came to her kitchen, for instance, she didn’t rip out the original, functioning units, but updated them with a fresh coat of paint and upcycled handles. Despite being built less than 40 years ago, Kay’s quest for vintage, preloved and foraged objects has given her home a real depth of character and sense of history.
KITCHEN
Kay isn’t averse to the odd structural project, such as opening up the doorway between the kitchen and dining room into an arch. The walls are bare plaster treated with Polyvine Decorators Varnish and the floor is white wood-effect vinyl from Karndean. To complement the table from Greenwich Market, she had the bench made by local company Ollu. The pew is from a church in nearby Lawford, where Kay’s mother-in-law was the vicar. Heather decorates the table with a vintage bakery tray from Louisa Grace Interiors. The hanging arrangement is a wicker floristry ball from a friend’s shop, Buds the Flower Shop, in which Kay placed foraged seedheads.
SITTING ROOM
The house had grey 1970s-style brickwork along the lounge wall. The couple knocked it out and discovered that stairs went underneath, so opened up the house. Scandinavian redwood (from Thorogood Timber Merchants) treated with Osmo white tint oil makes a beautiful floor. Kay’s builders crafted her banisters out of reclaimed wood. The disco zone features Andy’s vinyl collection and mirror balls, which Kay made from floristry balls. A vintage sideboard on castors makes an ideal deck. The chandelier was from an antiques shop in Belgium, while the plant is in an old Romanian bucket from Trinovante Trading.
LOFT SPACE
Nowhere is Kay’s talent for stylish, ecologically conscious design more evident than in the loft room, her favourite space in the house. Four years ago, she and Andy felt the need for an additional living area, which could serve several different purposes: a space for Kay’s desk, a mini library, a second lounge and accommodating guests. ‘We also wanted a place where Bella, Finn and their friends could spend their time when we had people over in the evenings,’ says Kay. The couple considered moving, until Kay popped her head into the loft space above the main sitting room and realised it would convert into the multifunctional room they desired.
DINING ROOM
Kay painted the walls in Lullaby – Dawn Mist by Ecos Paints. The metal trolley, from a local charity shop, showcases some of Kay’s treasured ceramics and the cotton flowers are from a local flower wholesaler. Trinovante Trading is a great source for glass jars, in which Kay places shells and feathers from family walks. The rounds of wood came from Kay’s log merchant and the small marine light is by Jim Lawrence, while the mirror is painted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite. Kay made the curtains from decorator’s cloths from Homebase. The vintage table started life at a beerfest and the bench once belonged to a courtroom; both are from the-barn.co.
STUDY AREA
In the study corner, Ikea trestles support a salvaged door, which makes a characterful desktop, while Kay’s father’s old bedside table, having been painted and fitted with apothecary handles, serves as a chest of drawers. Hanging plants help define the work area from the rest of the space. Andy now uses the study, while Kay keeps Seren company by working downstairs. The light is Made’s Frostini design in black (now discontinued), the vintage designer chair came from a friend’s husband’s office and Bella made one of the macramé hanging pot holders.