ONE OF A KIND
Hilary and Nick Chambers took their time, determined to craft a home unique to them
Collapsing ceilings, no heating and a mouse infestation didn’t deter these owners from creating a unique interior in an Edwardian terrace in Buckinghamshire
favourite item ‘I had loved the Tamar Mogendorff swan, which hangs in our sitting room, for a decade before we bought it to mark our 10th wedding anniversary last year’
After four years of saving, a year of renovating and two years of settling in, Hilary Chambers still refers to the home that she shares with her husband Nick and their three children, Olive, 11, Iris, eight, and Herbie, three, as a work in progress.
It was the riverside location in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, coupled with its massive potential, that piqued their interest when they first viewed the Edwardian terrace
back in 2011. ‘It was in the middle of a property boom and there was very little on the market,’ says Hilary. ‘But we knew on the first viewing that this would be our home despite the state it was in.’ Nick agrees, saying, ‘There were a lot of strange upgrades, like a timber-framed conservatory, which, though attractive, was too higgledy-piggledy to ever be practical.’
There were other challenges, too – matted carpets, blown plaster, a quarter
of a ceiling missing in what is now the playroom, no heating and an infestation of mice. ‘We begged and borrowed just enough to buy the house, but we didn’t have any money left over to renovate it,’ says Hilary. ‘So when the kitchen ceiling fell down, the first Christmas we were here, we just had to leave it bare to the rafters.’
Apart from a lick of paint in the sitting room, work did not properly start on the house until 2015, while the family rented locally for six months. ‘We set out with a few fixed goals and didn’t waver from them,’ says Hilary It was always the plan to knock down the conservatory and extend to make a large kitchen-diner, while still retaining the original footprint of the house. But the idea to have an internal laundry room came later. A bigger bathroom upstairs was a must-have, but the half-glass shower was a design idea that came from wrangling over the tiny details. ‘Shoehorning an en suite into Iris’ room was something we wouldn’t have thought of if we’d just gone straight into the renovation,’ says Hilary.
The major appeal of this house, however, is the decor and Hilary’s incredible eye for colour and textiles. ‘We moved to New York for a couple of years for Nick’s work and it was there my love of interiors took on a life of its own,’ she says. ‘Industrial, loft living was really influential to me. Plus, flea markets and reclamation sites were
last word ‘I feel so lucky to have this house – each morning I think how amazing it is’
everywhere.’ It was also in New York that Hilary honed her skills for hunting out interior treasures. The huge dresser in their kitchen, which took them a year to find, was finally theirs after they followed it through two sales and finally managed to clinch it for something ‘vaguely affordable’.
When it comes to making decisions about accessories for her home, Hilary doesn’t like to be rushed. ‘There’s a lot of agonising that goes on as I tend to take a long time to make decisions,’ she says. It was here that Hilary’s friend, who runs interiorstyling company Someday Studio, came to the rescue. ‘There were certain rooms that I just ran out of steam on, like my bedroom, and she helped me fall in love with it again.’
Hilary’s style is best described as paradoxical. She thinks nothing of laying boldly graphic tiles in the kitchen or hanging super-scale wallpapers in the bedroom, yet pictures sit propped up against walls for months on end waiting to be committed to plaster. ‘I always worry I’ll go off it, even though it’s usually a picture I’ve coveted for years,’ she says.
The completed home is testimony to the care and attention Hilary has given it. ‘While the work was happening I definitely thought, “Never again!” – but we’d put so much into it, financially and emotionally, I couldn’t entertain ever leaving. But now, I do wonder if I have another house in me...’