RURAL IDYLL
An exquisite 15th-century cottage in Essex gets a fresh look
When her sons flew the nest, psychotherapist Alexandra Jackson’s five-bedroom house in southeast London suddenly felt very big. Toying with the idea of leaving London, she visited a friend in Essex and spotted an opportunity. ‘We drove past a house that I couldn’t get out of my mind,’ she says. ‘Then it came up for sale, so we went to see it.’ She discovered that the interior hadn’t been touched for 40 years and was dark and dingy. But undeterred, Alexandra put in an offer, securing planning permission for the renovation before the sale was even complete.
Alexandra appointed local building firm Westross and lived in the property throughout the project. ‘They were absolutely incredible,’ she says. ‘There wasn’t a single cross word spoken in eight months.’ It was just as well everybody got on, because there was a lot to do, and planning
restrictions for the Grade Ii-listed property were strict. Things didn’t always go smoothly, though – one seemingly simple task was to remove the shower in the downstairs bathroom to create a more spacious loo, but that required the foundations to be removed and ended up taking a month. Other more straightforward jobs included replacing the plumbing and floors throughout, and restoring and reinstating the original windows.
The kitchen was the room Alexandra knew she had to get right as it is where she spends most of her time. ‘I’ve made cakes for four different people already today,’ she says. So she commissioned Henderson & Redfearn to make the most of the space. They installed open shelving instead of wall-hung cupboards to maintain a spacious feel.
Unlike many people who find house renovations stressful, Alexandra loved every second of her project. ‘I must have made a thousand cups of
tea, but watching the transformation was fascinating,’ she says. ‘My favourite part was when everyone went home at the end of each day and I could walk around thinking about what would go where.’ Once the building work was complete, keen to put some of that thinking into action, she enlisted the help of interior designer Brigitte Fraser of Simply Living. ‘I wanted to make sure we were on the same page,’ she says, ‘so I challenged her to recommend a wallpaper for my sitting room, knowing I already had a magazine clipping of what I wanted. It was a very weird moment when she suggested exactly the same design.’ Brigitte created a neutral scheme using symmetrical arrangements and Zoffany paint colours and wallpapers. ‘Everything was spot on, apart from the colour in the dining room,’ she says. ‘I repainted that myself one Sunday afternoon and now the house is absolutely perfect.’