BETTER BY DESIGN
Expert input helped remodel a detached house in Surrey into a smart family home
Property developer Romain Record has an instinct for houses with great potential and when he saw this large detached house in Surrey, he felt confident it would work for his family. Both Romain and his wife Sarah, along with their children Harry, now 11, Evie, nine, and Rafferty, three, had outgrown their previous property, a smaller detached house nearby.
Two years after moving in, Romain and Sarah embarked on a renovation. ‘It was never our intention to majorly overhaul the house but once we’d moved in, it quickly became clear we needed to change the layout significantly,’ says Romain.
The house itself was originally built in the 1930s, but the last owner had added to it over time. ‘There was a huge workshop you couldn’t access from the house, so I knocked through and converted it into a games room and study,’ says Romaine. ‘There were three reception rooms but none
of them had any “wow” factor and the space was impractical. Also, from the exterior, it looked unappealing so we felt it needed lots of glazing to bring in more natural light.’
Fortunately the couple were good friends with an interior designer Annabelle Holland, who was subsequently tasked with creating the decorating schemes throughout. ‘I knew that Romain and Sarah were looking to achieve a soft, neutral tone throughout, but also that they would be happy with a more jolly look for the children’s bedrooms,’ says Annabelle.
‘The three large reception rooms became one huge room with kitchen, dining and living areas,’ she continues, ‘so it was important for it to flow well with a cohesive palette. The living area is slightly more formal with cabinetry against the back wall that helps to articulate the space.’
Romain and Sarah were eager to furnish the house from scratch, apart from keeping
Design advice ‘Always expect the unexpected. Have a big contingency plan and whatever your budget is, double it’
one sofa and their beds, and Annabelle complied by introducing a mix of practical, hard-wearing furnishings for high-traffic areas and more indulgent luxurious pieces for the formal areas. ‘We asked Annabelle to blend contemporary and traditional, as the building has a lot of oak, but also to include more modernist black steelwork.’ Putting in huge panes of glass at the front of the house, and installing a new staircase opened up the entire area to the ceiling, creating a huge welcoming entrance area. ‘The upstairs had previously been one long corridor with rooms coming off it like a hotel,’ Romain recalls. ‘The attic bedrooms were unusable – furnaces in the summer and freezing in the winter, so we changed the layout of these, making them more comfortable and giving all the rooms en-suite bathrooms,’ he says. The master en suite also underwent a transformation with huge windows, chic black fittings and veined marble surfaces. ‘Previously it had gloomy brown-and-black tiles all over the floor and walls, and a small window, making it very dark,’ says Romain. ‘The new bathroom is a total contrast with so much light and space. It’s an absolute joy.’ Now completed, the house has become the focus of family entertaining with space for both the adults and children. As the perfect balance of practicality and style, it’s a sound investment for the future.