LET THERE BE LIGHT
A top-to-toe renovation has turned a dark and dated Edwardian villa in Brighton into an elegant light-filled home
‘We love the kitchen – it’s now such a welcoming, light-filled room
Despite its potential, its vast space and some beautiful period features, Kerry and Jat Sahi’s Brighton Edwardian house needed a complete renovation when they moved in. ‘We knew it could be the family home we’d been searching for,’ says Kerry, who owns interiors styling company Sahi & Osborne Styling (sahi-osborne.com). ‘It had great potential and had amazing period features like the original stained glass and architectural detailing. And there was space either side of the property to extend.’
But to turn it into the spacious home they dreamt of, Kerry and Jat needed to carry out a complete renovation. And with three children, Jai, now 15, Biba, 14, and Lola, 11, it was going to be a challenge. ‘The house was dark and old-fashioned, but just about habitable,’ says Kerry. ‘We didn’t touch anything at all for our first two years in the property
– I wanted to live in the house first to get a real feel for it. The hardest part was the dark, poky kitchen, which was tucked away in a corner of the house – I hated it!’
Work on the ground-floor conversion and a first- and second-storey extension started in 2010, and over the next year the size of the house was doubled. The couple decided to stay on site while the work was completed, which was a challenge – but had its advantages, too. ‘We lived in the old bit of the house while they worked on the new bit, then we
‘Budget carefully – we ran out of money halfway through so we had to stop for a bit’
swapped, living in the new bit while the builders redid the bedrooms and bathrooms,’ says Kerry.
The biggest change to the property was repositioning the kitchen, from its forgotten corner to being the central hub of the house. Kerry’s brief to the architect was to create a lightfilled, open-plan space for gathering at the heart of the home. Kerry wanted a contemporary, clutter-free kitchen design and a space that would work for entertaining. Wooden gloss cabinets give a warm, modern feel and worktops are impressively free of appliances and gadgets and clutter. The finished kitchen is both luxe and practical, with a wipe-clean glass splashback and porcelain floor tiles, chosen for their durability.
Directly above the kitchen, on the first floor, the master bedroom is decorated in a warm grey Designers Guild wallpaper, providing the perfect backdrop for bright pops of pinks and yellows. The centrepiece of the room is a spectacular headboard, which Kerry designed herself. ‘I’m not a neutral lover,’ she says. ‘In the bedroom, I knew I wanted something that would make an impact.’
But Kerry had to compromise on her boutique hotel-style bath, which she wanted placed in the bedroom. ‘My husband really didn’t like the idea,’ she says, ‘so in the end we asked the builders to create an en suite in the bedroom bay window, and place the bath in the centre as the focal point. They also put in a wide door, which we keep open. That way, I can see the bath from the bed, so we’re both happy!’