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Beth and Jon Miller have carefully worked their way through their house in order to create a better flow and vibrant schemes
A complete overhaul was required when it came to updating a Victorian house in Leeds
Moving from London to Leeds enabled Beth and Jon Miller to buy a bigger house and turn their passion for interior design into a home renovation business. At the time, Beth was pregnant with daughter Edith, now four, and they were keen to move before son Arthur, now seven, started school. ‘Leeds ticked all our boxes with cheaper properties, the buzz of a city and my best friend already living there,’ says Beth.
They soon found a three-storey, detached 1890s house with ‘good bones’ and a sizeable family-friendly garden that required a complete refurbishment. Starting from the top of the house, they split the huge loft bedroom into two, extended and redesigned the kitchen, and converted the damp and dingy basement into a snug and utility room. ‘We wanted the children to have separate bedrooms on the first floor, with our bedroom and en suite in the loft, plus bedroom space to accommodate visiting family,’ says Beth.
The new en suite showcases the couple’s knack for space planning. ‘The room is under the eaves and you would usually bang your head, plus the corridor leading into the room was a waste of
space,’ says Beth. ‘To solve the problem, we stole an extra 30cm from above the stairwell, which gave more head height for the toilet, and moved the shower further in. Opening up the flat ceiling to the roof void and adding a bigger Velux window has made it feel much brighter and more spacious.’
Extending at the rear to square off the L-shaped kitchen was the second phase, six months after moving in. ‘Previously there was a dark, narrow galley kitchen with bifold doors where our sink is now and an impractical island plonked in the middle, which felt like a roundabout,’ says Beth. ‘We wanted the living and dining areas to link to the garden instead. As we’d put loads of thought into planning our previous kitchen in London, this is essentially a bigger, better version but we super-sized a few things like the range cooker and added a hidden pantry using the original back door.’
Project managing different trades rather than using one contractor kept the costs down, as did tackling the stripping out, tiling, decorating and carpentry themselves. Jon has also transformed old materials into inventive new pieces, such as light
fittings made from rafters and floorboards repurposed as shelves, window sills and wardrobe doors.
Luckily the pair admit their tastes are ‘scarily alike’. ‘We both love mixing old and new,’ says Beth. ‘In the sitting room there are several beautifully crafted salvaged pieces that would otherwise end up in landfill, like the vintage record player and the sideboard in the bay window that we’ve added hairpin legs to.’
Although Beth and Jon admit they didn’t love the house at first and the differential between labour costs in Leeds and London wasn’t as wide as they’d hoped, they have no regrets about making the move. ‘With an abundance of creative people living nearby, an annual street party and regular playing out sessions for the kids, we couldn’t have wished for a better area,’ she says.
The move north has also enabled them to ditch their previous careers and focus full-time on their new renovation business, Fresh Start Living (freshstartliving.co.uk). ‘Following our gut instinct has led us to a new career and a wonderful new home that will be hard to beat,’ says Beth.