Top marks for talent
Charlotte Innes is as an equine vet and chiropracter and founder of Vetmedi but she discovered a talent for interior design when she bought her home. Sharon Dale reports. Pictures by Simon Hulme.
THAT Charlotte Inness has a natural flair for interior design is obvious to anyone who has visited her beautiful home in Skipwith. Yet it was only when she got the key to the door of her first house that her inner ‘Nina Campbell’ made itself known. “I was so focused on being a vet and studying that was all I was interested in, that along with horses,” says Charlotte.
The countless hours she put into getting to university and qualifying have stood her in good stead.
They enabled her to work as an equine veterinary surgeon in Britain, and to explore and hone her skills as an equine chiropractor who also uses acupuncture and state of the art gait analysis.
More recently, it led to her founding an online veterinary pharmacy, www.vetmedi.co.uk, which makes medicines much more affordable for animal owners by cutting out the mark-up added by vets practices.
“All of our medicines are licensed in the UK and prescribed by veterinary surgeons registered with the Royal Veterinary College and if you buy them from us then they are generally 60 to 70 per cent cheaper and we aim to post them out within one working day,” says Charlotte, who is also able to source approved medication that is not stocked in the UK.
Working for herself also meant she could be based in her native Yorkshire and could buy a house in God’s Own County, another box she wanted to tick after working in Australia, Hong Kong and Staffordshire.
Her dream location was Skipwith, an idyllic village close to York and Selby, where she grew up, though she had almost given up hope of finding “the one” when on Christmas Eve, a for sale sign went up on a property that ticked plenty of boxes and what it lacked was made up for in potential.
The period house belonged to the Escrick Park Estate and had been tenanted before being left empty for five years but Charlotte could see that it could be made into a beautiful home so an offer was made in 2018 and the keys to the door were hers, though she didn’t move in until a year later.
Architect Andrew Burningham drew plans for an extension, along with a programme of work to the existing house, which included a new roof, repointing and new floors.
“We were really lucky because we were able to use two inch clamp bricks from old buildings that had been demolished on the estate for the extension and so that is in keeping with the original house,” says Charlotte, who adds: “The whole house was stripped back.”
Ridding the property of previous modernisations was also high on the “to do” list and it brought some lovely surprises, including an inglenook that had been bricked up and hidden so a gas fire could be fitted.
What was a separate kitchen and sitting room were knocked into one. The kitchen cabinets are from www.diy-kitchens.com in South Kirby near Pontefract.
“We took inspiration from a top notch kitchen we had seen and designed it with that in mind but the cabinets we chose were really good value and we had them hand-painted and put good quality worktops on them, which we bought from Stone Connection in Wheldrake.”
The flooring is from Monks Cross Tiles and Bathrooms and the farmhouse table originally belonged to Charlotte’s parents.
“It first went to my brother’s home in London and then came back up to Yorkshire to me,” she says.
Other bargains include the sofa, which she found on eBay for a quarter of the retail price and the Aga wine fridge.
This allowed her to splurge on an electric Aga cooker and the Kartell chairs around the island.
There are references to horses everywhere, including the large photograph in the living kitchen by equestrian photographer Victoria Robertson.
The snug and its beautiful inglenook was treated to a wood-burning stove and faux fur throws make the old sofa look a million dollars.
The front sitting room is one of Charlotte’s favourite places and includes a new stone fireplace and items that belonged to her grandmother, including an antique cabinet and an Alfred Munnings signed print.
Upstairs, which was cleverly reconfigured, now has four bedrooms, which feature a mix of second-hand buys and bargains including bedside tables from Dunelm and investment items like the bespoke curtains and