Lenham, Kent

"I have friends begging for Beth's number after they have seen her work in our home"

Charlotte and George

Reproduced from an article published in Muddy Stilletos (Kent)

The house is believed to date back to the King Charles 1 era and is positioned in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with four bedrooms and two bathrooms and although in relatively good shape, it needed to align more with George and Charlotte’s style and taste. Beth is well versed in working with listed buildings as well as planning and conservation bodies, so nothing phases her when it comes to challenges -in fact, they are welcomed as an excuse to think outside the box.

George and Charlotte moved in January 2021 and over many lockdown FaceTime calls with Beth, the brief was set to re-do the sitting room and create a new shower room and en-suite plus walk-in storage from the main bedroom where it was lacking in this area. Luckily for George and Charlotte, Beth loves nothing more than pouring over a floorplan to determine how to reconfigure it making best use of the existing space.

In a non-Covid world, Beth always travels to the house in question, regardless of the budget of the project, so she can meet face to face in the property and talk through styles. Her ambition is that ‘you shouldn’t know who the designer is when walking into the room to allow the owner’s personality to shine through. My job is to translate what the client is looking for but just doesn’t how to execute it and bring it all together.”

The en-suite now includes a jaw-dropping roll-top bath overlooking the fields, with a trio of three glass globe lights overhead – one of Charlotte’s favourite components of the design process – as well as a walk-in shower and stylish washbasin with storage.

Within the sitting room, the idea was to make the room feel less like a corridor as it linked the kitchen to the rest of the house and make it more of a destination room to relax, entertain and be dog friendly too! Wooden flooring was put in place that blended with the kitchen floor linking it all together with a large, faded rug from Oka to give the room that homely feel and be a central focus in the room. Ambleside by Little Greene (one of Beth’s preferred suppliers) was chosen as a calming and inviting colour for that room, plus reflecting the greenery outside within the extensive garden.

Beth also centralised the lighting on the ceiling to ensure the room had more of a focal point with arresting artwork on the wall to divert your eyes. The artwork was already Charlotte’s by an artist called Hatti Pattisson, who creates hand-finished art prints, and Beth re homed the piece having used some of the colouring from the painting within the new room design.

This style of working is also helpful on the purse strings too as Charlotte says, “Once we had the mood board with recommended items to buy, we could then manage our budget accordingly and prioritise what we wanted to buy first rather than purchasing them all in one go.”

Interiors photography by Heather Hughes of www.Lightninginabottle.co.uk