glass to allow the “garden in” as well as flood the glazed link with light.
She explains that the house was sold as having eight bedrooms, but she wanted every bedroom to be ensuite. So, some of the bedrooms were lost, and a couple of rooms repurposed as his and her separate dressing rooms off the main bedroom’s ensuite.
“And the kitchen was moved from the ‘maids’ side of the house, to become more central and therefore the heart of the home,” adds Melinda. In addition, the cellar was extended and waterproofed and now houses a wine cellar for Chris, a plant room, and the laundry room.
TRADITIONAL WITH A TWIST A major consideration for what had been a draughty old house was good insulation to improve energy efficiency to super-high standards – now the insides of all the exterior walls are lined with 5 cm of ThermoLite (a synthetic insulation material). The living spaces and pool are heated by way of air-source heat pumps, with underfloor heating throughout the house, all the windows have been replaced with like-for-like double-glazed units, and wood- burning stoves have been installed into all the original fireplaces.
Melinda calls her visual style ‘traditional with a twist.’ She focused on emphasising classic features without turning her new home into a period pastiche and found inspiration by reading every decorating magazine she could get her hands on, attending design fairs, and visiting designers and makers at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour in Lots Road, Fulham, west London for thoughts and ideas. Engaging a lighting designer from John Cullen Lighting, and
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having the confidence to employ bold pattern has helped to balance out light and shade and bring character and warmth to the rooms. As always, her trusty builder and architect supported her in this vision. “For example, I wished to use a fabulous ‘Timorous Beasties’ wallpaper in the main bedroom, on a wall facing the bed,” she explains. “However, with a window in that wall, the wastage would have been costly. So instead, I asked the builders to create two panels of wallpaper on either side of the window. It looks amazing!” The delight in Melinda’s voice is clear. She says that her proudest achievement is that her home makes her family happy – “and we are proud of what we’ve done to it.” She is especially pleased with the entrance hall and its new staircase, the glassed-in passage link, the welcoming kitchen and the elegant double aspect dining room, with its working shutters and a marble fireplace surround. Would she consider undertaking another
major renovation project? She laughs and says she’s already working on the next; her daughter’s house in Fulham, west London, using the same architect and build team. It’s ironic that a project so steeped in history has been such a catalyst for setting in place such innovative methods of project management for all concerned. “We’ve really embraced remote working now, after our experience with Melinda’s project,” says architect Stuart Hall, who says the practice now takes videos of sites and asks clients to supply videos of their homes and ideas in return. “It’s helpful for looking back as well. I can review the videos that we took, rather than reading emails or whatever, and I can see so much of the progress.”
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