Here To Stay

After years of developing properties, Helena Cervenkova and Shaun Wynne Jones were persuaded to put down roots in a beautifully intact period property

Refurbishing properties and selling them on had become all in a day’s work for Helena Cervenkova and her partner, Shaun Wynne Jones. However, when it came to this Edwardian semi-detached in Hertfordshire, the couple were determined to stay put for a while.

‘The only reason we could afford this house was because we had done up and then quickly sold a few houses beforehand,’ says Helena. ‘All of those project properties had been decorated in a very white and neutral way but, knowing that we would be staying here for longer, we looked for a house that we could really make feel like home.’

Having grown up in Slovakia, where historic properties are rare, Helena says she is naturally drawn to the character and provenance of English period architecture. ‘I wasn’t set on a particular era when we were house hunting,’ she says. ‘We looked at Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian houses, but I loved the feeling of space that this house had when we viewed it for the first time. Then, when we saw that it had many intact original features, a spacious main bedroom and a south-facing garden, we knew it was the one for us.’

The house was dated, but structurally sound, so the couple moved straight in and got to work on the cosmetic alterations. ‘It was liveable, but it wasn’t our style,’ says Helena. ‘The walls were all papered differently so there was pattern everywhere.’