Warm And Welcoming

When Sally Bourne found her dream country home, she chose a medley of cosseting colours to complement its original features

- Vivienne Ayers

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining and this was certainly the case for Sally Bourne, when she went through a divorce. ‘I was living in London and wanted to take the next step,’ says Sally, who runs her own interior design business, Sally Bourne Interiors (sallybourneinteriors.co.uk). ‘I create spaces for a living, and I was looking for land near some woods where I could build a green oak barn.’

Then fate took a hand. While Sally was househunting, she met the man who would become her new partner, David, who also happened to be looking for a new home. ‘He drove past a place in Ashdown Forest and asked me to look at it for him,’ says Sally. ‘I thought it looked like exactly the right property for me!’

Sally fell in love with the house immediately. ‘It looks bigger from the outside than it is – it’s a small house masquerading as a mansion,’ she says. The property was neglected and the one-acre grounds were also in need of renovation. ‘It was as though it had just been dropped into the plot and I wanted to make sense of the house and garden,’ says Sally. ‘By now, David and I had decided we wanted to create a home together and this was perfect as we both like projects.’