A fresh perspective

Downsizing takes careful consideration, but Sarah Jempson has created a comfortable new home for herself and husband Jonathan by combining their most-loved antiques and collections with new ideas and stylish finishes

- SHARON PARSONS 

There's more than a touch of serendipity in Sarah Jempson's life. Take, for instance, the early Victorian round rosewood table in her sitting room. 'My first husband bought this for £6 at a London auction almost 60 years ago, but swapped it with my brother for an air rifle,' she recalls cheerfully. "The table then set off all over the world with him and his wife before it finally ended up in their new house nearby, where they simply didn't have room for it... So, it has finally come back home to me, just as it was meant to.

A similar brush with fate can be applied to the mellow 18th-century Sussex farmhouse that she and husband Jonathan now call home. We were already familiar with this house because, many years ago, it belonged to people we knew,' she says. 'Our children would come here to play with theirs. We always thought it was so pretty, but never imagined that one day we would actually live here. Sarah and Jonathan had lived in their previous house for 46 years and had adored it, but it had become too big for the two of them. 'It felt very much that the time had come to make a change,' says Sarah.

Their much-loved old home sold in just three days and, by August 2021, the farmhouse had become theirs. There was a lot to get on with. Sadly, no original characteristics remain inside the property. 'It's such a shame, but any internal features that may once have been here are long gone, Sarah says. This meant we had to consider ways to inject some character, as well as make some of the recent additions more sympathetic.