Country Casual

Suzy Jones bought a run-of-the-mill house in a picturesque setting and turned it into a family retreat full of rustic charm

When Suzy Jones first viewed her home, in a pretty village on the fringes of the Cotswolds, she was smitten. ‘The decor wasn’t to my taste – with apple-green walls in the hall and dated wallpaper in the bedrooms – but I could see the potential,’ she says. ‘There was lots of light and a sense of space, plus a lovely enclosed garden for my daughter Summer, who was a toddler at the time.’

With a growing family – Summer is now three, and Joby, two – Suzy was also drawn to the fact that the property had already been extended, leaving her with only cosmetic work to carry out, including replacing laminate flooring with new oak boards, stripping wallpaper, fitting a putty-coloured Shaker kitchen with timber worktops, and painting the house from top to bottom. ‘I wanted a pared-back feel, with natural materials and a calmer palette of chalky off-whites and greys,’ she says.