Designer Delight

Justine Hodgson-Barker elevated her period home out of the ordinary using her unique signature style

The thorny issue of schools was what prompted Justine Hodgson-Barker and her husband James to move from their west London cottage to Kent. ‘As soon as our first daughter, Grace, now nine, was born, our previous house began to feel too small,’ says Justine, an interior designer. ‘So, in 2010, when Grace was two, we began to look for somewhere suitable in terms of being commutable, because our clients were in London, close to good schools and with more space.’

Justine and James turned their attention to the spa town of Tunbridge Wells, less than an hour from the capital by train. They researched the streets they needed to look at in order to secure the right school for Grace – and it was there that they found a semi-detached Victorian villa that was ripe for a revamp. ‘The house hadn’t been decorated since the early Nineties,’ says Justine. ‘Everything was mustard coloured – the curtains, carpets, walls, exterior… I love the colour, but it was everywhere – from floor to ceiling!’