CALM SPIRIT

Taking their cue from natural shades, Anna and George Lewis have filled their once gloomy Edwardian house with light and character

- JO LEEVERS

Anna Lewis jokes that when she and her family first moved into this property, it was the washing machine that got to enjoy the best view of the garden. Back then, the laundry room was one of the only parts of the house with uninterrupted views outside. ‘The kitchen was split over two levels and divided by a huge chimney, while the view to the garden was obscured by a wall,’ says Anna. Today, all that has changed and Anna, her husband George and their grown-up children Tom and Ruby can look out at the rambling garden from all over the house.

The kitchen-diner now flows into two new spaces: a serene garden room and a snug that, in turn, both connect to the garden beyond. ‘Throughout the year, these spaces link us with the outdoors, but this is especially so in the summer months,’ she says.

These changes were part of a much larger-scale project that reworked the house’s entire layout and interior style. ‘We replaced or upgraded absolutely everything – we even had a new roof fitted and new drains put in under the house,’ says Anna. The property hadn’t been touched at all in around thirty years, so there was a lot to do. ‘Some traditional features had been removed, while parts of the original flooring were covered with tiles,’ she says. The resulting overall mood of the house was gloomy and the living spaces felt disconnected. ‘There was a very narrow corridor connecting the front and back of the house and the bedrooms also felt very dark with low ceilings,’ she says.