We used colour to make it ours

Ruth and Andy Preston found that adding contrasting colour was the quickest route to fixing bland decor

Ruth and Andy Preston didn’t have to look far when they began their search for a spacious new family home; they discovered a detached Victorian house with lots of character and plenty of outside space just a few streets away from where they were living. ‘It was a wrench to leave our old home, as our children were born there and it was full of special memories, but it was clear that we were going to need more space,’ explains Ruth. ‘When we viewed this house, it was full of great features, with original tiles in the hallway, large well-proportioned rooms and old school-style radiators. It was decorated beautifully, but it was quite neutral and that’s just not us. We planned to make it really contemporary.’

The first thing the Prestons did after moving in was decorate their son Jude’s bedroom, so he could feel settled while the rest of the house was in turmoil. ‘The idea was to finish one room before we started working on another,’ says Ruth. ‘We had to be pretty organised to juggle work commitments with three young children and a house renovation, but the best solution was to not think about it too much, and just do it.’

Luckily, there was enough downstairs space for the family to live in comfortably while the work went on around them. ‘We found it frustrating at times, but thankfully a lot of what needed changing was cosmetic,’ says Ruth. ‘We simply moved the furniture from room to room to accommodate the work. Some days we had no electricity, or no hot water, or we had to keep the children away from wet paint, but everyone was very adaptable.’