Step By Step

When renovating their capacious new home, Ann Marie and David Cousins started from the basement and worked their way up.

- Heather Dixon

Ann Marie Cousins relished the chance to renovate and decorate the West Yorkshire home she shares with her husband David and their children Isla, 8, Shay, 5, and Cara, 2. ‘As an interior designer, I’m used to working with clients who have their own ideas and tastes, so it was liberating to have carte blanche to do precisely what I wanted with this place,’ explains Ann Marie.

‘I love to mix and match styles and budgets, and splashing out on something timeless and then teaming it with a fabulous bargain to create the overall effect,’ she says. ‘I liken it to wearing a designer handbag with affordable shoes.’

Ann Marie and David bought the house for its large proportions, Victorian features and great location. ‘I’d always wanted a period home,’ says Ann Marie. ‘A big house needs to be full of people and this place was just waiting for a family like ours to come along. It was an exciting new phase for us.’