‘This house is our HAPPY PLACE'

After taking a chance on a house they hadn’t even stepped inside, Sally and Owen have created a colourful family home

- ABBI HENDERSON/GEORGE RODGERS

We arrived early to view this 1950s semi that was just a short walk from Swansea Bay. The house wasn’t occupied at the time and, peering in through the window, we spotted original wood floors and a cast-iron fire in the front room,’ says Sally.

‘It was these details that made us fall in love with it then and there. We were ready to put in an offer before the estate agent even showed up!

First steps

We lived in the house for a few years, then when our oldest son Danny was born we realised we’d need more space. By the time he was a year old, we’d already outgrown the compact kitchen, so we added a small brick addition. It had a glass roof, which let in plenty of light and allowed room for a dining table.

Kitchen makeover

However, when our second son Bobby arrived, the kitchen space felt small again, while we weren’t making enough use of the dining room. We decided to rejig the downstairs space and knocked through from the dining room to the kitchen. We also used a small part of the hallway to optimise the open-plan kitchen and living area. We repositioned some of the windows and installed bifold doors to fill the room with light. The new kitchen had room to fit a generous island, which gave us more workspace than we’d ever had before, and we tucked an L-shaped sofa into one corner. We all love the new design; it’s made such a difference to family life and we spend most of the day in here, cooking, watching TV and playing board games. In terms of colour palette, we chose a white and wood scheme for the walls and units because it makes the room feel fresh, then introduced bright pops of colour.