'I'm a big fan of SECONDHAND!'

A devotee of sustainable living, Jules has filled her home with treasured finds and added drama with paint and leftover fabrics

- STEPHANIE SMITH

Moving out of London and getting a lot more space for our money, plus a sizeable garden, was the aim when we first started looking for a new house six years ago,’ says Jules. ‘We’d identified Tunbridge Wells in Kent as a possibility and went looking around the residential roads at the weekends to nail down the right house.

We didn’t want to be right out in the countryside, so a sizeable town with good transport links was important to us, as Oliver needs to travel with his job.

Potential property

A four-storey Victorian semi on the edge of town ticked all our boxes and was a lot bigger than the three-bedroom terrace with a tiny garden we were leaving behind, so we moved to snap it up. The kids were tiny when we came here – Jemima was only a baby – but we wanted to make the move before they got settled into schools and friendships.

The house itself was dated, and in need of plenty of care and attention, but not in a bad state structurally. We couldn’t have taken on a complete wreck with the children being so young, but I could see we could do a lot to this house and make it our own quite quickly. We’ve always liked period properties; our last house was Victorian as well.

Getting going