“Definitely the design
process with our
architect and making
it come to life.”
–Athena Hubble
HIGH POINT
the extensions. “We’re quite social,” Athena
says. Mark runs a music company in Brighton
and colleagues as well as friends often come to
the house. He therefore needed an office that
was large enough to accommodate people.
One of Athena’s priorities was getting the
kitchen-diner – and its connection to the garden- right. While she wanted a certain openness
and a space large enough for hosting guests,
she also likes “cosy rooms” and therefore
needed some separation from other rooms as
well. “The kitchen-diner was the big focal point
for me,” she says. “I didn’t want a bank of units,
a fitted kitchen all the way round the outside of
the room, I wanted to flow round the space and
have a big table and chairs.” Athena’s brother
Richard runs Hubble Kitchens and helped her
design it around a central island. She wanted
something that stayed true to the organic
materials yet was sleek and modern, and they
settled on a Leicht black wood. They also
included an internal vented hob, due to the
low ceiling.
They restored the one-room-deep cottage,
which includes a library, taking it back to “more
of an original look and feel.” This also serves as
a retreat from the more social back of the house.
In order to bring some character to the
extensions, the pair installed two woodburning
stoves – one in the downstairs snug and one in
the upstairs lounge, which maximises on the
views over the wetlands – another of Athena’s
requirements. “The woodburners bring a focal
point to the room,” she says. In addition, they
included some exposed brick and wood
panelled walls “to bring warmth.” She adds: “I
wanted the snug to feel like a little log cabin,
with wood walls and a thick carpet.”
Installing the woodburners proved slightly
problematic. “We had to do a lot of work to
manoeuvre the steels so the flues were in the
right place and to get the clearance we
needed,” explains Athena, “and it dictated we
had to use a certain type of fireproof plaster.”
The three-bedroom house has three
bathrooms and Athena wanted two of them to
be wetrooms. She also wanted underfloor
heating in each one. “You have to factor that in
because the floor has to be thick enough,” she
says. “Thinking about how you want things to
feel and how you want to live, how you’re going
to have furniture, has an impact on the design.
But that’s the luxury of designing your own
home.” The rest of the house is heated with
industrial-style radiators.
Aside from these specifics, the couple’s main
requirement was to reconfigure the layout.
Previously, Athena explains, “we had to walk
through rooms to get to rooms, adding, “We
had to get the flow right.” They incorporated
the garage into the house and added
utility/boot rooms and the snug. The internal
walls were knocked down and new ones
constructed to create the new rooms, which
make the most of the views out the back. The
roof and structure was reinforced with new
steels, and they installed all new electrics.
The restrictions on the land meant their hands
were pretty tied when it came to installing
sustainable features. However, they reinsulatedjuly/august 2019 http://www.sbhonline.co.uk 69