»
M
oving in to your first home as a
family should be a joy, but for
Antonia Kiddy the first time she
walked in to her three-storey 1930s
home in Torquay, Devon, she cried
- and they weren’t tears of joy. “My
husband Sam had just bought this house when we met.
It’s next door to his parents and he rented it out while we
lived in their small basement f lat, but I always knew we
would eventually move into it,” explains Antonia.
“Six years later we were married and thinking about
a family, so it was time to move. I’d never been inside
the house before, and I was taken aback. The whole
place was a hideous 80s time-warp of f lowery f lock
wallpaper, peach paintwork, fussy curtains, grubby
old carpets and even an avocado bathroom suite.”
After getting over the shock of the task that lay ahead,
Antonia set to work ripping out the dated interior.
“Having just got married, we had little spare money.
Sam was working but I took some time off and, with
my Mum and uncle helping, I got stuck in,” she says.
“We stripped off the thick, paint-covered wallpapers
and pulled up the old carpets finding beautiful,
well-preserved wooden f loors underneath.
“The interior has slowly evolved, as our budget has
allowed. I started with white walls and wooden f loors
and then added things that I love, like rattan furniture,
colourful patterns, houseplants and lots of mementos
from our travels.”
WHITE AND BRIGHT
One of the first rooms the couple tackled was the living
room. Having initially painted the walls grey, Antonia
repainted them white to give her more freedom to add
colour and change things around. “The fireplace was
a big, black dominating feature, so I painted it white
and my uncle added little blue f lowers for me later.”
Like the living room, the dining room had plenty of
potential, with a beautiful bay window. Removing the
wall between the dining room and the kitchen has made
it one of the best-used areas in the whole house as it’s
bright, sociable and family-friendly for their two boys.
“When the wall came down the change was incredible
- the light just f looded in and you had the amazing view
HOME TOUR
»
M
oving in to your first home as a
family should be a joy, but for
Antonia Kiddy the first time she
walked in to her three-storey 1930s
home in Torquay, Devon, she cried
- and they weren’t tears of joy. “My
husband Sam had just bought this house when we met.
It’s next door to his parents and he rented it out while we
lived in their small basement f lat, but I always knew we
would eventually move into it,” explains Antonia.
“Six years later we were married and thinking about
a family, so it was time to move. I’d never been inside
the house before, and I was taken aback. The whole
place was a hideous 80s time-warp of f lowery f lock
wallpaper, peach paintwork, fussy curtains, grubby
old carpets and even an avocado bathroom suite.”
After getting over the shock of the task that lay ahead,
Antonia set to work ripping out the dated interior.
“Having just got married, we had little spare money.
Sam was working but I took some time off and, with
my Mum and uncle helping, I got stuck in,” she says.
“We stripped off the thick, paint-covered wallpapers
and pulled up the old carpets finding beautiful,
well-preserved wooden f loors underneath.
“The interior has slowly evolved, as our budget has
allowed. I started with white walls and wooden f loors
and then added things that I love, like rattan furniture,
colourful patterns, houseplants and lots of mementos
from our travels.”
WHITE AND BRIGHT
One of the first rooms the couple tackled was the living
room. Having initially painted the walls grey, Antonia
repainted them white to give her more freedom to add
colour and change things around. “The fireplace was
a big, black dominating feature, so I painted it white
and my uncle added little blue f lowers for me later.”
Like the living room, the dining room had plenty of
potential, with a beautiful bay window. Removing the
wall between the dining room and the kitchen has made
it one of the best-used areas in the whole house as it’s
bright, sociable and family-friendly for their two boys.
“When the wall came down the change was incredible
- the light just f looded in and you had the amazing view
HOME TOUR
