The Times Magazine 59higgledy-piggledy,” says Charlotte. “We don’t
have a conventional single front door.”
The couple set about making the space
work better for their large family before
moving in. Will, now a renewable energy
consultant, had strong views on the layout.
“He’s exceptionally good at looking at big
spaces and knowing how to divide them up,”
says Charlotte. The couple project-managed
the refurbishment of every room, ripping out
the kitchen and moving it into the far ground-
floor corner (Will’s idea), deconstructing an
existing living room, bedroom and oil room.
Working under the banner of Green Edit,
Charlotte’s day job is as a personal stylist and
organiser, and it is that same fashion-editor’s
eye for detail that she applies to her home.
She unified the interior in two shades of
grey (Farrow & Ball’s Lamp Room Gray and
Cornforth White) and resilient douglas fir
blond-wood flooring. “I wanted it to work
interchangeably – so that I can change it
around when I feel like it.”
During the initial planning, every aspect of
how the family wanted to live, work and, most
importantly, play was taken into account. Out
went the stuffy country-house drawing room,
replaced by a light-filled modern snug with ahuge Made.com sofa suitable for both lounging
teens and a bouncing toddler. The original
dining hall with lias flagstones is now the
games room, the dining table replaced with
a ping-pong table. The result is a ground-floor
space that allows Hector, now three, to career
noisily from one end of the house to the other
in his hand-me-down pedal car.
What was once the second reception room
has been converted into a double office for the
couple. Shelving is immaculately organised
with archival boxes for each child, Smythson
photo albums and leather-bound scrapbooks
filled with Polaroids from Charlotte’s shoots,Home!
Matilda’s bedroom, with
framed fashion illustration
by Blair Breitenstein.
Right: the family snug‘Will is exceptionally good at
looking at big spaces and knowing
how to divide them up’
Hector’s bedroom, with Tom
Dixon fluoro stool and miniature
Eames rocking chair. Left:
Charlotte Green and Hector