V
iewing his future home for the first time,
Paul Reeve was struck by the two lime trees
at the double-gated entrance. ‘It had the
most amazing kerb appeal – I was soldbefore we even stepped inside,’ he says. Built in 1984
by a local master stonemason, using material salvaged
from a nearby barn, the house offered both modern
comforts and traditional charm. ‘The look is almost
Jacobean, but the structure is new, with benefits
you don’t automatically get from period homes,
like double glazing and central heating,’ says Paul.
Unfortunately, while the decor was nice enough,
the interior lost points in terms of space and flow. For
Paul and Sue, who love to entertain at home, the small
kitchen and separate formal dining room just didn’t
work, but it was the orangery that eventually set major
renovation plans in motion. ‘You couldn’t get to it from
the kitchen or dining room, and you had to trek right
through the house to enjoy the garden views,’ he says.
The solution involved the removal of several internal
walls and the addition of a small extension. ‘We ended
up with one, much larger L-shaped room. Crucially, the
kitchen was at its heart,’ says Paul. ‘We thought we
wanted a bespoke kitchen but when we popped into
our local builders’ merchants and met in-house kitchen
designer Sue Crewe, we were blown away by her spatial
planning skills. She showed us we could get everything
we wanted using cabinets from a set range.’
By far the biggest challenge was deciding exactly
how to arrange the newly achieved space to ensure
Paul and Sue could cook together, without getting
under each other’s feet. With the designer’s help, the
couple settled on a long island unit, stretching nearly
four metres, with a separate butcher’s block at one end.
The usual advice is to allow a one-metre-wide walkway
between an island and perimeter units or walls to
ensure smooth traffic flow. ‘We increased the distance
to 1.2m wide, which may not sound significant but it
meant we could pass each other with ease,’ says Paul.
They also went off-piste with their colour palette. ‘Most
of the options these days tend to be very neutral but
we wanted a bit of colour. The blue shade feels fresh
and uplifting,’ says Paul, who can now happily say that
the inside of his home more than lives up to the outside.The island is
flanked by a
wine rack on
one side and
a wine cooler
on the otherWhen cooking together at the island,
Paul and Sue can interact with guests in
all directions – towards the seating area
and dining space and out to the garden