What was supposed to have been a six-
month project ended up taking a year, but
it was worth it. “The best bit of the
renovation was the creativity of going down
a rabbit hole deciding what you want it to be.
Your home is a reflection of your personal
style, it’s fun,” Grant says. And with two
sons, Otto, now four, and Ozzy, one, fun has
definitely been injected into the decor.
Take the playroom (or the “kid pit”as Grant
calls it), where dark walls painted in Farrow
& Ball Railings contrast with bright
embellishments, such as the leopard rug
hanging on the wall. “It’s from a really nice
mum-run company called Doing Goods. It’s
a rug but I thought it would be really cool to
hang on the wall instead of a painting,” she
says. “I love using things in different,
non-obvious ways.” Practicality isn’t
compromised for style either. “We put in
loads of Ikea toy storage at the bottom of the
cupboards, so there’s a lot of space in there.”
The juxtaposition of eclectic and vintage
pieces and simple practicalities is a constanttheme in the house. For example the
second-hand leather chair in the nursery
was bought from an artsy furniture store,
McCully & Crane, “an amazing shop in Rye”
where Grant has been buying pieces for ten
years. Meanwhile one of the children’s
bedrooms is adorned with a toy giraffe that
Grant’s husband “won at a fair”, an Ikea lamp
and custom-made stripy cushions in Ikea
fabric — “There’s a lot of Ikea!” — while the
nursery features a Flexa cot and an Ila y Ela
wall decoration, bought in the homeware
store Fleux on a trip to Paris. Plus a
Binibamba rug, of course.
Grant designed the main bathroom to be
functional for a young family, deciding not
to have a shower “because when you’ve got
children it’s just bathtime, not showers”. The
marble-look floor is actually porcelain from
Fired Earth to make it less slippery, and there
is a reeded glass wall, allowing light into the
landing hall behind it.
The house isn’t all about the children,
though, with the living room acting as anLeft A cot from Flexa sits in the nursery, while the
lion wall decoration is made by a brand called Ila y Ela.
On the floor is one of Grant’s Binibamba rugs.
Below A tepee tent for the children sits in the playroom.
Behind it in the cupboards are built-in storage units
from Ikea. Bottom In the beige living room is a Hay sofa
that Grant had reupholstered in cream bouclé wool.
Her Vogue collection is displayed on the shelves30 • The Sunday Times Style