Flexi Time

Virginia and Ian have designed their contemporary- meets-colour-pop home to adapt to family living according to month, mood and growing children.

- Andrea Childs

‘We don’t do normal,’ says a laughing Virginia Priest, looking around her ‘Wooting’ home (that’s the des-res area between Tooting and Wandsworth in southwest London). She could be referring to the photograph of herself and husband Ian, coiffured as Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox and David Bowie in his Aladdin Sane incarnation, shot as a birthday present. Perhaps she’s referencing the graffiti forest spray-painted in the basement den. Or maybe it’s the stencilled images of the couple’s children, Lily, Fynn and Edie, ascending a flight of stairs along with the family’s dog Nelson.

Virginia and Ian have taken an Arts and Crafts villa and transformed it into a contemporary, flowing space. Their aim: to create a home that evolves as the children grow up and the family’s needs change. Already the basement – ‘the size of an Olympic swimming pool’ – has become less kids’ playroom and more cool hangout, with a concealed bar for the adults and a cinema set-up for the children and their friends. A huge sliding door can be pulled across to divide the space, making it even more flexible. ‘The other day, we had 100 people down here for a party,’ says Virginia. ‘But, usually, it’s just teenagers lolling around on the sofas.’