A labour of love

When antique dealer Will Green set out to create a kitchen that is both sympathetic to his historic home and suited to his young family, he used clay dug out of the ground below, distemper made from rabbit glue and 19th-century furniture to bring the space to life

- Arabella Youens

WHEN Will Green and his wife, Hayley, finally found a house that they wanted to buy, the deal was agreed not through an agent, but on a firm handshake with the local farmer. Set in the middle of a village on the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire border, the house dates from the late 18th century, with a substantial section added during the 19th century. The attraction to Mr Green, who is the fourth generation to work for Towcester-based family business Ron Green, was the fact that much of the house had been left untouched by modernity. ‘There is a top floor that we haven't got to yet and it remains as it was in the 19th century,’ he says, pointing out that when planning the project, he was very keen to preserve what he describes as the ‘really lovely bones of the house’.

"The pieces I like are often quite humble and have a timesoftened quality'