Character Building

After years of moving, Jack and David found their ideal home - and their lockdown transformation earned them our best garden award

- By Jack and David. Photographs by Neil White

There are times when looking for a dream home can seem like a fairytale, with a stressful emotional journey in pursuit of a happy ever after. For Jack and his partner, David, the route to their beautifully styled flat in an Edwardian terrace is a real Goldilocks story. As Jack explains: 'This is our third home in London. The first property was nice and big. The second was in a better area but was tiny. Here, we've got the size and the area; it's just right!

They came across their flat after a bid to buy a renovation project in Clapham fell through. Disheartened, they switched their search to Mortlake, which they'd driven through on trips back to Jack's home city of Newcastle. 'We thought it was a lovely area,' he recalls. We found two properties on the market; one was beautiful inside, and this property needed a full renovation. David said, “You'll be bored with nothing to do - let's go for the one that needs work”.!

The flat's period bones were good but years as a rental property had resulted in some questionable design choices. 'It was characterless. Everything was white,' says Jack. “They'd put in horrible laminate flooring and there were weird metal windows, which we replaced with wooden sash windows. The kitchen was in loads of different little bits, and the sink came off the wall diagonally.'