'We gave our home the character it deserves'

Paula Bailey and her husband Steve replaced bright blues and yellows with soft pinks and greens and reinstated period features to breathe new life into a Victorian gate lodge

- 

Paula knew what she wanted in her and husband Steve's hunt for a bigger home: 'I love a characterful, old house, and coming from a two-bedroom thatched cottage I had high expectations for our next move,' she says. So when the couple stumbled across this place, with its beautiful exterior, they knew it was the one. However, the house had been empty for a year so it was rundown, and on the day they moved in Steve turned on the tap and water leaked everywhere, so the first job was calling out an emergency plumber.

'But we were never going to buy a new-build,' says Paula, 'and old properties generally come with some issues.' In this case that included three different forms of damp, an AGA that had technical issues, and a shower that didn't work. 'But we knew the work needed doing so we'd earmarked some of our budget to get the problems fixed,' she explains.

MAKEOVER MAGIC

The couple began the renovation in the kitchen as, Paula explains, 'it only needed cosmetic attention so felt like an easy win.' The original units were handmade from solid wood, and were in good condition so she didn't want to rip them out, instead giving them a budget update. 'We wanted to focus our finances on parts of the house that really needed it, and having painted lots of wooden furniture in the past, I decided to go down that route for the kitchen,' she explains.