Calm & collected

The minute you walk into Koreen and Charles' serene home you feel at easebut getting it to this state was a journey

- WORDS VIVIENNE AYERS | PHOTOGRAPHY NICK SMITH

If you've just moved house, you'd expect all thoughts to turn to your new home. But when Koreen and her husband Charles moved from Wandsworth to Hampshire, London wasn't far from their minds.

'I came back to pick up some things and I saw a solicitor's board outside this lovely Edwardian terraced property as it was a probate house,' says Koreen.

"I decided to go and view it, then I said to my husband, "I've seen a house that I think we should buy," and he said, "Can I remind you that we've just moved to Hampshire!" Koreen felt they should still have a foot in London and managed to persuade Charles to buy the house. The couple then spent time renovating it and rented it out before returning to London four years later, when their sons Tom and Ollie were older.