A pleasing Georgian house in the Chilterns made to work for modern family life
“Apparently lots of people fell in love with the front of this house when they viewed it,” says interior designer Jennifer Pelzig of her very charming 18th-century house in the Chilterns, “but they couldn't necessarily work out how to live here as a family in the modern world. But I love a challenge.” Moving out of London with her husband and young children, Jennifer had been looking for an abundance of space and a quick and easy renovation, and this house offered neither, but the charm of the exterior and the lovely village location were too hard to resist.
The house is classically Georgian and pleasingly symmetrical from the outside, but inside things were a little more confusing, with discrete spaces, especially on the ground floor, that weren’t going to work particularly well for family life. “What was very nice about the house,” says Jennifer, “is that the previous owners had been there for about 35 years, and it felt very loved – there was the sense of it already being a home. They had worked on the house with great care, but their renovations had been decades ago, and it’s just a different era now where people live in a different way.” Some of the features added in by the previous owners, such as the conservatory, felt particularly dated, and so Jennifer’s mission was to create an interior that felt more sensitive to the period and location, with simple but beautiful chimneypieces, shutters and mouldings.
Their principal structural renovations involved opening up the space between the kitchen and the conservatory, lending a sense of generosity to the former and making the latter into a more elegant room that functions as a playroom for the children during the day. “Inevitably small children want to be wherever you are,” Jennifer remarks. “It’s nice to imagine a lovely playroom on an upper floor where they will just go and play nicely, but it doesn't work like that – they're in and amongst what's going on. It was important to make the layout work for how we actually live.” That’s not to say, however, that the interior was to be given over to children’s needs entirely. At the front of the house the couple maintained an elegant sitting room and dining room, while even the playroom is well-equipped with an enormous antique cupboard into which Lego and Mr Potato Head can be stuffed at the end of the day. “It enables my husband and me to act like we’re just two grown-ups having a nice drink together,” she laughs.
The other major element of the renovation was transforming the long, low outhouse that sits just across a small terrace from the back of the playroom. Previously a garage and a few poky utility and storage spaces that were all closed off from one another, it is now light and sleek, with a spare room at one end, a tiny study area for Jennifer in the middle, a utility room and a gym. “We ummed and aahed about trying to fit the utility room into the main house, but actually I’ve really enjoyed having it in the annexe, because it means we're in and out of there every single day and the space feels alive and part of the house.”
Antiques, vintage pieces and reclaimed materials form a strong thread that runs through the house, lending their age and patina to the serene, organic backdrop that Jennifer has created. The pantry she has built into the kitchen has superbly distressed salvaged doors, while the utility room features a worktop from an old school laboratory as well as a reclaimed sink and taps. Remarkably, for a young family’s house where there is presumably plenty of stuff to contend with, there is very little built-in furniture. Jennifer pulled out bookshelves on either side of the fireplace in the sitting room and filled the spaces with an unusual cabinet and chest instead. Even upstairs in the three lovely bedrooms, Jennifer has chosen antique chests, wardrobes and shelves that are both practical and beautiful. “I love that they're all movable objects,” she explains. “You can actually change the way the house looks and feels from season to season and year to year as needs change. I don’t think a house can or should be static, where you say, ‘right that’s it, it’s done, finished, it won’t move.’ I’m about to start a reshuffle of the boys’ rooms as they’ve grown up a bit since I did them, and that’s easy to do when everything is freestanding.”
This ability to move things was quite a conscious choice. “We all have lots of sides to our personality,” says Jennifer, and it can sometimes be quite hard to decide which one you’re going to commit to in your house. I remember when we got married, and I went to choose my wedding dress and I thought how difficult it was to choose just one, because there were so many I liked, and so many different moods and versions of myself that I could have explored. Decorating your house is similar. It can be a bit overwhelming to think, ‘OK, I have to have this kitchen for the next 20 years.’ But if you go for antiques and bits you’ve picked up on your travels, you can always change them."
Ursula Armstrong1/20At the front of the house, a door in the main sitting room looks out into the garden. The walls in this space are again in Atelier Ellis' ‘Khadi’, with a door in the same company's ‘Plume’. A small work by the American Impressionist William Samuel Horton hangs to the right of the door.
Ursula Armstrong2/20In the sitting room, two antique pieces fill the alcoves on either side of the fireplace, which had previously held bookshelves. reclaimed from an Italian chapel and sourced via Renaissance London. On the left is a 17th-century stripped oak chest from French Loft, while on the right an antique French painted cupboard hides the TV. The chimneypiece was reclaimed from an Italian chapel and sourced via Renaissance London.
On the left hangs an original artwork by Sandhills Studios, found at McCully & Crane, while an antique painting from Fern and Green hangs over the fire.
Ursula Armstrong3/20The wall hanging is from LRNCE, and the coffee table is a Hollywood Regency style bought from Ben Southgate on Columbia Road. The antique Moroccan rug came from A New Tribe.
Ursula Armstrong4/20At the back of the sitting room, the space opens up into the dining room. An antique dining table and old chapel chairs stand on a bespoke seagrass rug. A mid-century Spanish gilt light fitting from LCT Interiors hangs above.
Ursula Armstrong5/20The chairs have seat cushions made in a fabric Jennifer found in the Marrakech souk. The shutters are a bespoke design for the house.
Ursula Armstrong6/20The window seat has cushions in Studio Ashby's ‘Afua’ pattern.
Ursula Armstrong7/20The downstairs loo opens off the entrance hall, where the wall is the oldest surviving part of the original house. Its walls are painted in Atelier Ellis’ ‘Milk’, and it houses a reclaimed sink and taps.
Ursula Armstrong8/20Out in the entrance hall, an antique French shop counter from Pure White Lines has been refitted with a marble top and serves as clever shoe storage.
Ursula Armstrong9/20The main bedroom is painted in Edward Bulmer's ‘Mummy’, while the shutters and ceiling are in Atelier Ellis' ‘Khadi’. Jennifer has used antique furniture for storage, including a pine wardrobe in the corner and an Indian cupboard to the left. The bed is from Soho Home; the oversized globe light fitting came from an antiques fair.
Ursula Armstrong10/20The door is painted in Atelier Ellis' ‘Plume’. The wall lights are by deVOL.
Ursula Armstrong11/20An antique chest stands next to a reclaimed fireplace sourced from The Architectural Forum. The painted mirror came from Pato Interiors. Another piece by William Samuel Horton hangs over the fireplace.
Ursula Armstrong12/20Jennifer's eldest son's room has walls in Atelier Ellis' ‘Watercolour’. The floors are original to the house, and the chimneypiece was brought from their previous house. The elephant artwork above is by Huw Griffiths, the first piece of art Jennifer and her husband bought together on Camden Passage.
Ursula Armstrong13/20Jennifer's younger son's nursery is painted in Little Greene's ‘Slaked Lime’. The mobile is a handmade one by FLOC from Among the Pines Gallery.
Ursula Armstrong14/20The bathroom features Moroccan zellige tiles around the vanity, on the floor and around the shower. A reclaimed school sink was repurposed to become a double sink, and the mirrors are also vintage, sourced from Pato Interiors. The pendant lights are by Astier de Villatte.
Ursula Armstrong15/20The walls are painted in Little Greene's ‘Slaked Lime’. The tin bath came from Indigenous in Burford. The Picasso print was a gift from Jennifer's husband on the birth of their eldest son.
Ursula Armstrong16/20The ‘Man in Yellow Hat’ artwork is by Jennifer's friend Rosie Maddison of Harrogate House.
Ursula Armstrong17/20Out in the annexe, the walls are painted in Atelier Ellis' ‘Milk’, with doors and windows in Little Greene's ‘Pompeiian Ash’.
Ursula Armstrong18/20In the utility room, the reclaimed school lab worktop, sink and taps all came from Architectural Forum. Jennifer also used reclaimed Spanish floor tiles from Maitland and Poate as a splashback. The sink curtain is made up in Fermoie's ‘Botany’ fabric and hides the washing machine and dryer.
Ursula Armstrong19/20Jennifer has squeezed in a small study outside the spare room, using offcuts of marble. A mid-century chair, antique Moroccan rug, and an antique brass lamp with a Dar Leone lampshade warms up the space.
Ursula Armstrong20/20The spare room is painted in Little Greene's ‘Pale Wedgwood.’ The Feather & Black bed is covered with a throw from Toast.
