Welcome home

Dan and Gina’s home in well-groomed Surrey is a charming rustic cottage that seems to envelop you as you enter the courtyard dappled with sunlight through a brick-arched doorway.  

Part of the rationale for moving was to simplify their lives and downsize. They wanted none of the formality of their former larger home and their whole approach was to achieve a look of easy, relaxed, friendly living. 

They didn’t want any furniture that did not have a lived-in feel or that they would need to worry about if it got bumped or scraped. They also wanted to make as much as possible of the natural light and features in the cottage. 

They used Fired Earth French Oak flooring throughout the ground floor. As this area is also home to Scottie,
their chocolate Labrador, it was also important it be easy to maintain this part of the house and keep it clean.

Gina worked with Lyndsey O’Brien, Home Designer at Fired Earth’s Cobham showroom, to achieve a charming retrospectively styled, light, airy and open kitchen-dining room, with which they are thrilled.  

Lyndsey also worked with Gina on two bathrooms – the downstairs cloakroom, tucked neatly under the stairs and the main family bathroom on the first floor. Both are beautifully simple yet functional with a restrained elegance, featuring a large range of Fired Earth tile and bathroom products.

“It was a wonderful experience working with the team at Fired Earth – all the team were so professional, they really live and breathe it,” says Dan.

“We wanted a large kitchen dining area and so we extended out of the kitchen wall at the rear of the house into what was formerly the tack room. This meant we could add more windows to get as much
natural light into the room as possible.  

“We were also able to create a space where the cook – usually Gina or sometimes my daughter or my son - is able to be part of the meal and not stuck in a distant room away from all the chat and fun. We can also see the cooking and enjoy the performance.

“We were first-time Aga buyers. We had friends, of course, who said they couldn’t live without their Agas, but we had never experienced cooking on an Aga before. We have a Six-Four and we find it so convenient, very quick and easy to cook on. And it looks pretty stunning too, fitting in really well with the whole design of the room. 

“Our lives have been transformed since we moved into this house and remodelled it to accommodate this room. We eat together as a family much more often than we ever did in the past and we spend a lot less time in restaurants, even though there are some great places nearby to eat at.

“It’s all had a wonderful impact on our quality of life and certainly on the value of our home. It’s made it more of a family home, eating and entertaining together, getting closer to our friends and wider family.”