Anna Kaposi and her husband Gary Bulock’s Hertfordshire home in Hadley Wood was brand new when they moved in with their three children. So when it came to decorating, they could start from scratch. Anna chose to tackle the work herself, but found it difficult and time-consuming.
“It was not too hard in the bedrooms, particularly as we already had furniture to go in them, but I couldn’t make decisions about the major areas such as the hall, living room and conservatory, she said. “Two years on, when it got to the point that just a single light bulb hung in the hall, we knew we had to act and felt an interior designer would give these key spaces in our new-build home the extra wow factor it needed.”
Choosing a Designer
After researching a list of local interior designers, Anna chose Sarah Pritchard of Hertfordshire-based firm The House Clinic. “I liked her modern yet not minimalist style, which I felt would work well in our home,” she says.
Working Together
Sarah’s brief was to create functional, modern spaces that would mix well with the existing decoration. “As soon as I met her, I knew Sarah was the right person for the job says,” says Anna. Gary & Anna were both totally involved in the decision-making, which meant that sometimes “we dragged our heels”, but both say that Sarah never pressurised them. “It paid off, too, as I can honestly say that we have never regretted any decisions we made,” says Anna.
“Anna, Gary and I worked really well together,” says Sarah. “At first Anna was cautious but, by the time it came to designing the living room, she had become more confident. We went on a sourcing trip to Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, where she was completely taken with a Sahco fabric, which we subsequently used to cover the sofas. We were able to design the whole room around that.”
Creative Solutions
“The main challenge was working with what we had and making sure that what we added was cohesive with the existing furnishings,” says Sarah. So, leaving the neutral colour scheme of the hall unchanged, she chose a few pieces to lend definition, and the colour palette in the conservatory echoes the russet hues already adopted by Anna in the kitchen and TV room. The two unlikely pieces in the hallway, the constellation mirror and Aegean table made an arresting pair. For the conservatory Anna asked Sarah to create a scheme that worked well with the adjoining kitchen. The honeyed tones of the units were beautifully picked up in the russets of the egg chair and sofa. “It was in the living room that we were really able to push the boundaries with colour and texture,” she adds. “We abandoned the intended cream colour scheme in favour of purple shades, but the result blends well with the rest of the house.”
