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Home Truths: Restoration, but no drama

Cheryl Markosky meets the show home designer Juliette Hopkins

Wednesday 12 March 2003 01:00 GMT
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Juliette Hopkins designs show homes and apartments for Hopkins Homes. She lives in a traditional mid-Suffolk longhouse with her husband James, who heads up the company, her children aged seven and four and two stepchildren, 13 and 11.

We live in a little village just north of Woodbridge. We looked for a couple of years for a house, but it was difficult to find a nice old place that sits well in its land. Two years were spent looking and waiting for the right thing to come along.

"My husband James is in the building business and I work in interior decoration, so we really enjoy the aesthetic side. We loved looking and nosing round, having nice long lunches with wine and chatting. Searching for a property almost became a hobby. Then we came across this house that wasn't on the market. The elderly owner was a friend of James's parents and eventually we bought the house from him.

"It is a traditional longhouse that has evolved over the years. The Queen Anne bit had been bricked up and the sash windows on the front "Georgianised". There is an Elizabethan section, too – four amazing 16th-century cobbled chimneys that are handmade in lovely shapes with carvings. They stuck the chimneys on so everyone could see they had come into some cash – like parking your Rolls Royce outside.

"The house is Grade II*-listed and has seven bedrooms, three storeys and a cellar. The back is rendered with Suffolk timber and oak-mullioned windows. It is always deceptive when you first look round a house. The light was dimmed and the curtains covered things up. It was last renovated in the Sixties and then, they just lived in it.

"We bought the house five years ago and sorted out the electrics and plumbing and moved walls. We are both perfectionists and wanted to do everything properly from scratch. Anxious meetings were held with the council, but they were OK once they realised we wanted to put back things that it felt should be there, like the inglenook fireplace and central Victorian staircase. Luckily, a great local guy, Tom Webster, provided oak doors and beams for the ceiling.

"The kitchen is the heart of the house now. Traditionally, it was a space for the servants and was neglected, but we turned it round. It is a great space for family. I have two boys of my own, as well as two stepchildren, who come to stay. When you get them all together, the noise level goes up. But we are in eight acres, with a field and nice garden, which is perfect for the children. The boys love making dens in the garden.

"Suffolk is fairly flat and can come across as a barren wasteland. But this house sits in a little valley that is nicely undulating. When I drove up the first time, I noticed how wonderful it looked. It has a sweet Queen Anne front, which is unusual for Suffolk. It is rare to have the vernacular and casual; symmetry with formality.

"The layout is really important in a house. You have to visualise spaces and imagine how they will work together. I see a lot, so I am in tune with what would work and what doesn't. This is a great house with a good vibe. We almost bought a house in a nearby village, but it didn't feel right, I did try to convince myself it was all right, but couldn't quite go through with it. Then I found out someone had been murdered in the garden.

"I especially like our 'snug' – in the evening, it is extremely cosy, with a big roaring fire. In comparison, the drawing room is light and elegant. We do a lot of entertaining in the summer. There is a terrific play barn with a swimming pool attached.

"My style is quite masculine actually, quite clean and calm. I decorate show houses and apartments mainly and like using a lot of fabric. I base my look on shop windows that are bright and colourful. This gets absorbed to my maximum level when working, so when I go home I want cream and red – the antithesis to what I do at work.

"I grew up in Africa, so I like the rustic and ethnic. I will cut things with cream, reds and browns with an ethnic twist. I buy furniture that interests me and that will go with the house. There is a big refectory table in the kitchen and an old oak one in the hallway. I mix things in. Because of what I do, I am constantly visually reassessing things in my mind.

"I have just bought a house in London in Notting Hill's Westbourne Grove. I feel I am rather neglecting my husband and Suffolk, as I like going to London to discover things. I am very lucky to have both. It is fantastic. The London house is quite different – it is very modern. The architecture lends itself to a clean and simple look, while the old Suffolk house can have a few modern pieces, but too many can make it look sterile.

"I went to the Central School of Art, but dropped out. It was very politically structured and everyone had an axe to grind. So I left. I always wanted to be an artist and I just fell into designing the interiors of show houses and apartments. But I believe anyone can acquire a way of looking at the world. You can train yourself to absorb things and formulate your own ideas. Your confidence grows the more you do. You need to work with what you have as well. You can't put bright Mexican colours into a house in England, for instance. You have to let the climate and local colours dictate."

Hopkins Homes 01394 446800

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