伦敦夫妇的乡村生活 | 寓所设计展示

Our Open House series offers a peek inside some of the homes we represent ahead of their sale. We speak to owners about the intimate details that make their house a special place to live and ask them to reflect on what they will miss. Here, we speak to RÅN Studio founders, Agatha and Robert Appleton-Sas, about leaving London for Bristol, the redesign of their Victorian flat and why plywood kitchens just aren’t for them. Check out their home for sale here.

Leaving London for Bristol was a stepping stone for us, towards a life more connected to nature and being out in the countryside. I don’t think we were escaping, because we love London, but we also love woods, meadows and fields, and living here has brought us closer to all that.

We didnt know

if we would be ready to move to the countryside proper. Bristol represented a

move to a city that has as much to offer as London does, in terms of good food,culture and a big creative scene, yet if we want to be in the countryside we

get in the car and we are there within 20 minutes. Its not too much of a shock

either way.

We were in Brockley, south east

London, in a very different kind of place that we didnt remodel in any way. We

were looking for something that we could create as our own space. We wanted it

to be filled with light and be an open space, which we knew would take a lot of

work to achieve.

When we came

to see this flat, the first thing that we fell in love with was the street

itself – we were struck by how peaceful it is. It’s very quiet street and tree-lined,and all the buildings are Victorian. Nothing is jarring or out of context,which I think creates a beautiful kind of safety in a way, that feels

aesthetically soothing.The interior

hadn’t been touched since the 1980s, so it was a bit of a time capsule. But we

could see its potential: how big it was, that there was a garden, how tall the

ceilings were, and how we could get light to flood in from all sides. Our

redesign was about playing to the sense of calmness we felt was here, of

creating a little oasis.

A large part

of that was the garden, which we tried to establish a connection to as much as

possible from the house. We have doors from the kitchen that open up to

beautiful ferns and then there are bigger doors in the bedroom, which, when opened,bring in the smell of lavender, rosemary and honeysuckle.In the summer,the scent travelling in is beautiful. And then there is also the little side

window, with planted bamboo in front. It moves a little bit in the wind and

whispers at night. It’s quite sensual – we love opening the doors to have

fresh air and sunlight on our skin.

Inside, we kept some original

Victorian features, like the fireplace, a sash window in the bedroom, which is

beautiful and large, the wooden floorboards, which we renovated, and a

beautiful ceiling rose in the kitchen.

We have

changed everything else and opened up the space wherever we could. The only

place that stayed where it was is the living room. It was a massive remodelling

that we did with our perfect architect, Paul Cannon.

The kitchen was an important space to get right for us. It seemed like everyone was doing plywood cabinets and we appreciated that they looked cool and minimal, which is not what we’re about.

The whole

space is full of things that have a lot of meaning for us. Everything we own

either comes directly from our family homes, has a story or is somewhat

connected to a friend, a place or a memory that is important to us.

So, when we

were thinking about the kitchen, we wanted to create something that would feel

personal to us – something that would remind us of our childhood homes

maybe, which meant heavier furniture for both of us.

We went to

auctions in Somerset looking for pieces that perhaps were in a farmhouse one

day. So, the island is an 18th-century oak dresser and you can see it has

history, how heavy it is, and the craftmanship that went into it. We can admire

it is as an object in its own right, rather than it just being functional or

being part of part of the architecture.

A new kitchen is not necessarily

sustainable, and it’s amazing that if someone doesnt