Building a home from scratch is the ultimate goal for many an interior designer. For Sarah Pinn, the opportunity to create a home from a small, derelict property in the Surrey town where she grew up proved an irresistible draw. “It was a bit of a Cinderella moment in that it was just the right fit for me, plus there aren’t many undeveloped buildings left in really suburban areas like this,” says the 40-year-old, who relocated from a Georgian townhouse she had renovated in Canterbury, Kent, with her nine-year-old son.
Acquiring the site, near Reigate, over two years ago dovetailed with Pinn landing in full-time employment for the first time after almost 20 years as a freelance draughtsman. Sophie Rowell, the founder of the Folkestone-based interior design practice Côte de Folk, hired Pinn as her right hand. Starry names on the studio’s roster include the actors Andrew Scott and Jenna Coleman, and the TV presenter Angela Scanlon.
Having a new boss as a sounding board came at an invaluable time. “Sophie will always walk into a space and have that wise, broader zoom-out perspective, whereas I’m good at the zoom-in,” Pinn says. Indeed, it was Rowell who suggested the subtle but effective two-tone paintwork on the kitchen cabinetry. Pinn had designated a large cupboard to house the boiler — along with, rather ingeniously, a side opening by the front door to stash shoes — but Rowell thought it would look too cumbersome in a block colour. “We overlap in complementary ways: Sarah makes the most of every inch of any space, and I focus on the tactile and visual details that elevate the room,” Rowell explains.
The petite courtyard with plants in travertine boxes, and brutalist wall lights refurbished by Jamie Taylor
CHRIS SNOOK
Pinn’s clever approach to maximising space is best exemplified by the L-shaped downstairs loo. Concealed within a wall of V-groove panelling in the kitchen, the moody nook has a washing machine hidden behind a concertina door, a laundry maid on an electric hoist and a shower tray in stainless steel that you step over to reach the loo. A set of double doors means her son can also access it from his bedroom. Upstairs in Pinn’s and her partner Jamie Taylor’s room, the upholstered headboard set away from the wall cleverly conceals shoeboxes, while a low storage unit opposite, draped in linen, was sized to house the airtight containers Pinn relies on to keep moths away from her knitwear.
It’s a hardworking room, with an enormous vintage wood-topped bath and a loo wrapped in moiré vinyl, that is also Pinn’s WFH space. The desk is carved from a chunk of travertine positioned to look out to the neighbouring church and moonlights as a dressing table. All the techy essentials are carefully out of sight, “because the minute you’ve got a filing cabinet and a printer out you’re in your office at night and at the weekend”, Pinn says. The house is considerably more compact than those of most of Côte de Folk’s clients and she is proudly obsessive about the details: “If the practicalities aren’t taken care of, there will always be a rub. What you want is for it to be beautiful but also effortlessly practical.”
Upstairs in the bedroom, tucked in next to the granite sink unit, is a storage cupboard
CHRIS SNOOK
The living room features original beams
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The cleverly laid-out bedroom with a desk and hidden wardrobe
CHRIS SNOOK
Pinn and Taylor, who is a lighting designer, oversaw the 18-month project themselves. They rolled up their sleeves, lugged around wheelbarrows of rubble, and called on subcontractors, friends and colleagues to create a two- bedroom house within the shell of the existing building. Due to the property’s wonky angles they experienced a few battles along the way, such as fitting the cornerless sliding doors that open on to the internal courtyard. “The easy thing would be to have a post there, but it would have defeated the object of the seamlessness that we now enjoy,” Pinn says. Taylor took on the poured-concrete flooring himself. “That was so stressful because if it goes wrong, what are you supposed to do?” Pinn remembers.
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She calls managing a build “a different kettle of fish” compared with her previous refurb. “It’s a great privilege, but you can’t get away from the pressure of it all, and of course the rest of life has to carry on around it.” She also notes how starting from the ground up meant prioritising the bones of the building over the more “exciting, showstopper pieces”. They moved in last summer so these are finally starting to trickle in, with a set of vintage Italian bentwood chairs sourced from Soap and Salvation a new addition around the kitchen table.
The downstairs loo is painted in Inferior Grey by Edward Bulmer
CHRIS SNOOK
The voile curtains downstairs are by Côte de Folk
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What’s reassuring to hear is that decision fatigue is real, even for the professionals. And how Pinn saw cost constraints, like only having three choices within her budget at the stoneyard for the kitchen worktop, as benefits. She likens the process overall to a sort of “shedding”. “I had to be really honest with myself about where I was, what my expectations were and what the necessities were. Often it’s less about achieving what you want to do than divorcing yourself from what you want to do, because if you made a meal out of all your favourite ingredients, it would be disgusting,” she adds with a laugh.
Still, the memories of the hard labour involved are finally fading. “It was such a slog that it took me a while to feel like I could relax. Now I have, it feels glorious,” she says, smiling.
The artwork in the living room is by Chiara Perano
CHRIS SNOOK
The upholstered headboard conceals storage space for shoeboxes
CHRIS SNOOK
Pinn had a mahogany surround made for the salvaged wood-topped bathtub in the bedroom
CHRIS SNOOK