The property’s contents were emptied into a shipping container in the garden for the duration of the project. “It was interesting how this ‘neutralises’ the complex feelings [around people’s attachment to things] and how the very act of stripping a house creates a reset and fresh canvas,” notes Amelia. Some pieces, like carved wood twin beds, the mule chest in the bathroom, and the Eames sofa, which she and Anna had reupholstered in a cheery yellow fabric, easily found their way back into the house. But there have been debates over other details: “My Aunt Philippa’s philosophy is about reusing as much as possible, and the appropriateness level for a second home. Her view is that nothing needs to be smart, because it’s a holiday home.”
Amelia sought to compromise where possible. Philippa had a strong desire to keep the floral wallpaper in the hallway – “the kind of pattern you’d see on a 1960s dress,” laughs Amelia – but a fragment of it will be framed as a memento instead. Philippa also assumed that the old bathroom tiles, a dated design with a fish border, would be re-used. “Aesthetically, my thought was ‘No’, but then I realised that we obviously didn’t want to chuck something away if we didn’t have to,” explains Amelia. “However, you’d only take tiles off a wall to do something really special. It was a mattertrying to explain what alternatives there might be: and in the end they had to go.”