Hornsby Style, Sussex

The home is complete with a rustic, Scandi-Lux style, with lots of muted colours, and wood textures creating a warming interior, whilst the use of greenery perfectly connects the interior with the nature surrounding the property. When it came to making the interior design decisions, Sharon and her extensive experience in renovations put together the plans to achieve their design goal of having ‘a light-filled, warm family home’ as she goes on to describe:

“I was the interior designer as well as designing the extensions and new interior layout – Many of the big decisions, such as flooring, were made whilst thinking about the lodges origins in the 1920s – It was so important that the new doors & windows added lots of natural light – Because it was such a big renovation and we had only lived here for 4 months when it started I initially painted everything white and lived with that for a while to get a feel for the light in the house and then decorated once I was happy with that – I wanted the house to have a warm welcoming feel … I’m drawn to the ‘scandi lux’ vibe – Pinterest is a great source of inspiration and Instagram can be too and I love interior magazines such as living etc.”

When it came to the downstairs flooring, Sharon wanted something that would flow from room to room, without looking brand new, and this is where the couple decided on Tannery Brown. Available in both herringbone and plank, from our Deco Plank and Deco Parquet collections, this floor offers a very rustic and aged feel that would perfectly fit the bill for Sharon’s aged design.

Having used wood flooring in her 4 previous renovation projects, Sharon knew what she was looking for, and when she came across V4 Wood flooring’s extensive choice of colours and high-quality products that she could have in a mix and match of styles, the decision was made. Sharon explains:

“I decided to have planks in the kitchen as I prefer that, I like the planks drawing the eye in whichever way you lay them and knew I wanted parquet in the sitting room and study off either side of the hallway to add interest and again it looks like it’s aged and always been there rather than them looking like newly built rooms”, before she went on to explain why she chose Tannery Brown in particular, stating she liked The colour looking like original aged floorboards”.

Upstairs in the hallway, Sharon and Jim decided to go with one of our Natureffect Laminate Floors, Indian Summer Oak from our Natureffect Aqua lock collection. Indian Summer Oak offers a real wood effect thanks to its embossed top layer that is warm and tactile underfoot. This plank is not only a perfect rendition of a real timber floor, offering a real rustic effect with each plank, but is also complete with our water-resistant locking mechanism that is certified and tested to withstand water ingression for up to 36 hours, making it a perfect floor for a busy family.

When discussing why they chose Indian Summer Oak for the hallway, Sharon explains:

“Because it’s hardwearing, water resistant and also cheaper – the budget was really stretched by the time we came to upstairs and despite wanting the downstairs flooring to look original upstairs I wanted something lighter as it’s a narrow space in places”

Before going on to say:

“It really does look like wood flooring and also the fact that it’s splash proof as it’s outside two bathrooms”

When it was time to install the floors, Jim took on part of this role and got involved in laying the flooring in addition to Ocean Flooring, Sharon explains Ocean flooring did the kitchen/diner, library snug and sitting room and Jim laid the herringbone in the study and the laminate DIY”.

With Jim saying ‘it was the easiest laminated he’s laid’ our Natureffect collection is a perfect floor for your next DIY project. Sharon however continued to work on the interior design, explaining how the surrounding nature had inspired her design Some of the furniture came from our old house – I chose the moss green velvet sofas in the sitting room because I wanted them to tie in with the beautiful green view we have from the doors and windows on there and the colour works beautifully with the warm dark brown flooring and to further connect the inside with the exterior, and to add a little more light, Sharon explains how important the use of light was in this project:

“Very important! The lodge was gloomy with small windows in the rooms – we changed every window and added glass doors where some windows were originally (for example the kitchen) and added bi-folds, French doors and bigger windows to the extensions both upstairs and down”.

Another fantastic feature in the kitchen is the fireplace, which Sharon discusses was also a brilliant DIY job:

“I designed the kitchen with the thought of having a large island as the main feature – we bought the units and fitted it all on a DIY basis including the plumbing, panelling and painting of the units – there was an 80s fireplace and surround in here when we moved in ( it was originally the sitting room) so we ripped all of that out I exposed some of the original bricks and found a deco fireplace on eBay which I then painted black and fitted”

When asked overall how they have enjoyed the floors, and if they lived up to their expectations, Sharon replied saying Yes, they have – I couldn’t be happier with them… I love that they look like they’ve always been here and that they’re easy to clean and maintain”.