Victorian Home, Surrey
The natural oak finish of Landscapes Barley Field is chosen for rooms inside the Victorian home of Angellica Bell & Michael Underwood
Familiar faces on our TV screens, Angellica, Michael and their children have lived in this beautiful turn of the century Victorian home for several years and always had plans to extend. Angellica explains, We moved here quite a few years ago. We both love character homes so when we saw this property, full of original Victorian features, we knew it would suit us. However I was a little bit reluctant to go for it because it had a small galley kitchen design, but in the end we compromised, agreeing that we would eventually extend and create a larger family friendly kitchen. Until then we were lucky, the home didnât require much work so we could just move in and start life in our new family home. We both love cooking and entertaining, probably why we both agreed to take part in BBC1âs Celebrity MasterChef, so our galley kitchen really wasnât a practical space to cook and eat together, but we had to live with it while we saved up for our extension.” It wasnât until the end of 2018 we could finally start to give our aspirations for the new extension more serious thought. We wanted to create a large open plan kitchen and dining space which would become our main family room. We had plans drawn up and with permission granted braced ourselves for the builders to move in and the disruption to start. With the rest of the house filled with character we designed this new space to still embrace that character feel over anything too modern, adding a few industrial touches into the design. To connect this new extension to the rest of the home the design meant they had to add a new hallway that would connect two existing living spaces and the new open plan kitchen. This was the catalyst for the couple to start thinking about new floors for some of the existing downstairs spaces. We were having tiles in the new kitchen but liked the idea of a more natural wood floor finish in the hallway and our two existing living rooms that connect to it. Iâd started documenting the project on my Instagram and asked for flooring suggestions which is where I was introduced to V4 Wood Flooring. The floors looked great in the homes they featured on their Instagram account so contacting the team they suggested we visit their design centre, V4 World in Woking. The couple headed over, children in tow, and were impressed with the showroom and big choice of wood floors. The showroom was huge, really impressive. We left the children in their games area and started to explore the large format samples. With so much choice the couple explained they were looking for something that had a really natural and traditional feel that would effortlessly fit in with the Victorian style of the home; a wood floor that whilst looking new would also feel like they could have been in the home for years.
âThe team were incredibly helpful and when they showed us the Landscapes collection what we immediately loved was the extra wide nature of the planks which we hadnât come across anywhere else. The floors also had such a lovely authentic rustic charm and a beautifully textured surface.”
âWe found ourselves leaning towards the really natural but warm oak tones of Barley Field. They would work really well to add natural textures and also contrast with our dark blue design aspirations for one of the living spaces where the floors would be installed. Decision made the builders on the project completed the installation of the wood floors in the family lounge, hallway and more grown up living room they have designed, affectionately nicknamed the Blue Room. âWe had a lot of fun designing this room. We wanted it to be our grown up room, somewhere to spend time entertaining friends. We kind of wanted it to feel a bit like you were in a private members club in London â but without having to pay the expensive joining fee!
âThe centrepiece is the gorgeous original Victorian fireplace, and we then filled the room with antiques and collectables we have accumulated over the years. We both adore finding unique items with a bit of a story to tell and some of the things we have bought are just made so beautifully, they will never date.â
Dramatic blue walls and a velvety blue sofa contrast beautifully with the natural rustic oak tones of the Barley Field wood floors which continue out into the hallway meeting the new tiled floors in the kitchen extension seamlessly. We are so pleased with our new wood floors. We have such a busy house but they still look like new and are so easy to keep clean, even with young children. We absolutely love entertaining and cooking in our new kitchen extension, but itâs always a treat to retire to the blue room after a meal with friends for an ambient drink with music, the lovely lighting and all our favourite antiques around us.