Hertford, Hertfordshire

 The couple decided to begin with the patio and downstairs room, drawing on Instagram and previous places they’ve stayed in for inspiration! There were certain areas that Mia knew they wanted to approach, for example, incorporating large external doors and windows to beautifully showcase the main feature of the hose – the garden! Mia and her husband also used the help of Jane from Maison Hartley to finalize some interior decisions:

“We did use an interior designer for our hallway because we were struggling to find the right floor colour for us. We knew whatever floor colour we went for would then be used eventually throughout the rest of the house as we did each room, so it was a big decision. We used Jane who owns Maison Hartley. We’d already bought lots of furniture from her shop for our previous house that came with us, and we love her spin on trends and her furniture stock is very rustic but a bit different.”

Mia explains that she always knew she wanted wood flooring, stating

“There’s something about wooden flooring that’s very homely and rustic and it gives the house more of a warmth but is also harder wearing for pets and children than carpet. With little ones running around I wanted something not too hard if they fell and something that was easily wiped! We wanted our floor to match our dining table. We were struggling to find anything that wasn’t either too grey or too brown. Our dining table is from Maison Hartley and is made by Vincent Shepherd. So, we asked Jane to help us find something similar to the top of it and out of all the different samples Silver Haze matched the best. We thought the sample from V4 was the nicest quality. The flooring looked strong and hard wearing it had a nice feel to it.”

When it came to finalising the flooring choices, Mia and her husband decided to go for a combination of herringbone and plank in Silver Haze. Silver Haze is one of our engineered floors that comes in both herringbone in our Zigzag collection, and plank in our Deco Collection. The 15mm thick boards have a 4m solid oak wear layer that has been stained to create the beautiful silver and grey tones of silver haze. The installation was done in two separate phases, therefore, Mia used two V4 approved fitters to conduct the installations, 1to1 flooring installed the herringbone first, and later in the project, Inner Space installed the planks. Mia described both fitters as being great, with each install being completed in good time, which was great for their busy family home!

When it came to finalising the flooring choices, Mia and her husband decided to go for a combination of herringbone and plank in Silver Haze. Silver Haze is one of our engineered floors that comes in both herringbone in our Zigzag collection, and plank in our Deco Collection. The 15mm thick boards have a 4m solid oak wear layer that has been stained to create the beautiful silver and grey tones of silver haze. The installation was done in two separate phases, therefore, Mia used two V4 approved fitters to conduct the installations, 1to1 flooring installed the herringbone first, and later in the project, Inner Space installed the planks. Mia described both fitters as being great, with each install being completed in good time, which was great for their busy family home!

The inspiration behind the furnishings was to create a cosy space, as Mia explains:

“The living room didn’t feel cosy until we renovated it and we tended not to sit down there in the evenings once the kids were in bed but now, we do! We love the space and how the house challenged us to make the best of its layout. It’s unusual to have three open plan reception rooms and not an open plan kitchen but we are so pleased with how we’ve sectioned the rooms. It means the toys stay confined to the playroom, but I can see the children from the living room. The main feature of our house is the garden and before you couldn’t really see it from inside, so this was really important when we planned what we were doing with moving external doors and windows. We wanted the window bars off and to be able to see outside inside. We haven’t put any blinds in at the back of the house because we love how the handmade windows look and being able to see the garden so well – fortunately, we aren’t overlooked. As a family home it is very busy and noisy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s hard not to be precious about things when they’re newly decorated but a house needs to be lived in and functional. We are envisioning a home bar and jukebox in the toy room one day though!”

As part of their busy family home, Mia and her family have two rescue cats, Max and Charlie, and a lovely dog called Teddy! Mia explained that the floors were great for their pets and that it’s great for muddy paws as it wipes so well!”. Mia also explained that despite Teddy the dog running around and playing on the floor it has never scratched! Overall, Mia expressed that she likes how the floor flows from room to room, and how easy it is to clean using the Bona Spray Mop, stating that we are so pleased with it I don’t think I’ve seen a nicer grey wood floor!