The expert advice often given to potential buyers when moving to a new town is to rent a property first. ‘Try before you buy’ allows time to explore all areas and find a neighbourhood that really suits.
When Lizzy Tomley, her former husband and children Georgie, 12, and Ollie, 10, relocated from London to Bath, little did they know that the street on which they rented would be the very same one where they would eventually buy, subsequently narrowing their search to just 20 houses.
‘We instantly fell in love with the street,’ explains Lizzy. After a three-year wait, the right house became available and a sale was agreed.
Unusually for Bath, the house was a Victorian property, built in 1893, and much to Lizzy’s delight had a lot of its original period details intact. ‘It had only been owned by one family before us and had been passed down through three generations, so it was a huge privilege to be the second family to own it,’ she explains.
Despite having been split into two flats in the 1970s by the owner’s daughter – and in a state of disrepair – Lizzy could see the potential: ‘I relished the opportunity to return the house back to a single family home and to start from scratch with the interiors, whilst retaining as much of the original character as possible.’
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It took seven months to complete the renovation, during which time Lizzy made some exciting discoveries. ‘We were fortunate to find beautiful boards on the ground floor, which we gave the minimum treatment as I wanted to keep the patina and the character that they already had,’ she says.
They also unearthed two simple stone fireplaces on the top floor, and two other intact fireplaces on the first floor. But the most exciting discovery was a newspaper from 1893, the year the house was built, hidden in the eaves. ‘Opening the newspaper really felt like stepping back in time and somehow meeting the first occupants of the house,’ she says.
Located on the upper slopes of the city, the house has beautiful views over Bath and close proximity to the surrounding countryside. With its neutral colour palette, rustic flooring and pared-back interiors, the entire ground floor exudes a relaxed, country-style sophistication that sits well with the period details.
Upstairs, warm pastel shades and elaborate pattern allow for a livelier pace and provide more evidence of Lizzy’s interiors style: ‘My style is definitely influenced by my childhood home, which is an old farmhouse in Shropshire – full of character, brown furniture and a bit of wear and tear, which I’m a huge fan of.
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'I think homes should feel comfortable and reflect the personalities of the people living there,’ she says, adding that sleek interiors and hotel-style design are just not part of her thinking; rather, she favours furnishings and decorations that create a relaxing interior with bags of personality.
This is evident throughout the house, with vintage bentwood chairs – picked up at an auction – adding a welcoming bistro-feel in the kitchen, and a stripy armchair that Lizzy spotted in an antiques shop in London’s Northcote Road adding a dash of heritage charm to the living room.
Elsewhere, the furniture and accessories have been picked up at second-hand shops or acquired as hand-me-downs from family members. ‘This house has a feel of a country home in the city about it,’ she says.
‘I may be a city girl in Bath, but the countryside is in my blood and most certainly in my design choices, too.’
See more @pink.walls.at.number.13. The house is also available as a location via peagreenlocations.com