Moving north: A capital decision

Moving from Crouch End to the heart of Brontë country was a culture shock for Emma and Andrew Tucker, but the benefits of being back home have been worth the heartache of leaving London.

Though Emma lost most after leaving her job in publishing to move North, house hunting, renovating, babies and a new business haven’t given her much time to dwell on what she might be missing.

“We decided to sell our one-bedroom flat because we wanted to give our children the sort of childhoods we had and we wanted to be close to our families here in Yorkshire.

“It was a massive decision because we’d lived in London for six years and we loved it.”

Emma, who searched for a home while on maternity leave with newborn Oscar, found a terrace property in Haworth with magnificent views and bags of potential.

“We wanted something with character and we wanted a project and this was it,” she says.

Emma and Andrew, a graphic designer who works between home and London, transformed the property on a tight budget thanks to hard work and artistic flair.

“We lived at Andrew’s mum’s while most of the work was done. We had everything done, including a damp course, new wiring, plumbing and a new boiler. But we were lucky we had a lot of help from family and friends.”

Although the sitting room and kitchen had already been knocked into one on the ground floor, the two were linked by a stone arch, which has now been removed. A Seventies style stone fireplace and the gas fire were also ripped out to reveal the original open fire.

The loft room is now a vast bedroom/playroom for Oscar, four and Ollie, three.

A new bathroom was installed using white sanitary ware and the room was dressed with vintage cupboards and mirror plus new tiling done by Emma.

The freestanding kitchen units are from Ikea combined with one made by Andrew, while, the drying rack over the table is from eBay and decorated with fairy lights.

The bulk of the work took just two months and they added finishing touches when they moved in. The decor is testament to their combined creative skills. Emma, who trained as a photographer, and Andrew used Farrow and Ball paint in a variety of neutral and soft colours to create a backdrop for their artwork.

Some of the framed graphic prints are their own designs that have become best sellers on website www.notonthehighstreet.com and they are set to launch their own selling site.

“That started when I was decorating Oscar’s room and I could only find pictures of tractors and giraffes. I wanted something stylish and different. I started with lines from nursery rhymes and we’ve developed different prints over the last two years,” says Emma.

Modo Creative is a local enterprise with the prints designed and produced in Haworth and the framing done by Art Works in Otley.

Most of them are personalised word art, spelling out names and messages and are popular gifts for christenings and weddings. One man even proposed using one of their pictures.

“His girlfriend had one of our alphabet prints and he swapped it for one exactly the same but spelling out ‘marry me?’” says Emma, who has converted a bedroom into an office and print room.

She also uses the kitchen table as work station. That was a present from her mother, but much of the furniture is old and found. The couple are skilled treasure hunters with an eye for the unusual and beautiful.

The cupboard in their office was found dumped in a car park in Muswell Hill, the bentwood chairs are from a local church that was throwing them out.

The wardrobe is from a flat they used to rent in London. “The landlord sold it to us for next to nothing. He couldn’t see any value in it,” says Emma.

The Sell It Centre in Halifax is one of their favourite hunting grounds. They bought the radiator cover in the hallway from there for £20 along with a host other pieces. They also buy from eBay.

“Buying some things cheaply means we can justify splashing out on a few pricey bits, like a cushion I fell in love with that cost £60,” says Emma, whose photography skills are also in evidence.

She prints photographs on ordinary paper and stick them to mini canvases. They are mostly family pictures, but one of her favourites is a photo of the layers of wallpaper uncovered in the bathroom. There were several featuring everything from Fifties floral to Seventies geometric.

“Andrew wasn’t keen on keeping a section, so I took a photograph and pasted it onto a canvas,” she says.

With most of the work on the house finished, Emma and Andrew are concentrating on Modo Creative, which has attracted an offer from top interiors store Heal’s.

With the business taking off and surrounded by family, there are no regrets about the decision to leave London four years ago.

“We love living in this area and I’m glad we left London while we still loved it. We never tired of it and so our memories of it will always be good,” says Emma.

Modo Creative is on www.notonthehighstreet.com and at www.modocreative.com