The transformers

Andrew Longden and his wife Claire are a property match made in heaven.

He’s a builder and she is an interior designer, which is why their home near Holmfirth is a temple of good taste.

But this picture of perfection is just the top coat on layers of sacrifice and hard work that stretched over two years.

Not long ago, the couple and their daughter Millie were squashed into a small caravan before camping out on the top floor of a house that was more building site than ideal home.

It’s no wonder that friends and family thought the couple were mad to sell their beautifully renovated Victorian house in Honley to buy a gloomy, stone-built villa that was barely habitable.

“I’d always liked the house though I’d never been inside and we got the chance to buy it through a customer. I was quite shocked when I went in because it was quite spooky and everything was so dark but I could see it had potential. What really sold it were the incredible views from the front,” says Claire.

The couple first moved into a small cottage before buying the caravan for the last leg of a renovation that was squeezed in between day jobs and child care.

Their first challenge was planning permission before making the place watertight with a new roof and re-pointing. They planned the space to include a side extension, a three storey extension at the back, plus attic and basement conversions.

They retained and renovated the period features including the sash windows, stained glass window and fireplaces and they bought in antique radiators to suit the grand Victorian house. They could’ve complemented this with safe traditional décor but they decided on an adventurous, contemporary interior.

“My last house was quite traditional with a lot of pine and mahogany but I wanted a complete change,” says Claire.

On the ground floor, she wanted to create an office, music room, cinema room and a huge open-plan living kitchen. She persuaded Andrew to knock through a sitting room into the kitchen behind to create a large space that would stretch into the new garden room extension at the side.

“Andrew wasn’t sure but now he’s pleased with it. The main motivation was to have the view from the front while we were in the kitchen and that’s what we have as well as lots more natural light,” she says.

The result is stunning with three distinct zones for cooking, eating and relaxing. The centre point is the Siematic kitchen from Pure Design in Leeds, who created a sleek, user-friendly space with an island sink and instant hot water tap facing the sitting room and those views. The colour orange ties all three areas together with a bright Hulsta sofa adding extra zest.

“We sold the cottage we were living in to buy the kitchen and that meant moving into the caravan in winter. It was worth it though. The kitchen is fantastic,” says Claire, who took a hands-on approach to the job by pulling walls down, mixing concrete, painting and stripping wallpaper.

“I almost killed myself after I fell down a hole in the floor leading to the cellar. I had hold of a big bit of paper and fell backwards and down about eight feet. It’s the one time I thanked goodness for a big bum.”

The cellar is now an innovative wine store that Andrew created using terracotta pipes and cement.

The new garden room is the dining area with table from Bo Concept and Foxglove wallpaper from Osborne and Little.

Wallpaper is a main feature with Osborne and Little’s Wild Carnation in the sitting room and Designers Guild papers in the music room and on the stairway.

The music room is bold in pink and black and shows Claire’s love of fabrics and upholstery. She designed the sofa and local upholster Ian Hackett found the frame for her and covered it with black velvet. There are pelmets to match. The total cost for the bespoke piece was £1,000.

The matching ceiling light is from Vannes in France, where she and Andrew have a holiday home.

When they decorated Ash Villa, they had a fresh start and the only reminders of their old home are the sofas in the cinema room and the furniture in the guest bedroom.

“We wanted to start from scratch. I find contemporary design much more exciting,” she says.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, a house bathroom and two en-suite bathrooms on the first floor.

On the top floor is Millie’s bedroom suite decorated in her favourite pink with a matching en-suite bathroom. “That floor was originally the servants’ quarters and we realised we could create extra space for an en-suite if we lowered our bedroom ceiling underneath,” says Claire.

The finishing touches are being made outside, where they have created a flat lawn to replace the sloping garden. They also laid an innovative gravel-in-resin drive and paths that they first saw on the floor of Selfridges department store in Manchester.

“It looked amazing. We looked into it and Andrew went on a course on how to lay it. He now offers it to his customers,” says Claire.

The couple moved into the house 18 months ago while work continued and now it’s finished you might imagine they would look forward to a rest. But after their marathon makeover, they are planning another project.

“We were planning to stay here but then we found a brilliant 1960s bungalow that we want to turn into a contemporary grand design,” says Claire.

“This time Andrew is going to get his team working on it full time so we can be in quickly. I love this house but it was a massive long project.”

* Ash Villa, Holmfirth, is for sale for £895,000, tel: 07917 304221.

USEFUL CONTACTS

* Andrew Longden, builder, tel: 07967 143311

* Claire Longden, interior designer, tel: 07917 304221

* Upholstery by Ian Hackett, Holme Upholstery, tel: 0798 0588 230

* Pure Design, Leeds, Siematic kitchen, tel: 0113 218 6490, www.puredesignuk.com

* Redbrick Mill, Batley for Bo Concept and Hulsta, www.redbrickmill.co.uk

* White Company for bedding www.whitecompany

* About Design for accessories including vases, www.aboutdesignuk.com

* Graham and Green, glass fire guard, www.grahamandgreen.co.uk

* Designers Guild for wallpaper and curtain fabric, www.designersguild.com

* VV Rouleax for curtain trimmings/haberdashery, www.vvrouleaux.com

* Osborne and Little for wallpaper,www.osborneandlittle.com