Interior design ideas: homes fit for heroes - in pictures

When Pia Fairhurst decided to give up the flat she was renting with her husband and buy a family home, she struggled to see the attraction of south London’s Victorian terraces. An Australian by birth, she found them narrow and constricted. “Back home is about lateral living and indoors-outdoors,” she says. “The houses we saw had a lot of wasted circulation space.” So when they found a generous early-1920s semi with a large garden, they jumped at it. Virtually derelict, the house had failed to sell at auction. It had originally belonged to the council, built in response to David Lloyd George’s call for better social housing at the end of the first world war. Appalled by the poor conditions in which many of the recruits had lived, the prime minister promised the nation “homes fit for heroes”. → Photograph: Lee Garland

One spot earmarked for development was leafy Nunhead in south London. Whole streets of houses went up, and today space-starved Londoners are starting to appreciate their charm. “I loved the fact that the space was really efficiently used,” says Fairhurst, creative director of Ask and Zizzi restaurants. “I could immediately see the potential. And it was going to be really easy to extend as the garden was huge.” → Photograph: Lee Garland

Her husband, Jon, handled much of the early work, stripping out the wiring and plumbing, and taking down the lath and plaster ceilings. This produced its own period finds – cigarette packets the builders had squirrelled away in the cavities. Meanwhile, the pair spent many weekends painstakingly restoring the original sash windows. → Photograph: Lee Garland

They built an extension the width of the house on to the back, which is now a spacious kitchen/dining room with a sofa in the corner. It spills out on to a large decked area, complete with dining table and benches, outdoor sofas and a barbecue. Beyond is a lawn, a sunken trampoline, a playhouse for Pia and Jon’s daughters, Paris and Amelie, a shed and a veg patch. The couple planted three silver birch trees that partially shield the shed from view. → Photograph: Lee Garland

The kitchen, where the family spends much of its time, features a wall of white cupboards that house office paraphernalia and Pia and Amelie’s toys. In fact, when the girls aren’t around the only evidence of them is a play kitchen and an outsize woollen hare’s head mounted on the wall. To describe the house as tidy is an understatement: it would make some boutique hotels look unkempt. → Photograph: Lee Garland

A black painted wall features a mural by illustrator Camille Rousseau, the artwork reflecting the local area, including images of Nunhead Cemetery and nearby Ivydale School. It hides understairs storage and a bathroom. “It works well, as the girls can have a bath while I’m cooking,” says Pia. The monochrome theme continues even here: the bathroom has dark grey walls, floor and ceiling, and white units. “It doesn’t get any direct sunlight, so we wanted to emphasise its cosiness,” she says. → Photograph: Lee Garland

The front room is the adult space, with a cream leather sofa dotted with grey, white and black cushions. And the colour scheme even extends to the girls’ bedroom, where Pia painted a G-Plan wardrobe with blackboard paint and chalked up the lyrics of Cole Porter’s I Love Paris. The couple’s own bedroom is painted white, with a noirish en-suite bathroom complete with black-painted stable door. → Photograph: Lee Garland

With its outdoor-living feel, this seems more like home to Pia than anywhere she has previously lived in the UK. “We don’t throw the doors open in the depths of winter, but we do late into October,” she says. “We use the barbecue all year round, though – we’re planning a rotisserie turkey this Christmas.” Photograph: Lee Garland