Elegant ways to incorporate wood into your home

After leaving London for Newcastle and having their first child, Caroline and Dan Briggs felt the sea beckon and it was agreed that if they were to live on the coast they must have a sea view

A pin was dropped in Whitley Bay and the search began; however, it didn’t take long. ‘I clearly remember firing up my computer to search on Rightmove and there she was. I excitedly shouted to Dan that I had found “our” house and booked a viewing,’ says Caroline. ‘We knew she was right the second we laid eyes on her; her wonderful bone-structure and elegance, like that of an Edwardian lady, won our hearts.’

Once settled, the couple undertook the task of building a single-storey extension in what was a higgledy-piggledy arrangement of rooms and a backyard, to create a large family-orientated kitchen-diner. A space they designed themselves, it embraces the use of salvaged materials and vintage furniture over new, as does the rest of the house.

Wood is without doubt the ‘golden thread’ that links all the rooms together. At every turn this material is used to good effect, either as a focal point or as a warming textural pop, be it the parquet flooring rescued from their children’s school, stripped display cabinets, or an old ladder propped up against bookshelves.

‘Being surrounded by wood feels warm and honest, and it softens the hard edges of the tiled and marble features. A recent trip to Baileys home store in Hay-on-Wye got me thinking a little more about living with wood – I definitely share their belief that being surrounded by natural materials provides calm and balance,’ says Caroline.

Whilst she loves the reclaimed look, Caroline doesn’t like anything to appear too shabby, but properly finishing a wood restoration job does take time and patience. ‘My long-term project is the staircase, which I’m stripping to its original glory. It’s something I chip away at when I find the time.’ With no uniform choice of wood, Caroline’s use of the versatile material offers great character and texture, especially in the kitchen where the different surfaces of a salvaged Victorian kitchen, old shop counters, bentwood chairs and a rustic scrub-top table work in perfect harmony

Whether it’s the huge bank of blue drawers in the kitchen, which had been hidden away in a garage for 50 years, or the reclaimed parquet flooring that has been walked on by thousands of schoolchildren – including Caroline and Dan’s – an evolving story is important. ‘I feel a sense of responsibility when it comes to the provenance of an item. I believe each of us has a responsibility to be more mindful of how we are impacting the environment with our home choices, this naturally leads to recycling and reusing – it has to be said that I’m no stranger to a skip dive!’