
When Angelica and Richard Squire, the cofounders of U.K.-based design firm Studio Squire, ventured out to South Downs National Park to tour their client’s 1820s home for the first time, there was a part of them that anticipated creaky old floorboards, wonky walls, and slightly crooked staircases. Because that’s what you tend to get out of centuries-old houses in the English countryside. But once they arrived, it was clear to the Squires that over the last 40 or 50 years, the space had been stripped of much of its character. “With some properties, you get those very old staircases and walls that feel uneven, straight away you’ve got a lot of charm. This didn’t have that. It had other amazing things about it, but it didn’t have that,” says Angelica.
Those other standout qualities? For starters, you have to travel down a nearly mile-long driveway surrounded by woodlands, rolling hills, and a sequence of lakes. “It’s very isolated, and if you’re trying to escape your intense city job, it’s a pretty good place to go,” says Richard. Their London-based clients were out to do just that. They bought the place as a weekend retreat. Other than their desire to unwind and entertain, they came to Angelica and Richard with nothing. No furniture. No dinner plates. No art. The project was a complete blank canvas. As a result, Studio Squire got to select everything down to the egg cups and dust pan. “It was funny, them spending their first weekend there, and us knowing exactly where the tin foil was,” shares Angelica.
The only constraint was that the couple wanted to start using the house ASAP. So, in around six months, Studio Squire made the countryside retreat feel homey, arming their clients with plenty of cozy throws, cookbooks, and coups. Ahead, in their own words, the designers reveal the best and brightest moments of the transformation.
The Cohesive Thread:
Richard: We didn’t set out to make the house feel really old or mock up what it might have been 200 years ago. It was more about bringing in materials, colors, and finishes that were in keeping with this magical woodland setting. Taking up the flooring on the ground level and laying old stone created a big change in the feel of the place.
The Necessary Expansion:
Richard: We didn’t do any big construction work because there wasn’t the time or the budget, but we did change some layouts. Upstairs, we added another bathroom into one of the guest bedrooms. Downstairs, we tweaked an awkward, small boot room, a funny-shaped office with no real purpose, and a tiny little loo that didn’t have a window. We knocked those through and gave them a really decent boot room, which is key when you’re living in the middle of the woods.
Angelica: We installed a glaze door between the kitchen and the boot room. We felt that it was to see between the two. We also installed tongue-and-groove [paneling], Shaker pegs for all their coats, and if you look really closely, we wallpapered the upper part of the wall and ceiling.

The Biggest Save:
Angelica: Our biggest save on the project was the well-built kitchen. I think it had been made bespoke and installed by the previous owners. It was really spacious with loads of cabinets and drawers and a huge island. The previous counters were looking knackered, so we replaced them with a tumbled granite, put new wood on the island, gave [the cabinets] a lick of paint, did new handles, and installed a hot water tap and a filter tap.
The First Thing They Bought for the Project:
Angelica: The chunky oak farmhouse table is from a place called Sussex Antiques. They’ve got a really lovely selection of pieces, and we love the fact that it was coming from a local dealer.

The Material They’d Use Again:
Angelica: We were keen to do a slate [counter] in the kitchen, but we knew from previous projects that it’s not hard-wearing. These clients are all about practicality and would not have been happy to have spent their first night there and see water rings. The tumbled granite was a new one for us. It is a really great alternative because it doesn’t mark. We found this lovely slab that, up close, has a very tiny roughness to it but from a distance, it looks like slate.

The Eclectic Seating:
Angelica: We wanted some of the furniture to feel like it could have been inherited from a grandmother; we didn’t want things to be matching. We got a lot of the chairs secondhand and had them re-upholstered and re-sprung (we have a few local upholsterers who will turn things around for us in seven days).

The Hidden TV Moment:
Richard: Trying to find a way of not seeing the massive TV in the sitting room was high on our agenda. We came up with this idea of [hanging] a Suzani on a curtain rail. It looks like a wall hanging, but then you can pull it back, and behind it is your massive 75-inch TV.

The Fan-Favorite Nook:
Richy: We didn’t feel that we needed a fireplace at both ends of this room. For the non-working one, we slightly raised the lintel arc and got a bar in there.
Angelica: We also installed a door to the garden so that when they are having people for lunch in the summer, they don’t have to go through the kitchen, all the way around the hall, and into the living room to make a jug of Pimm’s.
The Shower with a View:
Angelica: We thought there was something nice about opening up the shower [with a window].
Richard: If it hadn’t had a window, it would have felt like a long tunnel.
Angelica: There are a couple of great porthole window suppliers, but you’re easily looking at over £1,000. I was adamant that it was going to be a really lovely detail. Eventually, I found one on eBay for only £50, and that was that.

The Part-Time Partition:
Richard: As you come up the stairs in the middle of the house, there are two bedrooms on one side and three on the other. We knew there’d be a lot of weekends when they were there alone and they wouldn’t be filling all the bedrooms. We thought maybe it would be nice to be able to close part of the house off with a curtain.

The Designer-Approved Paint Color:
Angelica: We thought the smallest bedroom lent itself really well to a bold paint color, India Yellow (a real favorite of ours). And we added the tongue-and-groove to make it feel a bit more cabin-like.

The Room to Roam:
Angelica: We were quite keen to do something other than just a headboard [in the primary bedroom] without getting into the realm of a grand four poster bed. (It’s a relaxed cottage, so that would have been too much).
Richard: It’s a big bedroom, and because it’s not their main house, they don’t have all their clothes there, so that enabled us to get rid of the walk-in wardrobe. It also meant that we didn’t have to over-clutter the space. There’s an oversized chair you can sit and relax in, and it’s got a chest of drawers.

The Biggest Splurge:
Angelica: We managed to enlarge the downstairs loo, give it a window and a long console table. We chose Thomas Crapper fittings, which are definitely on the more expensive side.
Richard: [This space was] somewhere to spend a bit more, because most people that visit your house will use that room, whereas they won’t go into all the guest bathrooms and see what’s happening in there. It’s worthwhile putting something a bit nicer in there.