Octavia Dickinson transforms an ‘uninhabitable’ house into a much-loved family home

'In the words of our mortgage broker, the house was uninhabitable,’ says Octavia Dickinson. This is no exaggeration. When she and her husband Harry bought the Victorian terraced property three years ago, it had no kitchen, no plumbing, no electricity and no staircase. Giving a coherent narrative for the building’s evolution is almost impossible. A short summary is that it had been chopped, changed and chopped up again. But with a stroke of luck, planning permission was already in place, which circumnavigated wrangling with the council and reduced costs.

The fact that Octavia is an interior designer was a huge advantage when it came to transforming the barest of bones into what it is now a bright, much loved house filled with beautiful things. Following drawings inherited from the previous owner’s architect, a kitchen extension and utility room were added, as was a staircase that allowed Octavia and Harry to see the upper floors properly for the first time. Some clever rejigging on the first floor made space for an en-suite bathroom and a linen cupboard.

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Having used the framework set out by the previous owners’ plans, it was a delight for Octavia to put her own stamp on the interiors. Her career began in the art world and she is unafraid of colour, as showcased by the sitting room, which is painted a rich, lipstick shade of coral from Papers and Paints. It makes for a bold combination when considered from the kitchen next door, where the walls are lined with grasscloth the colour of a summer sky. Here, a burgundy baize door leads into the utility room, while its twin in sage takes you back into the sitting room.

Together with furniture maker Alfred Newall, Octavia designed the cane-fronted kitchen cabinets and though she lusted after a Jean Royère chandelier, the budget would not allow it. So, in the spirit of creativity, she bought a similar design from Visual Comfort and had it spray-painted red. It was also a matter of patience when it came to finding the right sofa for the kitchen. After scouring the internet, she eventually settled on an elegant Sixties design by Børge Mogensen for Fredericia, which sits snugly between a pair of dresser cupboards that she bought specifically to house her ever-increasing collection of ceramics.

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The daughter of an art dealer, Octavia has a gimlet eye for antiques and pictures. She went so far as to lengthen the wall behind the sofa in the sitting room to accommodate a painted diptych by the artist Caroline Popham. The room marries pieces found at antique fairs, car-boot sales and the antique shops of Tetbury with new designs and commissions – the TV cabinet being a clever case in point. Not prepared to leave the wall-mounted television on show, she asked her cousin, the artist Beatrice von Preussen, to paint a series of panels to disguise it.