The Final Tour: Inside Sophie Paterson's Beautiful Surrey Home

Hi Luxury Home Show, welcome back. I'm Sophie Patterson. You were last here two years ago but I didn't show you the outside of the house. We're moving so I thought I'd show you the outside and some of the other spaces I didn't show you last time. Let's go in. This room has triple aspect windows. You can see across the entire garden and it kind of has that indoor-outdoor vibe. Down this side is my absolute favourite place to hang out in the garden. There's something so sociable about a big fire pit and no one ever wants to leave. So something like this has got about a thousand individual stitches or someone that sat there and stitched it and I just think it's a work of art in itself. For me the curb appeal of a house is so important. I remember when I first saw this house it was a new build but I could already see the potential. It's a new build but I love how it's like really understated Georgian architecture. It's not trying too hard. I think it's so pretty. Also I love the it's got a really big front garden with so much privacy. It's got these massive laurel hedges all the way around so you can't see it until you're actually on the property. It's got this big sweeping driveway and one of my favourite things that we did to this house is we added wisteria after about a couple of years living here, 12 years ago, so you can see it's really taken and again I think it just really softens it and grounds the house into its surroundings. Another thing we did back in 2020 was I changed all the windows from pure brilliant white to a limestone colour that matches with the stone on the facade and again I think it really softens that architectural look of the house and we painted the garages and the front door tight because it's my favourite colour. I'm by no means a garden designer but I designed this garden. One of the things that I was thinking about when I was looking at it was almost treating it like an interior. I think about the furnishings but I even think about the arts. We've got a lot of sculptures scattered around the garden. This is one of my favourites that we found in Barcelona and we surrounded it with yew hedging. I also like to bring in lots of different shapes in the garden so you've got a scallop shape hedge behind that hides away the kids trampoline and play area. Okay let's go and head inside now. So welcome back into the house. We are in the entrance hall right now and it's probably the most recognisable room from our home. You might have seen it if you've watched this channel before or you follow me on Instagram. It's definitely a room that gets people talking and the main focal point is this amazing staircase behind me. It's one of the things that really drew me to the house and when we first bought this house I actually tweaked the design to really soften it and it's not connected to the walls so it just floats in the space and really emphasises that feeling of scale, grandeur and light. I absolutely love it. There's a lot of features in this house whilst I'm moving to a new home that I am going to be taking with me. Some of the ideas that I had here I love. They're so timeless including the panelling style that I did on the walls. Everyone loves a bit of panelling. People love to do plant on moulding but something that I did here that I really like and I'm actually replicating the new house is not just doing the plant on moulding but also this MDF panel. You can see it's got a chamfered edge and that gives you that illusion of raised and fielded panelling that looks a lot more authentic than just putting moulding on the wall. I love how this space is really open plan and having a big central hallway makes this home, while it is big, really sociable. I can always see my kids where they are. If I shout to them for dinner they generally come unless they're wanting to ignore me. So for me that was really important having a home that still felt like home and not just a big mansion. So all the main reception rooms are directly off the hallway. We've got the TV room in front of me to the left, the big kitchen open plan family room is to the right. Behind the staircase is the dining room and that connects with both ways to the kitchen and also the formal sitting room and then finally we've got a guest powder room and a study but let's head into the living room first. Another thing that I will miss about the home is some of the incredible wallpapers that we've got in here. We put this silk wallpaper on the walls in the living room back when we bought it 14 years ago and it's just so timeless. It looks as good today as it did the day we first installed it. I also really love to have classical architectural features so I've kept all the interior architecture true to the Georgian style including this fireplace. It gives off so much heat so it's lovely to look at but on a summer's day it's pretty hot in here. When it comes to interiors I really like to mix different styles together in different areas so this room is a really good example of that. We've got a modern table from Porta Romana next to an antique chair that I picked up from a dealer and I think that layered approach makes things feel a lot more classic and timeless and then I also like to mix high and low so whilst we've got silk wallpaper on the walls I've gone for a really understated sisal rug on the floor and I think that kind of makes it feel a bit more sophisticated than trying too hard and trying to be too glamorous. Layered lighting is definitely a key tip if you want to have a luxurious interior and this room has so much layered lighting. The lighting was all designed by John Cullen back in 2019 so it's all specifically located for the position of the furniture, we've thought about the beam widths, the artwork, we've got a statement chandelier above the coffee table but then I made sure there's lots of layered lower lighting with table lamps scattered around the whole perimeter of the room. So this room is primarily used for entertaining, this is the space where if we have a dinner party all our friends will come in here first, we'll have drinks, we have Christmas in here and I like the fact that we've got a room where there's no tv so it's a spot where we'll come and read a book or newspapers and just a chance to have a bit more of a quiet time. We've got a tv room over the other side of the hall and also a big tv area in the open plan kitchen family room so I think it's nice to have something that's not about watching tv, it is a bit more formal and more about entertaining. I'm definitely not a design snob and whilst I appreciate beautiful luxurious materials and antiques, I'm also not adverse to an ebay bargain. I won't go into all the details but if you'd like to hear about where I found this and how I transformed it, check out the tour that we did two years ago which will be linked in the description box. But let's now head into the dining room. I love how open plan this is, this is something that really appealed to me about the house when we first found it, is that you can have this whole entire back end of the house open if we open up all the double doors but you can also separate it when you want to but if we're entertaining it works so well that you've got these double doors that lead straight into the dining room. The dining room was one of the few rooms that I didn't actually show you last time you came round because back then it was my kids playroom and it was full of toys and junk and a complete mess and it definitely wasn't ready for you to but since then we refurbed it just in time for Christmas last year. Things that we did that I think have worked so well in here is we've included some antiques so again it flows with the style of the living room and I really thought about the size and the shape of the dining table itself. When I'm choosing dining tables whether it's for my own home or clients projects I always like to look at the floor plan think what will make best use of that space and in here although it's a square shaped room a rectangle worked really well because we want to have a clear pathway from the kitchen into the living room and having some soft curves onto this table also really softens the space and links it back to the more organic shapes from the chandelier and also the olive grove wallpaper which was one of my favourite things. I was so excited I had this sample and I actually designed this wallpaper a few years ago for Fremantle but it wasn't quite the stage where we could do the renovation so getting this actually onto the walls was a really exciting moment and I think it works particularly well in here because this room has triple aspect windows you can see across the entire garden so when you're sitting in here whether you're having lunch or dinner you can look outside see all the greenery all the trees and it kind of has that indoor outdoor vibe where it brings the greenery into the dining room. So right next to the dining room we have these double doors that lead through to the kitchen family room but before I show you around there let's head out into the garden. Starting off on the terrace this is probably a real extension of the house it gives you that real indoor outdoor living. I've tried to divide it up into areas that I think work for different groupings so if it's just me my husband the kids having breakfast in the morning or lunch this is the perfect spot with a table for four. Equally if we're having bigger gatherings we've got a nice round table and I actually designed this patio with all the raised plant beds to work with this table. I think it's really important whether you're designing interiors or exteriors to bring some curves into a space it really softens it and makes it much more interesting. Down this side is my absolute favorite place to hang out in the garden we've had so many happy amazing memories here I had my 40th birthday out here we had a Cuban band we had cocktails and all kinds of canapes and we often have parties here at the weekend with our friends we'll sit around until the early hours of the morning it's something so sociable about a big fire pit and no one ever wants to leave. Having kids and a dog it was really important that we had a big area of lawn so we can play football and they can do trampolining and all kinds of games but then we've added architectural detail with the bleached hornbeam trees and the stepped hedges that not only give you privacy but add a bit of interest and architectural feature to the garden. If we head on down this fountain I actually took heavy inspiration from RHS Wisley in their rose garden they have this beautiful bronze cup and the water sound that it makes is such a soft inviting sound I'm really going to miss this because I love lying in bed with the window open at night and I can hear the trickling sound of water I just find it really relaxing and then at the end of the garden I really wanted to create a kind of retreat away from the house somewhere that you can come and you can just be completely by yourself we've got surround sound around the whole garden so you can sit here listening to classical music and it's just a lovely spot to sit and read the papers. The kitchen was probably the room that sold this house to me when I first came here I remember walking in as a building site and being wowed by how big it was and I also just loved the fact that it had all these French doors overlooking the garden so you feel really connected to the outside and that was something that I was really mindful of when I was picking all the finishes for the kitchen I wanted to just really reinforce that connection so when it came to the splash back behind the sink I chose to go for a smoked mirror and this is something that people ask me about a lot they often think that it's not practical but actually it's one of the most practical finishes you can do because it's completely wiped clean you don't have any grout that will get discoloured over time and what it means is when you're sat in the barstools and you can see the garden reflected behind you in the mirror. I love how sociable this kitchen is and we've had lots of great lunches and dinner parties I really love to cook we've got the hub on the island and obviously the sink on the back splash back which is something that I really think works well I'm actually mixing up my next home because I'm doing a completely different style kitchen and I'm going to go for quite a traditional cooker on the back wall which means I'm going to have the sink on the island so it'll be interesting to see what that works like but I have to say having lived here for 14 years I'm a little bit nervous because I know how well this layout works. We've also got things like double dishwashers which sounds really extravagant but if you've got a big family you entertain a lot that is a total game changer and something that I tell all my clients who have families definitely go for the double dishwasher you won't regret it. Let's head over into the sitting area I think it's so nice to have an open plan area to your home a lot of designers these days are talking about how open plan is over but I think it's all about having that flexibility if you're lucky enough to have some open plan areas in your home but also an area where you can shut the door and escape from your family and the rest of the world that is the best combination. This is a space where we'll sit down we watch movies it's an area that we particularly use a lot in the summertime with all the French doors open it's just so nice and airy and a really sociable spot Some of my favourite furnishings in here include this L-shaped sofa which we've had for 20 years now and having a dark coloured sofa when you've got a dog is definitely a must-have. We have a little dash and even though he's not meant to he jumps on all the furniture and I love linking the colours between different pieces of furniture so after we had the sofa we got this coffee table a couple of years ago which is from a collection that I designed with Loom and the Calacatta Viola picks out that purple colour beautifully. Next door we have the utility room which is probably the hardest working room in the house and definitely an area that I'll miss I would say in our next home the utility room isn't as strong it's certainly not as big and we haven't yet got the budget to do it exactly how I'd like to do it this is still my dream utility room it's worked out so well. Things that we have in here that I think work really well you might remember it from the last tour but we've got integrated laundry bins this actually used to be an integrated nappy bin back when my kids were babies but we've now doubled it up so you've got dry cleaning bin and hand washing bin. We've done these little pantry cupboards for all the cleaning products so you've got so much storage and you can see exactly what you've got I much prefer to have these shelving units mounted onto the door and have slightly shallower shelves rather than having those really deep shelves where you can never see what you've got at the back of the cupboard you end up buying it all again. On this side I love the butler sink it's such a classic look absolutely timeless and these herringbone tiles are something that I've seen replicated all over Instagram and Pinterest but again they've been here for nearly 10 years and I think it's really timeless. Something that I like to do when it comes to styling especially more utilitarian areas in your home that are often overlooked is think about how you style the shelves so rather than just having things like detergent in jars and obvious choices I've actually got a little oil painting some nice vases and I think it's just such a nice way to make your everyday living a little bit more elevated so when you're doing a bit of washing you can look up and I certainly appreciate looking at this art every day. Over on the other end there's a couple of features that I wanted to share with you which are some ideas I'm definitely taking to our next house. One is having a curved cabinet if you've got a really tight corner don't forget to consider putting a curved corner cabinet in because you can get so much storage. This one is where I store all my vases and I'm definitely going to miss this because I don't know where I'm going to put the vases in the new house and then over here this was an idea that I'd never seen done before where if you're doing your ironing after you've ironed you've got this little hanging rail and so you can hang everything up on coat hangers and it doesn't get creased you don't have to take it upstairs straight away and so again it doesn't take up much space and it's a really good use of space behind the door. So back into the hallway we go and this is probably the coziest room in the house this is our tv room and it's the spot where if I want to hide away from the world or we're having a cozy movie night with the family this is where we hang out and it's just one of those rooms that gives you a hug you can quite happily spend a few hours here. I love how comfortable the furniture is I love how the colour palette's a little bit darker it's definitely a great room for hiding from the world in. The furnishings are intentionally a lot more rustic and casual in here so we've got this brushed oak coffee table that's really chunky all the furniture throughout is a lot less refined and that was very intentional I wanted it to have a bit more of a relaxed look in here. Something that I love that I'm definitely be taking through to the next house is these eclamazing mirrors that replicate the glazing bars on the sash windows opposite they do such a good job of reflecting all that natural sunlight that bounces in and making this room even lighter and brighter. I've actually got the blinds down right now because it gets so sunny in here that it's hard to watch tv but another thing that I really like is these swivel arm chairs and this was done so that you can use it if you're having a gathering with friends you can sit face this way talk to everyone and if you want to watch tv you can swivel this way and sometimes if I just want to look out in the garden and cut roses sit here and get some sun I swivel it all the way to the window and it's a really nice spot to sit. Back through the hallway we've got the powder room on the right this powder room's got some of my favourite wallpaper that we've designed which is the Branches in the Breeze by Frimental it's just so restful and really luxurious. I also really like how we separated the view of the loo so as you walk in it's not the first thing you see we've put a little stud wall that creates a little vanity unit moment and then the toilet is tucked out of the way. The last room that we have on the ground floor that's off the main hallway is my husband's study and this has a very different vibe to the rest of the house it's intentionally created a much darker palette much more traditional we've used a lot of antiques this was actually the very first antique that I ever bought it came from a stately home library I love how much character antiques add into the room I think this one works particularly well because it's got the original glazing and antique glazing is never completely flat so it bounces the reflections in a really interesting way this is a favourite piece of my artwork that we're hoping to take to the next house depends on whether the person wants to buy all the furnishings but this is something that's got a lot of sentimental value to me so I think I will take it with me it's by an artist called Fenella Rounds who's sadly passed away and I've got a lot of her pieces scattered around the house and then in front of his desk this is where he used to work from home we've got this little seating area again a couple of swivel chairs and I really love this leather sofa again it's just got a really heritage feel and I think it just works so well all in all I wanted a bit of a gentleman's club feel but I won't go into too much detail so if you want to find out where everything's from and a bit more information behind the design you can watch the previous tour that we did. This staircase as I mentioned before has got a real wow factor and I think it's one of the biggest successes of the design of this home because it just sits in the space so well and creates an amazing focal point. Above me I've got a huge skylight that allows all this natural light to pour in we chose to do an oversized mirror here rather than artwork to reflect all that amazing sunlight back into the hallway and this is a glameze mirror so it's not completely clear it's got gold leaf on the back so it gives a really beautiful patina to the mirror and you don't have to look at your reflection every single morning when you wake up and you're going downstairs. Let's head over here into the guest bedroom. One of the biggest strengths of this house and I think it's a big misconception in property is that people tend to focus on number of bedrooms and number of rooms whereas I think what people want at the top end of the property market is big good rooms rather than lots of little unusable rooms so even though this is our guest bedroom you can see it's a really generously sized bedroom. I love the fact that it's not only got size for a super king bed we've got a little sitting area in the middle as well so when we do have guests to stay often it's my in-laws that will come and stay for a week they feel like they've got their own space where they can retreat to. All the bedrooms also have ensuite bathrooms and I've kind of matched the colour palette throughout those bedroom suites. This is a really special piece that I designed had made a few years ago it's a screen I've actually got it attached to the wall because it's so heavy I'm paranoid that it will fall over but this is one of the first wallpapers that I designed and it's got a custom frame design but I think it just shows you can use different objects for artwork although this is a room divider screen I think it works so well as artwork and I often like to use unusual objects and create art and art projects at my home. Across the landing directly opposite we have my daughter's bedroom I think this is one of the rooms I'm going to miss the most because I've got such fond memories of designing this space but also watching Ava grow up in here. Some of the things that I think work particularly well in here is we've done panelling on the walls with this beautiful wall covering by Fromental again but this works so well because it's a kind of wallpaper that will grow with you and that was something that I was really mindful of when I was designing my kids bedrooms I didn't want to have to redesign them every five years so whilst this worked really well for Ava when she was three and she loved all the cute animals it's also sophisticated enough to work as a guest bedroom or a teenager's room. She's got the amazing four-poster bed with working curtains but interestingly enough she's told me I'm not allowed to design her bedroom in our next house she wants to design it all herself I think she's a budding interior designer and you know I think it's so good for kids creativity for them to be given a little bit of space to do that so I'm gonna let her do whatever she wants. I've seen her Pinterest board there's a lot of bright primary colours it's a big change from this but I'm excited for her to try out doing her own design so watch this space let's see what she does. Before we head next door to my son Oscar's bedroom I just want to have a brief for this area these are some of the wardrobes that I get asked most about and it's a really lovely combination of a mother of pearl wall covering we've done in an oak frame and these handles are from our collection with R. McMartin they're called The Grove and I love how they're like a bamboo design they feel really tactile to touch. A few years ago Ava said to me that she'd love to have a dressing room like me I mean lucky girl that she gets to have that but I designed this freestanding island unit so not only does she have the wardrobes behind but she can store all her like sports kit her shoes in here and it creates a sort of separate zone to this part of the bedroom because the room is quite large we sort of had enough space to do it she didn't need her own sitting area and this works so well she absolutely loves it and I think it would be any girl's dream I'd certainly love to live in here as well. A space that I think is often overlooked and not really thought about enough is landings and I think they're such an important space because they connect all of your bedrooms. Here we wanted to have quite a generously sized landing and I've made sure that I've used furniture from this little bench. I love these oil paintings that we got from Alison Dunlop a Scottish artist and I'm mixing some contemporary furnishings with some more antiques which I think gives it that timeless appeal but let's head on into Oscar's bedroom. For Oscar's bedroom I took the same approach that I did with Ava's again this was designed with longevity in mind so whilst I designed this when he was a baby and it seemed really a little bit sophisticated this is a room that will stand the test of time. This bedroom all started with this gorgeous wallpaper from Philip Jefferies it's actually a grass cloth in a herringbone pattern and whilst it did seem a little bit sophisticated at the time I think it's something that's just got really timeless appeal and it's been really practical as well so I love that. Over on this side of the room we've done a little reading area this was something that worked really well when he was a baby also it's just a great thing to have in any bedrooms we've got these wall-mounted shelves where he has all his books and then he's got a little desk area next to the window where he can do all his homework and I've tried to mix up the styles that I've done throughout the house in the same way so everything kind of feels cohesive as you walk from room to room. Down the other end of the landing we have the principal bedroom suite and one of the things that we changed when we first bought this house was we segregated this part of the landing to create a lobby area that sort of greets you before you walk straight into the bedroom and that's something that I really like to do in all of our clients houses as well as if you have space create a little moment so you don't walk straight into the bed it just feels a lot more elevated and private. On the left hand side I've got my dressing room so let's head in there first. This was a real luxury and part of the reason why we segregated that part of the landing was we actually wanted to incorporate what was a second guest bedroom into the principal suite so originally this was intended to be a bedroom but I decided it was a much better use of space for us was to have separate his and her dressing rooms and bathrooms so we installed all this joinery wall-to-wall joinery on three walls there's so much storage as well as an island in the middle and again some beautiful wallpaper definitely a running theme in this house. I do love my wallpaper but I think this one's probably the most special either this or the one in the next door because it's all hand embroidered so something like this has got about a thousand individual stitches or someone that's sat there and stitched it and I just think it's a work of art in itself it's something that I've had for eight plus years and I still wake up every single morning and I'm wowed by the craftsmanship of that definitely gonna miss that but sitting here doing my makeup I often work from home here as well again it's just got such lovely views out that front garden looking across all the amazing trees through the window and then behind me is a separate bathroom next let's head into bedroom so this principal bedroom really does feel like your own mini apartment not only have you got the dressing room that I've showed you next door and the ensuite bathroom but the bedroom itself is vast we've got an empress size bed little storage area behind that wall is my husband's dressing room don't worry I didn't take all the storage his one's a little bit smaller than mine but it's still perfectly functional and then in front of me we have a big media wall with an oversized tv and then behind we have a little secret gym which I'll show you in next so this originally was all open plan with the bedroom area but it just felt a bit awkward that you had this extra extension and the bedroom actually felt too big which I know is not a bad problem to have but it's so much more functional by separating it off we were able to create this separate gym area and we love to work out early in the morning before our kids have woken up it's quite unusual to have a gym off the principal bedroom but for us it works perfectly because when you wake up early in the morning before you've thought of any excuses not to work out you can literally roll into the gym have a workout and this is such a restful place to do it I really didn't want to create your typical gym so we've gone for a beautiful wooden floor we've got custom rugs we've even got custom weight racks complete with a cashmere pad on top and then we've done panelling around the whole of the room with integrated led lighting there's a beautiful polished plaster on the ceiling and then behind me is a enormous tv screen which is actually a computer so you can do conference calls and if your workout partner or your trainer is overseas or in a different location you can still work out at the same time it works really well but there's one more feature that I haven't shown you that I'll have a look at now having a balcony off the gym has been such a brilliant thing to have because after a heavy workout I love coming out here in the morning before the kids wake up and having a coffee looking out over all the beautiful trees in the garden and listening to the fountain it's just so relaxing such a great way to start so I mentioned outside that I love to sit and have a coffee on the balcony and we've actually got a little hidden coffee station that I forgot to tell you about coffee machine drawers for all your coffee pods little integrated fridge for milk and I love this calacatta viola marble which makes a beautiful statement the very last room to show you is the principal bathroom suite I didn't show my bathroom next door but this one we couldn't miss this is one of the biggest bathrooms I've ever seen never mind designed we've got a huge shower big enough to fit the whole family complete with calacatta oro marble all book matched I don't like to do wall-to-wall marble everywhere so I just did it in the shower and then over on the opposite side of the room we've got this lovely freestanding bar behind it with another slab of book match calacatta oro and then finally we have this oversized double vanity unit with two sinks which is the perfect spot to get ready in the morning well that is a wrap on the last ever home tour that I'll be doing in this house I hope you've enjoyed it I've loved showing you around if there's anything that I didn't talk about or show you that you're interested in drop a comment down below and I will come back to you and let me know if you want me to get luxury home show to come and show you around my next time take care and I'll see you very soon hi luxury home show I'm Sophie Patterson I'm an interior designer and welcome to my home