AtHomeWithSarahBeenyAutumn2016 - 41

THE BIG INTERVIEW ▲ If you were a first-time buyer, where would you buy? 'Hull! And not only because they've just got into the Premiers League. There's been a massive £320million investment to build an offshore wind farm, it's going to be the City of Culture next year, and it's got an amazing university. 'It's still unbelievably affordable to live in Hull or just outside and it's going to go places. It's a bit stuck out on a limb geographically but now I think there are some movers and shakers who see a bright future for it. And 'LONGEVITY OF DESIGN IS CRUCIAL FOR BOTH THE ENVIRONMENT AND YOUR SANITY. CLASSIC DESIGN WILL STAND THE TEST OF TIME' not only that but Rise Hall (Sarah's stately home that she renovated and is now hired out as a wedding venue) is just eight miles away!' Apparently, 37% of families now rent their home. Is this the way forward? 'It is an eminently sensible way to go forward for some families but the difficulty is that the security of tenure is poor from private landlords. In other countries you can sign an eight or 10 year lease, but in the UK you sign up for a year. More people would rent if the security of tenure was longer and better for families who were renting. 'There needs to be a middle house tenure, instead of 12 months or a 99 year lease if you buy, you could have a medium ground for relatively long-term renters. The law sort of misses this, I think.' ACCESSORIES: NEXT, M&S, JOHN LEWIS Do you think we should be living together as extended families? 'There has been an obsession with this goal for everyone to live on their own in a house, which culturally we have suffered from for about 40 years. There was a great call for every single 18-year-old to leave home, travel six hours away and set up home on their own. That's what we were aiming for but society is worse off for it. 'You'd be better off giving tax benefits and planning incentives to encourage people to live with their parents longer and for parents to teach their children - not wait on them hand and foot and give them an allowance - to contribute towards the home. Living with children and grandchildren, it ticks so many boxes that will help alleviate the housing problem. It would take the weight off the housing shortage and families would have more assets so they could afford more. Generational living is the way forward.' What is your advice to young people who can't afford to buy a property? 'Don't worry if you can't, there is no sin in renting even if it's for the rest of your life. But if you are set on buying you need to save for a deposit. Don't think: I'm going to have to deny myself; work out what you can still do to have fun that's free, so you're still enjoying life while you save. Our level of affluence has been so high for so long, there are very high expectations. But not going to the pub every week is not a big hardship; get a bottle of wine, have friends over and eat spaghetti, you can have a fun evening costing far less than going out. It does take focus and determination, but it is possible. 'Also don't restrict yourself to just looking in areas you'd like to live. A 20-minute commuter journey outside a city and you could find a really nice home. You can make a life anywhere when you are young, it's only when you get older it's harder to start again afresh.' You've recently had a basement installed. What have your learned from this? 'A lot about basement and electric gates, two areas didn't know much about! I wish I could do it again with the amount I now know - it would be less painful! Learning as you go along is a bumpy path to go down, you do end up in the right place but it hurts along the way in terms of timescale, finance and stress levels. 'I'm glad we've done the basement, I understand the limitations, but in London it's a fantastic way of making a house bigger. The size of the house was undersized for our large family and the only way was down or we would not have had any sort of garden. 'It's amazing now, we are really lucky. It was built to be a teenage hangout place but my boys aren't there yet age wise and I want them near me because I like them. I actually don't want them to hang out down there!' How can you upgrade a whole house if you've only got a small budget? 'If your upgrade is cosmetic it's more important to see the project as a whole and use a limited colour palette to pull consistency through. You can get really inexpensive or free furniture and spray paint it, it's quicker than brush paint, then put on new handles. You can get a cheap kitchen and be clever about the worktop. 'The key is not to look like you've had a massive session on Freecycle; there has to be some sort of intention. Remember, paint is your friend, that's how you pull all the different design elements together.' Do you think more people are staying put in their properties and doing them up rather than moving? 'This is partially because stamp duty is so high. If you are moving from a £800,000 property you are spending a lot of money on stamp duty, and this makes it so expensive to move. Mortgages are also harder to get now and both of these issues will encourage a lot of people to stay put. You could spend the same amount doing a loft conversion and have it exactly as you want it. 'We have moved on from buying cheap and nasty though, to buying it well (sometimes expensive) and just once. The concept of buying absolute toot then throwing it away is fading, as people want to do up their homes nicely in order for them to last forever.' 'Now that we've redecorated our entire house after our big renovation and basement conversion, I don't imagine we will redecorate again, this is it for our lifetime. 'My husband, Graham, and I love longevity of design, it is crucial for both the environment and your sanity. It does mean we are more traditional than some people but we both believe that classic styles are good design that will stand the test of time and bypass passing trends.' www.athomemagazine.co.uk OCTOBER 2016 | 041 http://www.athomemagazine.co.uk

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