When mum and I moved into her little house in Canterbury, I was 18 and upset with her that we had to move. Not only was I upset that we were downsizing to a much smaller, 1930s run down semi, previously owned by a builder, his wife and five children (you can imagine the chaos - they had two sets of bunk beds in the small room I moved into), covered in garish floral wallpaper - the kind that had clearly been there for decades - but my parents were also getting divorced, making the move all the more poignant and painful. I hated my new room and the new house that besides the kitchen cabinets and bathroom suite, literally needed to be gutted. But over the years mum has made it her own, adding personal touches, memorabilia from travels, and decorating it to suit her taste and style. I think she's done a great job, and I'm incredibly proud of her and its transformation, so thought I would snap a few of my favourite spaces and corners, and of course Lily the cat who I can't believe is now 14. She doesn't look a day over five.
+ The turquoise pots mum made herself. She's been making pottery on and off for years and now has a potting studio at the back of the garden.
+ The antelope skull she inherited when she used to be the Education Officer at Howletts and Port Lympne Zoo Parks. I practically grew up at the zoo, feeding the animals and playing with the baby gorillas who were being hand-reared by the keepers when their mothers rejected them. Feels like a surreal dream now.
+ The driftwood, pinecones and corks she's collected over the years from travels and of course bottles of wine - I love how she's displayed them in glass jars, something I've been trying to replicate at home.
+ The inky coloured carnival glass jug and glasses she inherited from her Norwegian grandmother, I think. Her father is Norwegian, and mum grew up in California.
+ The shells she bought back from Kenya, where she lived in the 70s, after leaving the US to study tropical veterinary science and where she met and married my father.
Let me know what you think? Have you ever moved into a house that you hated, but ended up falling in love with?
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