T he designer Jena Quinn has masterminded the interiors of palatial properties, luxurious chalets and even private jets. But when it came to renovating her own home, there was a challenge that required her to pull a veritable arsenal of techniques from her decades of design experience. “When we bought it, the house was a total wreck,” she says of the Edwardian property that she shares with her husband and daughter.
They put in a sealed bid and within a week it was theirs, but when she returned to the site an issue became clear. “I’d only seen it twice, but when I went back I realised it was shockingly narrow,” she recalls. “We were leaving a place with a good width and high ceilings, and this had neither.
I genuinely thought to myself, ‘Oh gosh, what have I done?’”.