A Dream House in the Derbyshire Countryside With Antique Bronze - Sarah64b | Blog

Whether you are a first-time renovator or a seasoned professional, the House of ENKI takes pride in seeing your work come to life. Rather than just products in boxes, we love to celebrate your successes and interior inspirations. Together, these form our BATHTA Awards.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Briggs

Today, we spoke to Sarah Briggs, who has been rebuilding her generously sized Derbyshire home. Moving into a house made from lovely red brick and lots of land, country life can sometimes be a challenge. However, with her husband, friends and their adorable dog Betty, the couple is successfully battling the elements to create the house of their dreams.

Their bathroom has quickly become a luxury retreat, seamlessly blending modern and traditional features, Morrocan tiles and splashes of colour. Sarah has been using our range of bespoke antique bronze fittings to capture the little details that matter most.

We caught up with her to learn her story and whether she has any tips for our readers.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Briggs

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your Instagram account?

Well, my name is Sarah and I’m a school photographer. I moved up to Derbyshire from Essex about 10 years ago when I met my husband, we’ve been married 9 years and have a German shepherd called Betty. My Instagram is a mixture of my personal life and home renovation, photos of family and friends on there too, spending time with family is important to us as well as our home reno, as we’ve learnt over the years it’s important to balance them out.

Is this your first home renovation?

No this is our second one, we lived in a 1930s semi before in a nearby village, this house is a bit bigger with a lot of lands but with that comes with a lot of work!

What inspires you to tackle big projects?

Sometimes I do wonder why we do this but then I realise that my husband and I love the feeling of restoring and reusing and renewing things, bringing them back to life. So that’s why I think we love these projects, we want to make ourselves a home we love for the future.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Briggs

How long has this project took?

So far we have lived here 7 months, we are hoping by the end of the year the extension will be built and then the house hopefully finished by next spring, the garden is a whole other level! Maybe in 2022!

How does the whole family get involved?

Everyone helps, and I mean everyone, we are lucky to have a supportive family, my family come up and stay often and are always mucking in, whereas my husband's are local so they pop in and help whenever they can. It’s a great mix, also we have lots of lovely friends who don’t mind getting their hands dirty!

How long do you think it will take? What’s left on the To Dos?

Well, so far we’ve done the living room, bathroom, hallway and our bedroom. We have the kitchen/diner extension to start and then decorate that and the last remaining bedrooms and front sitting room. So we are still about halfway through with lots of work to do. Hoping it will be done but this time next year.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Briggs

What do you want to achieve from this?

Just a lovely home we can enjoy for the next coming years and hopefully a family in it one day too.

Would you do it all again?

Probably not now this is our second time around, though I do remember saying that the first time and here we are again.... so who knows?!

What’s your favourite room in the house? Why?

Probably the bathroom because it’s completely finished whereas other rooms still need some finishing touches, plus it looks so completely different from the original one when we moved in, it’s just so relaxing to be in and is everything we wanted. We went for it and chose all the things we liked and didn’t worry about what others thought. And it turns out everyone loves it anyways!

Who inspires you as a designer? Do you have any top recommendations?

I love colour and am a bit of a maximalist, so Sophie Robinson is one of my favourite interior designs, Mathew Williamson is amazing too. Anna Hayman has gorgeous patterns, I like to look at her fabrics and wallpapers! But I do get a lot of inspiration from Instagram, so not always designers just other normal people like me!

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Briggs

Who inspired your bathroom?
What made you choose the House of ENKI? How would you describe it to a friend?

I saw the tiles a while back so knew we wanted those for this bathroom, but we didn’t want to overdo it on the walls so we’ve kept it white and black (which is hard for me as I love colour) So then we just fancied something different from Chrome, gold was too much for my husband, he wanted something less shiny, so we looked for brushed brass and that’s where I came across House of ENKI, I searched long and hard over the internet and ENKI were far the best value for money and excellent quality.

If I was describing it, I would say fantastic value for money with a good quality product!

What advice would you give people taking on a renovation project?

Be patient! Try not to compare yourself to others, this is your project, no one else’s, so it takes as long as it takes, don’t feel like you have to keep up with others. I’d also say be brave, in our last project we weren’t as brave as we have been this time around, we kept thinking about the resale appeal and what other people like, whereas this time we’ve been braver and done it our way!

See the amazing transformation here and follow Sarah on Instagram @sarah64b