You can’t judge a homejudge a home from the outside

First impressions are not always what they seem, and nobody knows this better than Amalia Booker with her treasure chest of a home

Feature Heather Dixon

Photos Colin Poole

Welcome to my home

A bit about me

Hi, I’m Amalia Booker and I live here with my husband Antony.

Where I live

Our three-bedroom home is in Beverley, near Hull. We’ve got an open-plan sitting and dining room, then a breakfast room, office and kitchen, and a family bathroom upstairs with the bedrooms.

What I wanted to change

It was dark and dated, some of the windows were rotten and the bathroom was grimy.

How I made it my own

We took out the old patterned carpets and stripped off the ceiling tiles before replacing some of the windows, installing a brand new bathroom and tiling the kitchen. We also removed the doors downstairs to create an open-plan layout.

My favourite part

The sitting area; we love the sofa and the clean, modern lines of the new look.

Dining room

Amalia’s large square table works perfectly within the dimensions of the dining room extension, which was built by previous owners. Unmatched chairs and furniture that has been rescued and painted in fresh shades of blue add to the light, airy feel of the room. ‘We buy what we like, rather than picking something to fit a room,’ she says. ‘We’re big fans of retro, but we also love the clean lines of modern design – and the two combine really well together.’