Jackie and Rhod Finn have taken a dated seventies property and added some Miami-Beachinspired design flair, turning it into a polished family home

IFEOLUWA ADEDEJI

FRASER MARR

With a growing family and an urge to get their teeth into a building project, Jackie Finn and her husband Rhod had been looking for the right property to move to for two years. They knew that they wanted to stay in the same area in Hampshire, and had been scouring local estate agents for many months, so when a good opportunity came along, they didn’t waste any time in trying to secure it. “Our offer was rejected,” says Jackie. “We were rather disappointed but decided to put our own home on the market and rent for a while.” It turned out to be a good move: the sale fell through of the house that they had missed out on. “This was just as we’d sold ours, so we approached the owners again,” says Jackie. “We were really lucky that we finally got it.”

The property they had bought was a long, boxy, two-storey structure built in 1971: in white-painted brick and with dated windows, it could be described as looking like a school science block. “But it had a really nice feel on the inside,” says Jackie. They bought it from an elderly couple and it was structurally sound and liveable, although the decor was dated. “I’d always said that I didn’t want a property where the main garden was at the front, and of course, this house has the garden at the front!” says Jackie. A secluded location made them happier to compromise: “We liked the fact that it’s on a spur, off a main road, so the front garden wasn’t really an issue from a privacy perspective, and the layout and light entering the property were really good.”