At Home With Sarah Pittendrigh @sarahpittendrigh
This week we are at home with Sarah the lady behind the Instagram account @sarah_pittendrigh where she shares her daily life and images of her beautiful home in the countryside.
Sarah has many strings to her bow, (no pun intended) when I say she runs an award winning chair cover and hire business @simplybowsandchaircoversuk. If that doesn’t keep her busy enough she is also a coach @sarahpittrendrigh coaching and a property developer @bradleyhallfarmdevelopent.
She did thankfully find a little time to chat with us and answer some questions about her beautiful home....
Tell us a bit about you
I live in a small hamlet in Rural Northumberland near to Hexham, with my husband and son, along with Sam our Lurcher, Dusty our cat and 6 unruly chickens! We are very fortunate to live opposite my parents and my former family home, where we keep my sons 5 competition horses.
Some would say I’m a multi award winning Entrepreneur, I may say, just mad! I have taken on some huge projects.
I am the founder and Managing Director of Simply Bows and Chair Covers. We provide beautiful table linen and chair decor for weddings and special events all around the UK. In 2010 I franchised the business and we now have 10 Offices.
My husband and I have just completed a huge Farm Diversification project where we developed all of the buildings on his former family farm and created 8 stunning barn conversions/family homes. We have just sold the 6th home and have the final two now on the market.
I also thoroughly enjoy coaching other Entrepreneurs, sharing my knowledge and hindsight, from start -up to scale up using my bespoke coaching strategy “The I Can Method”.
Tell us about your home
Our home was a former Vicarage, traditionally built from local stone and slate in circa 1750. It is called Unthank House, and my parents live at Unthank Farm. Unthank is one of many farms with this name throughout the region, thought to allude to the thankless task of farming the land at certain locations.
It has lovely large airy rooms, which are typically freezing in the winter, but lovely and cool in the summer. We are blessed to have a lovely large Log Burner that keeps us warm in the depths of the harsh winters we find on our Northumbrian hill top!
How would you describe your home?
The style of our home is definitely Country/Rustic with a modern twist!
We live a very outdoor life and are often away with the horses more than we are at home, so when we are at home I like it to be comfortable and cosy!
I have a lot of Abraham Moon and Voyage Maison fabrics and soft furnishings throughout the rooms of our home, I would say it has a comfortable cottage feel!
Which is your favourite room in the house and why?
My favourite room in the house is our sitting room. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting in front of the log burner with my candles on and enjoying a glass of wine after a busy day.
How does your home reflect any passions or interests that you have?
The accessories and soft furnishings of our home are a nod to our love of the countryside, for example I have a number of Mary Anne Rogers paintings adorning my walls, she is a local artist who’s work is inspired by the countryside. The biggest giveaway though will be the pile of wellington boots at our back door!
What are your favourite items in the home?
Without doubt my most treasured items in our home are the photographs of our son competing his horses throughout the years. Many many happy memories and moments that have made his father and I most proud.
When you moved into your house was it the finished article or was it a project?
When we moved into our home an elderly couple had lived here previously. It was immaculate, but old fashioned.
Have you done any renovation?
We added two large modern bathrooms to the house and a new kitchen. The house only had a downstairs bathroom, which we have now made into a lovely cloakroom/downstairs toilet.
I am not the most adventurous with colour on the walls, preferring to stick with pastel colours.
I stripped the staircase which must have had 100 years of white paint on it, down to the original timber. That was a task and a half, other than that I have the ideas then delegate to the professionals!
Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?
We have a Jacuzzi Bath in our sons bathroom and when it was fitted the plumber forgot to connect all the pipes and consequently flooded our kitchen, other than that, fingers crossed we have been quite lucky!!
What is your top home styling tip?
You don’t have to pay a fortune to have a beautiful home. Mix it up. You can use some designer accessories along with high street and achieve a great result.
Gather inspiration from magazines and social media.
The most important thing of all is that it is your home, a place to relax and feel comfortable, so design it to suit you, not necessarily the latest, short lived trend.
Is there anything in your home that you couldn’t live without?
My log burner! I absolutely love it. It is the heart of our home.
They say that every home tells visitors a story about who lives there. What do you think your home says about you?
I hope that it would say this is a home filled with love, that the people, animals and the home is cared for.
The Home Edit
Lived-in look or showhome?
Lived in!
If you could only paint your walls one colour, which one would it be?
Safe cream!!
What is your pet hate when it comes to your own or other’s homes?
When it feels like a show house not a home!
Favourite front door colour
Duck Egg Blue.
Carpet or Floorboards
Both!
Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?
Big Kitchen Table!
High gloss or rustic?
Rustic!
Wallpaper or Brick Walls?
Brick Walls!
If you enjoyed being at home with Sarah, you might like to take a look inside other popular home styling accounts on instagram and find out more about the people behind them. You can see more of these "at home with" interviews here