Game, set and match for this Wimbledon house

Finding her Wimbledon home, tucked away on a quiet lane just moments from the village, was, says Lucy Woodruff, a case of serendipity. “My husband, Mark, and I had restored and lived in many homes around this part of London, so we were considering a complete change, and moving to Kent,” she says. “We had resolved only to stay if a home came up on Hillside, a street that’s known only to real locals.”

A chance conversation two decades ago led to the news that a wisteria-clad period house on this cul-de-sac, set within walled gardens and topped off with an Italianate tower, was being discreetly marketed. “When we first walked around it, we had to keep pinching ourselves,” says Lucy, an interior stylist. “Not only did it span several eras, with Victorian and Edwardian features intact, it had lateral living across two floors – a dream find for London. It was the perfect home to share with our three children.”

The house has almost 5,000 sq ft of main internal living space, with a former coach house integrated into the floor plans, a boot room, extensive cellaring and a tack room – all of which made a move to the country moot. It had, however, been owned by the same family for 35 years, and needed a lot of updating.

“We were enchanted by the way light streamed into different rooms throughout the day, but the layout was rather higgledy-piggledy, with just two bathrooms,” Lucy says. “We moved in for a year, to work out how we wanted to use all the different spaces, and then moved out for a year while we did the renovations. We wanted the home to be practical for work and family life, while also being beautiful.”

The Woodruffs had the right combination of skills and style to achieve just that. Mark, a property developer and investor, brought practical knowledge to the project, creating a floor plan incorporating five bedrooms and five bathrooms. Lucy, who has a long-held love of antiques and a passion for the interplay of colour and textiles, forged during an earlier career in the fashion industry, knew exactly how to approach the interior design.

“The process had to be organic,” says Lucy, whose work focuses on helping ultra-high-net-worth individuals create their dream homes. “I wanted the house to feel as if it had slowly evolved, with the same family living there for generations, and with nothing too contrived. The infrastructure had to be state-of-the-art and future-proofed in terms of plumbing, heating and wiring.”

Farrow & Ball and Annie Sloan’s chalk paints provided the palette for the walls, with carpeting – used sparingly – by Roger Oates, and Crucial Trading natural flooring. The hallway is tiled in limestone by Artisans of Devizes, and in the show-stopping 30ft x 30ft reception room, Lucy spent days laying out random-width elm floorboards, reclaimed from a former mill. This space, which opens onto the central courtyard garden, also features restored window shutters, a period marble fireplace and two Clearview wood-burning stoves.

The bespoke kitchen was handcrafted by Chalon, with a contemporary twist on Edwardian style: there’s a copper sink, with the main worktops and shelving in the walk-in larder in Carrara marble, and Miele appliances discreetly integrated. The room flows through to an elegant dining-conservatory with underfloor heating.

Richly hued and patterned textiles and soft furnishings were provided by Lucy’s go-to classic British designers, including Colefax & Fowler, Fermoie, Sanderson and Morris & Co. She admits she spent an inordinate amount of time on the home’s smaller details, too. An antique French ice bucket, which she wanted to repurpose as a sink, was driven to Dorset to be lined by royal warrant holder Sherwood Tinning; the Catchpole & Rye cast-iron bath in the first-floor principal suite was one of scores examined for depth and length.

The home is full of artwork by the Woodruffs’ three creative children, now a sculptor, restaurateur and interior designer, respectively. The charmingly unreconstructed, wainscot-panelled tack room served as a rustic den and teenage hangout for them growing up, and is now a magical candlelit dining space. Huge birthday parties have spilled over into the front, southwest-facing garden, which has feature lighting and planting by Chelsea Flower Show gold-medal-winner Rosy Hardy.

With big family events now increasingly held at their coastal home near Deal, in Kent, the Woodruffs have decided it is finally time for new adventures and have put the house up for sale – the first time it has been openly marketed for more than half a century.

Their job restoring and safeguarding the house, Lucy says, is now done: “We just hope to pass it on to someone who will love and cherish it as much as we have.”

Pictures from top: a reception room at the Hillside house; the elegant hallway; the bespoke eat-in kitchen; inside-outside living; and a view through the ground-floor reception rooms