An outrageous home in Farnham? Surely not! But yes; a Farnham house will have the starring role when the first episode of Channel 4’s Outrageous Homes With Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen airs tonight at 10pm.
Laurence has dubbed the Weybourne house, owned by Kath and Mike Hitchings, ‘The Upcycled Home’ and it is packed items which have evolved from their original purpose into something new.
He was especially taken with the old orange fridge in the bedroom which, when it broke, was repurposed for clothes storage, and the plant-hangers made from silicon egg poachers.
There’s a sofa with fun patterned patches, an old frying pan which is now a unique painting, and everywhere there is colour.
The colour and craft are the work of Kath, who is head of creative arts at St Joseph’s Specialist Trust in Cranleigh.
She combines her artistic eye with concern for the environment, making sure that nothing that can be reused is thrown away but is repurposed or incorporated into something else which is either useful, joyful or both.
The house is a “a sanctuary for all things second-hand’ according to its flamboyant presenter while it’s also a place of welcome to all. That ethos is evident in a wall of faces painted by a Ukrainian family who moved in with the Hitchings.
“I wanted the family to feel that this was their own place,” said Kath.
Opposite is a wall where “William Morris meets punk, meets hospitality”, and everywhere there are hand-knitted socks.