Walk the cherry-tree-lined neighborhood in which artist Diane Hill and Matt live outside London, and I guarantee you’ll be pinching yourself at the end of every block. Its charms are simply that unbelievable. Within minutes of meandering out their front door you can find yourself skipping through a neighborhood zoo, boarding the train to London, dropping the kids off at school or feeding the nearby pond’s family […]

Walk the cherry-tree-lined neighborhood in which artist Diane Hill and Matt live outside London, and I guarantee you’ll be pinching yourself at the end of every block. Its charms are simply that unbelievable. Within minutes of meandering out their front door you can find yourself skipping through a neighborhood zoo, boarding the train to London, dropping the kids off at school or feeding the nearby pond’s family of ducks. All in all, the house’s setting couldn’t be dreamier. Its interior though… well, that seemed more like a nightmare before the couple renovated the quaint space. Completed in the 1960s, the postwar house was in desperate need of an overhaul when Diane and Matt bought it in 2015. The kitchen had to be gutted, the entire home needed rewiring and carpet, and old furnishings had to go. Luckily, Matt and Diane are one determined pair of perfectionists. So much so, they even tackled the updates themselves to ensure the results were exactly what they were after. All it took was...