Sarah Beeny Property Genie – Rocking Countryside Life!

Angela Sara West chats exclusively with top TV property presenter Sarah Beeny, who shares her personal property ladder journey, top tips for sprucing up your home to add value, and spills how she’s swapped city party life for ‘simpler’ family life in the country, where she’s now podcasting and spinning songs and plates alongside properties!

FROM VAN LIFE TO STATELY LIFE

From renovating her first flat to restoring stately homes, she’s spent her life in the property fast lane, but would you believe Sarah Beeny’s first home was actually a van?

“I was ‘the lady in the van’, but maybe more like a slightly annoying teenager in a van!” she reveals. “I’ve always liked the idea of being in an environment that I could control and felt safe in. So, I guess, that’s where the concept of ‘home’ comes in – it felt like a home.”

Van life fast turned into flipping homes with her brother and boyfriend at the time. “I was looking at properties for a long time and wanted to be self-employed, and once I got my head into the concept of dealing it really interested me. We couldn’t afford our first flat, so we all clubbed together and bought a one-and-a-half-bedroom flat with an outside loo in a not very good area. So, we needed to be creative with accountancy and a lot of luck and hard work.”

The property specialist soon moved on to purchase property after property, learning how to make a house a home. And with a career spanning multiple industries, the respected businesswoman, broadcaster and authority on all things property, environmental sustainability and business development has established herself as a household name.

THE MARCH MARKET

Design dilemma? Makeover meltdown? With over 20 years’ experience, Sarah is one of the most familiar and trusted names in the world of property, offering advice aplenty to homeowners keen to showcase their properties at their finest to secure optimum selling price. And with home-selling season kicking off in March, now is the perfect time to get your abode looking its best before listing it on the market.

RENOVATE DON’T RELOCATE:  DON’T MOVE – IMPROVE!

For those not on the move but looking to improve for a fresh new feel this spring, Sarah is the ultimate renovator, offering plenteous top tips for those in need of inspo. While seven out of ten Brits believe their homes are dysfunctional and the answer is to move, Sarah spills the solution is often right under your nose in her hit show ‘Renovate Don’t Relocate’, which uses smart tech and life-size floor plans to help families re-imagine and renovate their homes, rather than make the move.

As one of the nation’s favourite property experts, she’s fronted a plethora of other successful shows sharing her coveted expertise. “I LOVE my job!” she gushes.

CHILDHOOD DREAMS TO GRAND STATELY HOME

Throughout her life, Sarah Beeny’s been obsessed with the idea of home. “As a child, I spent a lot of time creating little ‘homes’, or more dens, really, in corners of garden sheds,” she divulges to me. “I think the concept of creating a safe space for yourself is really guttural in a lot of people. Later, when I understood building more, it seemed the obvious career.”

From her childhood growing up in a countryside cottage to renovating her very first flat in London, right through to restoring a stately mansion in Yorkshire and building her new majestic ‘forever’ home in Somerset from scratch, she has never shied away from the hard work and graft required to turn a house – no matter how rundown – into a home. 

MOVING UP THE PROPERTY LADDER…

She tells me she was still in her teens when she first set foot on the property ladder. “I bought my first flat in Battersea when I was 19 with my then boyfriend and my brother, Diccon.”

Hardcore Sarah set up her first property development and investment company aged just 24 with her brother and now husband Graham Swift. A few years later she was headhunted to present the hugely successful Channel 4 show ‘Property Ladder’, launching her TV career and seeing her go on to present plentiful other property shows, such as ‘Help! My House is Falling Down’, which saw handy Sarah rescue families suffering serious problems with their properties.

Laying the solid foundation for her extensive career in property both on and off our screens, she and her artist husband Graham have together founded a number of influential businesses, development and investment companies.

STREETS AHEAD – TV PROPERTY GOLD

The popular presenter’s other TV credits include ’Little House, Big Plans’, seeing Sarah team up with award- winning architect Damion Burrows to follow people converting their small living spaces into bigger places, while ‘Sarah Beeny’s Streets Ahead’ saw her assist communities in turning their roads into more desirable places to live. There’s also been the daring ‘Double Your House for Half the Money’, where the renowned property doyenne helped people achieve their property dreams without breaking the bank, while home sellers checked out their rival vendors’ properties for inspiration in ‘Sarah Beeny’s Selling Houses’.

IMAGES COURTESY OF MARK BOURDILLON

REVOLUTIONISING SELLING HOMES

Spirited Sarah ventured beyond property into the digital space in the noughties, launching groundbreaking
dating website MySingleFriend, subsequently setting up Tepilo, one of the country’s first online estate agencies, revolutionising the way in which we sell our homes. She further cemented her status as an innovator in business with her hit TV show ‘Sarah Beeny’s How to Sell Your Home’, seeing her meet pioneering homeowners ditching traditional estate agents as they tried to sell their homes online to save cash.

With a wealth of experience in various fields, after succeeding in saving customers millions of pounds in fees, the innovative entrepreneur even set up her own event space and interiors line. Ten years ago, she joined forces with living solutions specialist Hafele UK, to launch the Sarah Beeny Home Collection, for which she designed a stunning range of fixtures for small-scale upcycling right up to large-scale renovations.

RESTORATION NIGHTMARES

In 2012, her passion and commitment to architectural preservation took centre stage in riveting documentary series ‘Sarah Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare’, following the transformation of a Grade II* listed stately home, where we joined her and husband Graham’s action-packed journey taking rundown Rise Hall from a building at risk and turning it into an award-winning wedding venue.

With blood, sweat and tears plus a few epic fails, their attempts to save a near-derelict ginormous Georgian building and open it up as a luxury events venue saw Sarah, her husband and kids divide their time between London and Yorkshire while restoring and then running Rise Hall as a highly successful business, wedding and events establishment.

Rising to the challenge of restoring Rise Hall’s beautiful glass dome and more, we watched in awe as they returned their unique property to its former glory and beyond.
“It’s absolutely beautiful and we turned it into a really successful venue!” she proudly tells me.

BUILDING AT RISK

Never short of ideas and imagination, the aimable presenter showcases a sparkle of fun plus boundless enthusiasm to tackle new projects with Sarah’s signature wit and wisdom, no matter how challenging.

She’s shared her sticky stopcock solutions, exposed hidden nasties in woodwork causing ceiling collapses, and so much more. What enticed them to take on a property in such desperate straits and dire need of repair? “There’s a massive subject about listed buildings and buildings at risk, and that whole journey of protecting buildings that nobody wants is really interesting,” the dedicated fixer-upper explains. “You get a sort of financial problem when you’ve got a building where even if you did all the restoration, it’s still not worth the end amount, and it ends up being a building at risk.”

Location’s crucial when it comes to such structures. “If it’s in central London, you turn it into a hotel or whatever, but these buildings generally tend to be located in parts of the country that are difficult to get to, without good transport links etc.” she explains. “We were both really captivated by this journey of these problematic buildings that cost more to restore than their worth, have no purpose and have sort of negative equity before you even start. In our late 20s, we looked at lots and found them all fascinating, and someone dared us to never buy one. And that’s how we ended up with a 97-room stately home that was falling down!”

PARTY HOUSE TO FAMILY HOUSE

Boasting no fewer than 32 bedrooms alone, taking on this titanic task was no mean feat. Sarah and Graham opened the doors of their unique home to a camera crew, with the ‘Restoration Nightmare’ TV show charting their painstaking yet phenomenally rewarding journey as the pair successfully turned a total wreck into a unique and beautiful business venture.

“Rise Hall was a mad and crazy thing to take on as it was a building at risk with no purpose. But it was many years of an amazing ride and so lovely to leave it in great shape. We bought it knowing that it wasn’t a financial plan – it was just like a kind of mad dream where we thought, ‘you only live once, so let’s do it!’ We had a property investment company and thought, ‘why not?’ so we did.”

When the kids came along, the couple decided to turn Rise Hall into a venue for other couples tying the knot. “So, we then started the proper restoration. Before that, we were largely just re-roofing it and had a lot of parties!”

THE RISE OF RISE HALL

Following the transformation of their exquisite stately home, with its countless trials and tribulations played out on our screens, the pair sold up in 2020. “With the boys growing up and businesses all over the country, it was time to say goodbye to Rise Hall now that it was up-and- running, so we sold it to a lovely couple who are brilliant professional caterers and have taken it to the next level. It’s now a really elite wedding venue.”

She says their tireless renovation of Rise Hall was one of her most challenging but favourite projects. “Plus, completing the challenging restoration of the neglected property meant we were safeguarding an important piece of architectural heritage for future generations,” she smiles. “We have built and refurbished so many buildings over the years, and with each one you learn something you shouldn’t do again and take it forward, but you also learn from the things that went really well. Above all, I have learnt that there are no two buildings with the same planning situation, same construction, same foundations etc. so it’s a constant learning curve!”

IMAGE COPYRIGHT: NICKY JOHNSTON

SWAPPING COUNTIES FOR A NEW COUNTRY LIFE

After documenting the incredible renovation of their enormous Yorkshire mansion on TV, the family relocated to Somerset, where they took on the amazing new-build project being played out and shown on our screens today.

Swapping their shared life in central London and the north for a rural farm in the Bruton countryside to create the home of their dreams, the couple and their four young sons moved to a 220-acre semi-derelict dairy farm where they embarked on a grand build and land restoration, with a focus on bringing biodiversity back into farming.

With planning rules and guidance to work around, plus design requests from each family member to factor in, Graham drafted and redrafted really big plans to create their all-new dream home, all chronicled in ‘Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country’, a popular series now in its fourth season, showcasing the TV stalwart and her family’s hands-on approach to rural living and sustainable building.

BUILDING THE DREAM HOME

For her ultimate ‘passion project’, her most recent property adventure has seen the family build their “dream forever home” from scratch at the former farm. The latest TV series follows the family’s exploits as they continue their country adventure embracing rural life, from building the empty shell right through to capturing every minute interior creation detail.

“I hope everyone’s enjoyed watching it as much as we loved making it!” she says. “It was a challenging but exciting series to make because it has Graham and the kids in it. The tricky thing was the fact that it was filmed at home and is about my family, but that made the challenges and the good things almost tie together.”

Filming followed the family’s endeavours to tackle a different part of their grand country house at a time, resulting in a rollercoaster of a ride. “This huge venture was about diggers and mud and concrete for so long! This is what I call ‘making a home’.”

INSPIRING INTERIORS

After finalising the build, the family turned their hands
to personalising the interior, including creating a family portrait wall. The property loving pair and their children have painstakingly but successfully created an ‘aged’ look in a new build, with the boys learning new skills, such as tiling the bathroom and heating maintenance, along the way.

Complete with an indulgent staircase, having created an exciting eclectic mix of eccentric and extraordinary spaces and regal room gems, Graham and Sarah’s stunning reveals on our screens showcase clever use of MDF strips to create a panelled look around the windows, and artist Graham transferring his skills into stencil detailing, along with delightfully decorative plasterwork.

For a wall space that needs breaking up, fake panelling can work really well,” home aficionado Sarah advises. “Use gripfill or similar to fix the MDF strips and panel pins for the dado, and you can really play around with style and layout, although I do think painting it all one colour gives the best results.”

Sarah says ceilings are the ‘fifth wall’ and, consequently, shouldn’t be ignored. “So many people forget their ceilings, or just paint them white, but you can actually do something really dramatic, such as a mural, which can come on wallpaper rolls you can just paste up, turning your ceiling into something that looks really cool, fabulous and fun.”

Not forgetting plenty of space to hide things away. “The key to a sane household is storage!” the inspirational property genie strongly advises.

OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

Alfresco, as new owners of acres of farmland too, the blank canvas of tree-free fields also needed to be filled, so the family planted over 25,000 mixed British woodland trees and several miles of hedgerows within months of moving in.

Creating impressive new structures, housing animals and building their new country house and farm life over the past five years, as they work to build their new life in the country, they have also been creating outstanding outdoor spaces for the whole family to enjoy, making the most of the freedom the countryside offers.

The hardworking hands-on clan have built a boathouse and jetty on their expansive wild swimming pond – one of two they have dug – a top treehouse, rehomed end- of-commercial life chickens, and keep quails, cats and dogs too, while their ‘mini houdini’ pair of piglets have given them the runaround on epic escape missions, all caught candidly on camera. They’ve had the joy of being beekeepers, too, while her sons’ recently discovered penchant for wildlife photography saw them build a deer hide.

The introduction of biodiversity at her rural idyll was important for Sarah. “I have learnt that Mother Nature is so much cleverer and more resilient than I had ever appreciated. Effectively, the more you leave things alone the more she repairs the damage that human beings have wrought.”

Growing their own, with a few tips from local gardening legend Charles Dowding, the family have taken to country life in a big way. “When we first moved here, it just had a monoculture, so we’ve planted nine different species of wild grassland planted together in one field, and they work symbiotically, helping each other to grow. It’s a better food source for sheep grazing or cattle food.”

They’ve also taken measures to help prevent flooding. “We’ve re-introduced hazel, rose and hawthorn hedgerows, and planted oak, beech and birch trees and lots of other British woodland varieties here. It’s the ancient woodland of tomorrow!”

BEENY HONEY & CHAMBEENY WINE

Along with harvesting honey from their bees, the construction connoisseur’s been busy growing apples and more. Transforming the large greenhouse into a stunning warm and welcoming space enjoyed all-year round, Sarah’s “favourite place to sit” is bursting with home-grown produce including various varieties of top tomatoes.

What’s more, after discovering some of the soil on the vast farm is suited to growing grapevines, the irrepressible pair planted a vineyard in an attempt to create their own ‘Chambeeny’ sparkling wine! Sarah now loves spending her time “pottering”. “This house is an absolute testament to the incredible skills of so many trades and hard-working suppliers. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard (overcoming more than a few obstacles!) to get us here. And thank you to viewers for watching the chaos!!”

FOREVER HOME

Full of grandeur but affording her that longed-for simpler life, is Sarah’s fabulous new stately farm ‘manor house’ now her forever home? “Yes, it definitely is as far as I can imagine. On a sunny spring day, there is nowhere in the world more beautiful than here!”

BESTSELLING BOOKS – FINDING HOME

A bestselling author too, the multi-skilled businesswoman has written regular columns for national newspapers and magazines, along with bountiful books and straight- talking DIY guides.

Her latest title, ‘The Simple Life: How I Found Home’, is an unmissable memoir on how she has achieved living more modestly and finding her forever home. An instant bestseller, it tells the open and honest story of Sarah’s extraordinary life through the homes she’s lived in, sharing tales and experiences in everything from property, parenting and friendships, to nature, the environment and her recent cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“I’m so lucky to have had the most amazing career where I’ve met many interesting people all over the country and learnt lots of things,” she explains. “So, I thought I’d write a book about those interesting things, but it ended up being a bit of an autobiography through my homes.”

IMAGE COPYRIGHT: NICKY JOHNSTON

NEW COUNTRY LIVES

‘Sarah Beeny’s New Country Lives’ show has also been on our screens recently, seeing her follow city folk across the West Country as they take on the challenge of setting up rural businesses or tackling property developments. But from city living to hay making, that’s not all Sarah Beeny’s been up to…

ROCKING THE COUNTRYSIDE!

Set in beautiful surroundings with landscaped views, all- singing, all-dancing Stokeford Studios is the culmination of Sarah’s creative vision of a community arts/music/TV/film studio to support creative endeavours.

Her latest property project is a beautiful barn renovation with sustainability, creativity and community at its heart. Invigorating the local economy and creating jobs, her creative countryside redevelopment has transformed a rundown outbuilding into a multi-purpose space for art events and film production. “It was a massive barn, but
the steel frame was in pretty good order, so we just reclad it in insulated steel sheet, and it all came together,” she explains. Having stripped it right back to its basic structure, the disused hay barn has been completely renovated to create a sensational space, with Sarah and Graham giving the dilapidated building a whole new lease of life. “Sometimes, I did worry that I’d bitten off more than I can chew,” she admits. “But you plough on to make it happen.”

TAKING TEA WITH TWIGGY & SPINNING PLATES WITH POP STARS

As a guest on Sophie Ellis-Bextor ‘Spinning Plates’ podcast, entrepreneur Sarah talked top props and more with the pop star, and she’s teamed up with musicians and TV stars aplenty for her own popular podcasts.  “I’ve recorded ‘Round The Houses’ podcasts with Twiggy, Jo Wood, Joe Sugg and Lynn Bowles, to name a few famous faces,” she tells me. “I’ve been lucky to meet so many people in my career… childhood icons like Richard Branson, Joanna Lumley, Dawn French, Graham Norton, Terry Wogan and even the King, as I am an Ambassador for the King’s Foundation.”

WORKING WITH THE KING

Sarah’s fellow ambassadors comprise a few of my other interviewees, including ‘Great British Sewing Bee Judge’ Patrick Grant and national gardening treasure Alan Titchmarsh, whom I interviewed for the cover of Improve last year. “Not to mention Rod Stewart and David Beckham!” she adds.

“I find inspiration in so many people I meet and am equally inspired by people who are not well known.” Altruistic property authority Sarah is deeply committed
to philanthropy and environmental advocacy and is also a Patron of Brain Tumour Research and Age UK, whilst actively supporting Cancer Research UK, Marie Curie and Breast Cancer Awareness.

IMPROVE TO MOVE! SARAH’S TOP TIPS FOR A TOP SALE

With spring the most popular season to buy or sell a home, how can prospective sellers attain that top price? “Adding value is all about handing a property over to someone else with as little to do as possible,” Sarah exclusively shares with me. “That and good design and balance, i.e. having the right-sized garden for the number of rooms and the right number of bathrooms for bedrooms etc.”

She also strongly advises making sure the fabric of the building is sound. “A good roof, plumbing, electrics, then bathrooms and kitchen, as they’re the most complicated things for a new buyer to put in. When it comes to kerb appeal, if you have a garden, plant, plant and plant again. Put in small and let nature create a wonderful outside magical space that it is hard for money to buy.”

How can we easily add the ‘wow’ factor to our home? “Be brave… People often make the mistake of keeping too neutral for fear of getting it wrong and you just end up with ‘bland’. Have the courage of your conviction and confidence in strong colours and patterned wallpapers and you will end up with a house that feels like a home.”

Small spaces? Sarah says it’s worth investing more to make them fabulous. “In a small bathroom, you can go for a composite slab finish (squashed up, recycled stone and glass mixed with resin) which is affordable, light and hardwearing. Kitchen-wise, always start with the essentials – sink, fridge and cooker. Optional essentials include a dishwasher and washing machine, where you could consider a really clever space-saving design – a ‘drawer’ dishwasher which fits under the sink.”

As for buying, “Never view a house on a sunny day!” she advises. 

MUSICAL MOTIVATION

In addition to her professional achievements, Sarah is the proud mother of four sons, whom she credits as a constant source of motivation and her “greatest inspiration”. With their passion for music, teens Billy, Charlie, Rafferty and Laurie formed the indie rock band The Entitled Sons with their dad Graham and, amongst others, have released a single about their much-loved mum.

Her talented boys even won a competition to perform at Glastonbury. “They’ve since been on two tours and are now selling out shows almost as fast as they book them!” says self-confessed “super fan” of the band Sarah. “I have always said, ‘take your opportunities’, and they are certainly doing that. Their October tour is with Live Nation and Wasserman, which is great. They’re really flying!”.

SERIOUSLY?! WITH SARAH

She’s also loving her latest podcast project. “I am SO enjoying recording my new podcast, ‘Seriously?! With Sarah Beeny’, which I record with two of my sons, and sometimes my husband Graham. We dig into honest conversations that people don’t always have, although sometimes they’re perhaps a bit too honest!!”

The prodigious podcaster describes her fun new family podcast as a “frank, funny dive into the tricky topics that we’re all sometimes guilty of avoiding at home, which we hope will spark important open conversations for families who struggle to talk. It’s been an eye opener for me, and I’m so thrilled that we’ve had such amazing feedback!”

WHAT’S BREWING FOR SARAH BEENY?

Don’t miss Sarah’s star turn on ‘The Great Celebrity Bake Off’ for Stand Up To Cancer this spring, seeing her compete in the famous culinary tent with a cluster of other stars, including Kate Garraway, Gloria Hunniford, Roman Kemp and Chris and Rosie Ramsey, along with actress Maxine Peake and fellow property experts Scarlette and Stuart Douglas. 

Keep an eye on Angela’s Insta @angela_sara_west for announcements.
Follow Sarah on Instagram: @sarah.beeny | www.sarahbeeny.com