The way we live now

WHEN designers husband-and-wife team Susan and Peter Marston first set eyes on their Regency terraced home in a conservation area of Lambeth, south London, they fell for it immediately - which was fortunate as they were in a hurry. Susan says: "We only had 48 hours to find somewhere to live as we had sold our old homes. It all happened very fast, we said yes on the spot and completed the paperwork on the sale while I was driving down the A1 in a removal van!"

Once the moving frenzy was over, however, the couple gradually set about making this four-bedroom house their own. Peter says: "The bones were there, so we concentrated on fixing things that matter and doing what we enjoy - producing a style we like to live with." The interior now displays a blend of ideas and objects that reflect Susan and Peter's eclectic tastes.

That the finished product is a polished piece of styling comes as no surprise when you discover the couple's credentials. Peter is the founder of designermakers Marston Langinger, with a delightful landmark shop and studio on Ebury Street, Pimlico, where Londoners are drawn to wander through tempting merchandise and discuss their space problems. He is the man who has the answers if you are longing for a romantic garden room, but only have a dark or awkward space.

Peter, a fine-art graduate of St Martin's who went on to study architecture, started his career by forming a company to design and make fine-quality timber furniture, and then realised his passion for glass buildings.

He met Susan as a student. Twenty years later, after their first marriages ended, they came together again and now share their four children. They bought their London home eight years ago.

Susan, a post graduate from the RCA who began in fashion textiles, is eminently qualified to be a buyer and textile designer for their company. Her first stop for product buying is Britain, but she travels around Europe and Asia finding places off the tourist map to source interesting pieces, many of which then start life in the couple's home. "Peter's happiest spending money, whereas I'm more of a skip-scavenger," she says. "I love finding interesting objects of a similar type and grouping them together."

Her favourite "rescued" item is the glass-fronted church noticeboard, which hangs on the bathroom wall and houses various trinkets and treasures from the couple's travels.

This is a very "thoughtful" home: virtually everything in it has a reason for being placed precisely where it is. Susan's eye for the unusual means that she sometimes ends up attracted to a beautiful object without actually knowing what it is. An extraordinary altar- style piece, housing five clay figures and covered in sparkling stars, is displayed in the sitting room. "We bought it in Norfolk, but we've no idea what it is.

I think it may be Masonic, because the little men are wearing aprons."

Norfolk is their choice for a second home, where Peter revels in his latest project: restoring a 17th century farmhouse with the help of local craftsmen, and designing the garden from scratch. He spent years designing gardens for other people and writing books about them. Both homes provide an opportunity for Peter to test and develop new products. He now has his own line of exterior paints, that are made to an environmentally friendly, water-based formulation. Colours includes almost tactile, chalky shades of cream, taupe, sage green and white.

Living the urban life all week the Marstons have tackled the problems all Londoners face with their interiors, primarily, how to gain more natural light and space. Peter says: "We inherited the galley kitchen that so often comes at the back of London houses, and decided to develop this space with a small conservatory, which would open into the existing kitchen, adding light, space and a place to eat next to the garden. We knew we needed planning permission for an extension, so I thought I would go for a modest and reasonable amount of extra space - 12 feet by seven feet.

"I decided not to be too radical, but fit in with the style of the local architecture, remembering this is a conservation area. Our plans were passed with no problem, and Camden Council now use them as a model in their planning guide for conservatory extensions. Certainly others in our road have followed our design."

THE couple's modest glass extension has turned the kitchen into a favourite room - a real suntrap where they relax and look out onto a gorgeous little walled garden. "It's a great place to eat breakfast - though Olive, our cat, stays all day long," says Susan. Another nice and inexpensive touch is the stained-glass lantern light that replaces a "horrible" dome-shaped plastic skylight in the bathroom. "We couldn't wait to get rid of it," says Susan. "Now, as the sun moves throughout the day, pools of coloured light dance around the bathroom walls, flooding into the hallway and main bedroom."

Marston Langinger: objects for gardens, terraces and glasshouses with a full architectural service and consultancy at 192 Ebury Street, SW1 (020 7881 5700).

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