Lizzie Best lives in a 16th-century cottage in a small village on the border between Norfolk and Suffolk with her partner, Steve, and their dog, Felix. The property was love at first sight when Lizzie and Steve were renting a mile down the road, and as fate would have it, it soon became theirs. 
“Each time we drove past, I would declare that ‘one day I will live in that house!’” says Lizzie. “It came up for rent at one point but was a little out of our budget. After a lengthy search, when it was time to buy, the cottage popped up, and we went to view it. And I hated it! It was unloved, had been empty for some time, was dark, damp, and needed a lot of love.”
The couple moved into the cottage in 2015 and spent the past nine years refurbishing it with numerous repairs. They tackled damp and water ingress with a complete external makeover, which they completed themselves, including a porch rebuild, new windows and a new paint job. Internally, they knocked down upstairs walls, built an en suite and a second cloakroom, and they’re in the midst of a bathroom revamp.
“It’s amazing how skilful you become when you don’t have the budget for someone else to carry out the renovations,” says Lizzie. “I think time is our biggest setback. Steve works away a lot, and so we have to crack on with our DIY when we get the chance.”
Their restoration works uncovered a colourful past, unearthing original Tudor pargetting (decorative plastering) tucked behind plaster and protective amulets in the chimney, including a small woven women’s shoe and two leather children’s shoes from Tudor times.
The interior décor took shape during the pandemic lockdowns when Lizzie spent ample time indoors. “I realised I needed the space to feel calm and uncluttered, so I set about drenching everything in neutral tones,” she says. “I’ve found that beams can really add to the busy feel of a space and make colour choices a bit tricky, so keeping everything else simple and neutral makes the space feel calmer.”
Lizzie runs The Primitive Home, sourcing and selling antique and vintage homeware and giant linen bows she sews at home. “This has melded perfectly with our home and lifestyle, and our cottage is now a huge part of my brand,” she says.
Her home is filled with mostly antique and vintage pieces, from Victorian pine drawers and Georgian dressers to antique rugs and paintings. “They each have stories to tell and offer much more interest to a home,” says Lizzie. “I adore old rugs and oil paintings and have several of both. The more wear, the better. They’re an easy way to inject colour and texture into a space and can be found at reasonable prices if you’re willing to shop around.”
Lizzie’s biggest priority has been to update the cottage sympathetically with a ‘lived-in’ quality. We’re a busy, outdoorsy household, so a shoes-off, ultra-tidy house isn’t for us,” she says. “We’re all about hard floors that can take a bit of mud, old rugs that don’t show the dirt and big squishy sofas that you can sink into by the log burner after a long walk.”
The couple have a few smaller jobs to focus on over the summer, and then they plan to hand the care of their old cottage to someone new and move onto a new project. “This cottage will always have the biggest piece of our hearts,” says Lizzie. “Our first home together and the home that taught us so many new skills.”
