Inside the home of... Sir Terence Conran's protégé

When we dream of perfect country houses, the kind that feel like an oasis and a home, the image in many a mind will be identical to Kemps House in West Sussex. The Grade II-listed building, which dates back to the 1660s, is thought to have originally been designed and created by an architect who would surely be pleased to see his eye for design has continued in the form of current owner, Alex Willcock, protégé of the late Sir Terence Conran.

Willcock has rented the property for 16 years and has watched his family grow up there; in fact, one of his sons was born within its historic walls. It is also where he and his eldest son, Felix Conran, launched their luxury furniture business Maker&Son. Having started his career as a cabinet-maker and a furniture designer in Australia where he met Felix's mother, Sophie Conran, Willcock spent years working at The Conran Shop, before launching a design agency dedicated to making positive change. "It would be impossible to suggest that Terence's influence hasn’t had a very significant effect on my approach to living, not just design," says Willcock of his former father-in-law. "His influence proliferates throughout pretty much everything I do because it is a way of thinking, of working, of appreciating beauty in the simplest of things. One of the things that I think people perhaps misunderstand about him was that he liked the simple things in life. He was actually a man of very simple taste, who appreciated beautiful objects."

A love of beautiful things prevails throughout Kemps House to such an extent that rooms never sit still, but change to cater to the family's changing needs. This is a home that, while historic, brims with modern life and elegant design. "It is such a vibrant place of change," says Felix Conran. "Rooms are purposed and repurposed, and people are always moving around. Spaces become playrooms that become offices. It’s been a constant evolution. The only thing that hasn’t moved has been plumbing fixtures."