It’s one thing to take a Georgian or Victorian house and transform it into a showcase home, but when you’re starting with a 1970s building, the job’s always going to be trickier. This was the challenge facing interior designer Gail Race when she bought her home just outside Arundel in West Sussex.

‘To be honest, the house was really horrible,’ she says. ‘It was built in 1970 and at that time was probably very groovy – it had the whole cork-matting thing going on – but there were lots of things about the house that weren’t consistent. The windows, for example, were a mix of wood and metal.’

But they bought it anyway, ‘because it’s in a brilliant location,’ says Race. ‘It’s in a very beautiful village and is walking distance from the pub and playing fields. It was that scenario where it’s the ugliest house in the street. But it did have lots going for it – it was south facing and slightly elevated. Plus the proportions of the rooms are nice – 70s houses are often very easy to live in.’