Growth Factor

Feature 13595347 | © living4media / Narratives / Sanderson, Robert | 26 images

The arrival of baby Oliver led Nick and Vanessa Morris to restore and expand a Victorian house in Dorset to create a personalised home for their growing family. Vanessa and Nick Morris’ four bedroom home in Dorset was built in the Victorian era and extended in 2001 and 2012. Vanessa is an artist (vanessabowman.co.uk), and enjoys working in a studio at the bottom of the garden; Nick runs a graphic design and communications agency. The couple have three children: Oliver, Tibby and Patrick [as at 2014: 14, 12 and 9], and a West Highland Terrier called Smartie. Nothing can quite make you change your lifestyle completely like having your first child, and it can be a comfort to have a good network of loved ones close by for support as well as the right amount of space indoors and out for the tiny person who takes up a surprising amount of space. When baby Oliver Morris arrived 14 years ago, his parents, artist Vanessa and her husband Nick, a graphic designer, realised it was time to leave their life in Winchester behind and head back home to Dorset to be closer to their family and many of their friends.