The slim pillars and numerous hooks along the central beam of Roger and Philippa Biles's sitting room are a reminder of their home's past incarnation as the village store. "This was the main part of the shop," explains Philippa, "and the door was where we now have the centre window, between the two bookcases."

The iron pillars in the blue-grey sitting room proved awkward when it came to positioning the furniture, but the deep recesses on either side of the brick hearth were a blessing. They were soon filled with panelled cupboards which contain "a multitude of sins", such as the toys of the Bileses' children, Harriet, aged seven, and Noah, 18 months, as well as Roger's music system.

On the other side of the room, another deep cupboard contains Philippa's office. "It's a space that allows me to work while the children are asleep or at school," she says. It will prove even more useful for keeping tabs on her business commitments when the baby she is expecting arrives in the autumn.

It seems appropriate that Philippa should work in a former shop because she is the sales and marketing manager of True Grace and Arco, the candle-making and accessory companies that she and Roger run. Roger founded the candle business in London, but ten years ago they moved lock, stock and wax barrels to Warminster, and subsequently found a home nearby in a hamlet at the end of a maze of flower-filled Dorset lanes.

Not only have Roger and Philippa produced ranges for Mulberry, Calvin Klein, Penhaligon's and Margaret Howell, they also source and make holders and containers, many of which have a secondary use as flower vases or fruit bowls. Roger is president of the British Candlemakers Federation and is keen to uphold the Britishness of his company's products, the scents of which are inspired by the countryside in which he and his family live.

Although trained in furniture design at Middlesex Poly, Roger can turn his hand to pretty much anything, from fine-tuning machines that form square candles and perfecting techniques for printed and flocked wax surfaces, to making tentacle-like lights for the bathroom and laying a deck at the back of the house. The deck was essential to make the sloping rear garden more accessible and child-friendly.

It was also Roger who came up with the red-on-red paint scheme for the hallway, which greets you with a brilliant glow as you walk through the front door. "I saw something similar in a magazine, and even though we had gone for softer colours elsewhere, I thought the hall was a limited space so could cope with a splash of bright colour," he says.

It was Harriet who chose the pink and white polka-dot and contrasting green-based floral wallpapers for her room. She also carefully dressed and styled her toys and stayed up late to help her father blow out the candles on the terrace before repairing to her cosy bunk bed.

The kitchen of this busy family home is in a rear extension that Roger and Philippa think might at one time have been a bakery connected to the shop. When it was refitted, Roger used desks from an old school chemistry lab to make the unit fronts, with the lid of the teacher's desk forming the larger cupboard door near the internal window beside the staircase.

The stairs were in place when the Bileses bought the house, but they filled in the sides with tongue and groove panelling, clad the wall opposite and carried the panelling through to the bathroom. The muted hues of the wood give the spaces a light, almost weather-beaten look that adds to the comfortable homeliness of the house.

On summer evenings, most meals are taken outside on the deck among the clipped yews and surrounded by lanterns and large outdoor candles. But in winter, the dining room, with its log-burning stove, is the venue of choice. In anticipation of long, cold evenings, a large stack of wood is already neatly stored under the stairs.

The dining room's long table is surrounded by chairs made by Christopher Healey, a furniture designer contemporary of Roger's at college. On one wall there is a broad-framed mirror, and by the stove a pinboard covered with children's drawings, party invitations and school timetables. The room's french windows lead out to the decking of the garden.

Reclamation shops in nearby Bath and Frome were sources of old-fashioned radiators as well as a roll-top bath and basin. The bathroom was originally downstairs, in what is now a utility room, but Roger opened up the loft to plumb in a suite and built a balcony which enhances the views across the leafy countryside.

On the beams above the bath, he put a group of bendy, tentacle-like lights, but the preferred lighting source for a relaxing evening soak is scented True Grace candles. After all, there's no shortage when you own a business that makes them.

www.truegrace.co.uk

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