PASSING through the wrought iron gates and along the sweeping drive that leads to the front door of Gaynor Gray’s home, it is not hard to see why the first Marquess of Ripon chose this rather distinguished looking building as his residence in the 1800s.

But unlike the Marquess, Gaynor and her family didn’t enjoy anything like the grand and luxurious lifestyle he was born into when they first moved to the elegant Georgian mansion six years ago.

In fact, for the first 12 months the talented artist, along with her husband Tim and their two children, virtually camped out in one room of the then freezing and dilapidated building, cooking all their meals on a gas-fired barbecue in what was the original dining room. “We had ripped out the kitchen and had no heating, apart from the open fire, for a year,” says Gaynor, 48, who runs Gray Finch, a homeware, clothes and gift shop in the picturesque cathedral city of the Dales. The couple are now halfway through restoring the imposing building to its former glory, albeit with a modern, often quirky, twist.

George Frederick Samuel Robinson, also known as Viscount Goderich and the Earl de Grey and Ripon, wouldn't recognise the stunning contemporary kitchen today. Painted in striking deep purple with contrasting greys, it has a limestone fossil floor, and all sorts of gleaming 21st century gadgets, including a boiling hot water tap.

The magnificent house bathroom, with impressive brass bath set against a huge, rainfall shower, with dramatic tiled wall of sparkling black glass iridescent tiles, is a world away from the bathing facilities the Marquess would have been used to.

And we can only guess what he might have made of the large plastic retro whipped ice cream, which originally sat on the top of a street seller’s van, mounted on one of the walls in the orangery family room extension, just off the kitchen.

The restoration work hasn’t been easy. Over the years the house had been split into flats and holiday lets, with rooms awkwardly divided by partition walls and a makeshift upstairs kitchen. “I had two boilers and three electric fuse boards. There was a passageway running through the dining room, and the outside was just like a jungle,” says Gaynor.

Tim and Gaynor started work on the upstairs, then knocked down a lean-to rear entrance vestibule on the ground floor, taking out walls and putting in steel girders to make a huge downstairs kitchen. “We just taped off where the work was going on and Tim cooked everything, from rice puddings to big Sunday lunches, all from scratch, on the barbecue.”

But it has clearly been worth the effort. This beautifully proportioned house, for all its modern and witty touches, retains the essence of its Georgian spirit. With its original fireplaces, large, paned windows with wooden shutters, high ceilings and beautiful polished wooden staircase, it oozes elegance and style.

Gaynor and, Tim, a retired engineering manufacturer, who now runs a motorsport company, have restored the period dining room and drawing room to their former elegance, installing a wood burning stove in the welcoming entrance hall.

Their large, extended family competes for an annual snooker trophy in the traditional games room which, as well as having a full-sized snooker table, houses remote control model planes and other toys and gadgets.

Stunning cut glass chandeliers, which would not have been out of place in the Marquess’s day, light up most of the rooms and hallways, with huge, lavish bunches of silk flowers dotted about in vases. With its sumptuous draped curtains and stylish but comfortable sofas and chairs, this is a house that, for all its grandness, still feels warm and homely.

“It doesn’t really feel like a big house. It feels like a normal house but with big rooms,” says Gaynor, who makes three-dimensional anthropomorphic animal artworks, which sell in her shop for up to £400, and also paints in her spare time.

Her creative and colourful personality shines throughout her home, particularly in occasional, bold splashes of glorious opulence, such as the rich, vividly-patterned accent wallpapers, set against plain, pared-down and muted colours elsewhere.

A Vivienne Westwood vintage Union Jack wallpaper, next to an ornate, gilded chair and sink unit made from her aunt’s old Singer sewing machine base, make a talking point of the downstairs toilet. It has an old brass penny pay slot on the door, which came from an old public toilet block.

Gaynor made the quirky ‘Mad Hatter’s’ velvet lampshade in the hallway, and is currently working on a series of animal character art works, including a white rabbit, dormouse and cat, for her shop, reflecting the city’s links with Lewis Carroll. She is also planning a huge art installation figure of Alice, with her head going through the ceiling. “Lewis Carroll drew inspiration for his books, most notably Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, from his time in Ripon, where he lived while his father was canon of the cathedral, but I don’t think Ripon makes enough of it,” says Gaynor.

Originally from Knaresborough, Gaynor, whose father was a furniture designer and lecturer in 3D design at Leeds Polytechnic, studied jewellery and silversmithing at Birmingham City University. Although extremely creative, she lacked confidence and went on to work at Harrogate College as a design technician, running workshops and teaching. “I never made a living from jewellery,” she says.

When she married Tim, who had two sons, Chris, now 28, and Michael, 26, the couple extended and converted a Victorian lodge near Harlow Carr, outside Harrogate. Gaynor did most of the renovation and decorating work herself. “When I was smaller, I was always helping my dad doing up our house in Knaresborough, I used to go under the floor, helping him solder pipes. I installed the kitchen at our last house, did all the tiling and painting and also put the floors down. I’m not very good at multi-tasking, I’m more of a bloke really, so I do all the DIY and my husband cooks,” she says.

As their family grew, Tim and Gaynor, who went on to have Georgia, now 21, and Morgan, 16, wanted to move to a bigger property, although the last place Gaynor wanted to live at the time was Ripon. “I thought it was quite grotty,” she confesses. “When this house - which had remained in the previous owners’ family for more than 80 years - came up, it was in the right price range but not in the right place. I got the brochure just to rule it out, really, but as soon as we came up the drive, we knew. I just loved it."

Today the charming, bustling city of Ripon has undergone something of a revival, with stylish restaurants and bars, galleries and a trendy, independent cinema, and Gaynor can’t imagine settling anywhere else.

The house now has five bedrooms, but Gaynor and Tim are adding more as they gradually restore the property back to how it was, as well as extending the garage and outbuildings to include a cinema room, gym and studio. Gaynor doesn’t read homestyle magazines. “I prefer to just sit in a room for ages to get inspiration,” she says.

She has bought quite a collection of curiosities, including the large ice cream cone, on eBay over the years. An old school blackboard in the kitchen cost only £20 and the brass bath was snapped up for just £1,200. “I always buy local, within a 25-mile radius. My best buy was a wardrobe which I got for £120. Before I opened the shop, in October 2013, I used to look on eBay every night and the place just started to fill up with things.”

Old books and vintage tea sets are just some of the items displayed on shelves and in former shop display cases and storage units bought online. An attractive stack of antique suitcases and unusual items in glass domes all came from eBay.

The house is full of artwork, including the attractive ceramics on display in the kitchen, which were made by Tim’s mother, who studied at Bradford School of Art alongside David Hockney. A talent for art obviously runs in the family. As well as Gaynor’s paintings, one by her son Morgan hangs in the drawing room. Others have been painted by friends or are by artists Gaynor loves. “These are the things I would rescue in a fire,” she says.

Her art is at the heart of her shop, where she also sells distinctive candles and quality bathroom products. She opened Gray Finch, in stylish Kirkgate, in the shadow of Ripon cathedral, after being left money by her uncle in his will. “I had always wanted to have a shop, I needed to get it out of my system,” she says. “I buy unusual things, from all over the world, things you won’t find anywhere else.”

Her art works have sold well. “From having no confidence in my art when I was younger, the fact that people like my stuff and want to buy it has encouraged me to do more and more.”

As well as her three-dimensional models, she creates gift cards and pictures featuring her quirky animal images and has plans to produce cushions and tea towels. “I’m inspired by taxidermy, apothecary, all those things. It’s as if I’m living in the past,” she laughs.

She says she senses spirits in the house. On the night they moved in she found a Victorian photograph of a little girl, next to a tiny brass angel, which she hadn’t noticed on the floor of the kitchen before. “That was really weird, like a guardian angel. It has a good feeling, it is such a happy house.”

*Gray Finch, 13, Kirkgate, Ripon. T: 07545 579978