A run-down village pub which lay empty for a year has been brought back to life by a family with young children who have also made it their home. Ruth Campbell discovers how they did it.

With its peeling paintwork and dark, musty interior the old village pub, dating back to the 1800s, had lain empty and neglected for a year when Heather and Graham Raine chanced upon it. The Half Moon in Sharow, outside Ripon, which was becoming more dilapidated with every passing day, had fallen victim to the crippling recession which has seen 31 British pubs closing down every week.

Many villagers feared it was destined never to reopen. But Heather and Graham, who have two daughters, Macy, 13, and Ruby, ten, felt confident they could bring it back to life.

Today it is thriving, a cornerstone of the village community, where locals, as well as those from further afield, come to enjoy chef Graham’s freshly-made, locally-sourced food. With its original old beams and open fire, the warm, welcoming atmosphere, along with regular entertainment, including quizzes and music nights, are also drawing the crowds back in.

Heather and Graham have an impressive track record for taking on run-down pubs and restaurants and transforming them into successful businesses. But it took a huge leap of faith for the couple to uproot their young family and invest everything in this new venture. For the Half Moon, tucked down a quiet lane, is now their home as well as their workplace.

They family moved into the rooms above the pub – where Heather and Graham work long hours, six days a week. A family kitchen and new bathrooms were installed to create comfortable living accommodation.

Their highly personal, quirky and contemporary approach to interior design has given a real breath of fresh air to this once dark and dated 19th century inn, which now oozes charm and personality. Although attractive old beams and other original features remain, Heather has used a calm palette of greys, off whites and pale, duck egg blue, but with little witty touches, such as the occasional splash of pink.

The attractively mismatched and characterful ‘shabby chic’ furniture and fittings have come from antique fairs, salvage yards, car boot sales and even charity shops, with old, distressed picture frames used to make shelving, music sheets covering part of the bar area and fascinating bric-a-brac dotted throughout the rooms. Even the unusual Victorian sinks in the bathrooms have become a talking point.

Heather, born in York, and Graham, from Malton, who invested £70,000 in the business, have always been interested in interior decoration and their living accommodation, just like the pub, reflects their own personalities and tastes. The couple like to recycle or ‘upcycle’ old things, breathing new life into them so that they can be enjoyed again anew, which is just what they have done with the Half Moon.

They met at the Stone Trough, Kirkham Abbey, outside York, 24 years ago, where he was a chef and she the assistant manager. Graham, whose parents ran the Creswell Arms in Appleton-le-Street, Malton, had worked in the pub restaurant business since he was a boy, while Heather qualified in hotel management at catering college. The daughter of a seamstress and a welder, Heather was also always interested in antiques and design, “I made my own clothes from a young age, I loved sewing and also baking,” she says.

The couple, both 50, worked together at the Stone Trough for six years before buying the Hare Inn, at Scawton, near Helmsley, which they transformed into a successful gastropub, with private dining room and log cabin in the garden. They spent £100,000 on the venture. “We were both 32 and we wanted our own business. It was really run down but quirky and we knew we could do something with it,” says Helen.

They ran the Hare Inn together for five years before taking over the Sheppards Hotel, in Sowerby, near Thirsk, which had been closed for a year. Renaming it Oswalds, they turned it into a 100-cover restaurant with rooms, adding a chic, 20-seater private dining room.

Then they decided that, while their children were young, they wanted to work shorter hours, so sold up to transform the old Post Office at Helperby into a successful café and deli, which they ran for four years before moving on to run the Bivouac luxury camping site, restaurant and wedding venue near Masham for a year. “I loved the creative side, but felt too isolated living there,” says Heather.

Finally, they chanced upon the Half Moon. It was the perfect location, in the countryside but just five minutes from town, a great place for the children to grow up and meet friends.

With their daughters by then aged 12 and nine, they longed to run a country pub and restaurant again, and put down roots: “It’s a lifestyle thing as well,” says Heather. “We had moved so many times, Macy had lived in seven different places by the time we moved here.” They felt living above the premises would be a bonus. “We do get babysitters in, but it’s good, knowing they are just upstairs.”

It wasn’t an easy project. “It was horrendous inside,” Heather recalls. “It had been empty for a year and was very dated, with fixed tapestry seating and a red, swirly patterned carpet.”

But they knew they could make it work. “We have a passion for the business, it’s in our blood. We knew what we could do with the inside and the food and we wanted to give the village back the pub that it deserves.”

Having taken the pub on last August, they had just three months to refurbish it before opening in October. With no kitchen in the three-bedroom upstairs accommodation and new bathrooms to install, it was a race against time. “There was woodchip everywhere and dark, brown wood furniture and fittings. It took us so long to sort it all out, we thought we were never going to get downstairs,” says Heather.

She painted a ‘horrendous’ Seventies brick fireplace cream and used Farrow and Ball off-whites and greys, installing a simple, Shaker-style kitchen. Attractive gingham curtains and pretty bunting in the girls’ bedrooms look bright and contemporary. “The colours transformed it and made such a big difference. It now feels more like a home, a proper family living space," she says.

Downstairs, in the pub and restaurant, they used kitchen fittings and furniture they had from previous businesses and Heather did most of the painting herself. “We gutted all the rooms and then looked at what we could do with the space," says Heather. "I knew I wanted a comfy seating area for drinks and a cosy dining room with an open fire.”

Friends who work in interior design helped them source the most interesting pieces. One wall is covered in old wine box ends and old lantern lights from Laura Ashley have been transformed with large, open filament bulbs. An old cotton reel box came from an antique shop in Malton, while other items on display include a collection of army cap badges and old sporting trophies.

They finally opened on October 20, with Graham offering a modern British menu of dishes such as pan-fried sea bass, beef in local Black Sheep ale and suckling pig. Sticky toffee pudding is a firm favourite, says Heather, who adds that customers now come from as far as York and Harrogate.

The downside is the hours. “I’m up at 7am to get the kids to school, then come back to do the pub cleaning and the bookwork before opening for lunch. Graham disappears into the kitchen and works right through, we hardly see him,” says Heather, who finishes at around 11pm every evening

“I just eat as-and-when and grab whatever I can. But I don’t think I have seen Graham sit down for a meal since we started.”

The girls enjoy the luxury of ordering tea from the restaurant menu every night, but the family always go out together on a Sunday night for a pizza. “It gives us all the chance to catch up at the end of the week. You just have to go with the flow. It works well for us as a family. It has all come together.”

W: halfmoonsharow.com

T: 01765-278524

E: halfmoonsharow@yahoo.co.uk

Interior decor

Joanne Taylor Home Decor W: wrightandgreen.co.uk

James Wilson: Sinks in the toilets and picture frame display

T: 07563-963802; Pinterest.com/WeReWork

Jacky Dawes Interior Decorator

W: jackydawes.co.uk; T: 07703511878

Richard Up cycled bar and display Enrootcreations@gmail.com

Builder: Peter Simpson T: 07563963802