The sale of a one-bedroom flat in east London not only enabled architects Helen Leask and Peter Thomas to buy and renovate a four-bedroom Georgian house in Margate; it also allowed them to redress their work-life balance. “It broke a work pattern that was proving unsustainable,” says Leask. “The positive changes have been enormous; I think the move has given us more opportunities than if we had stayed in the capital.”

Since their relocation in 2013, Leask has set up an architectural practice that she runs from home. Thomas, meanwhile, continues to co-run London-based architectural firm Studio Gray, although much of his work is done remotely. “I have reduced my days in London to one a week, when I have an intense day of meetings. I realised this was a more efficient use of my time.”

When Leask and Thomas aren’t working, they are reaping the benefits of Margate’s cultural regeneration, with its theatre, music and art scene. (Last month, it was revealed as the hottest property market outside London in 2015. “There is a very positive, welcoming energy about the place,” says Leask.)

The pair have become involved with the local conservation area advisory group. Alongside a number of fellow local architects, they are also working to transform an old printing works into a creative complex. “There is an infectiously proactive spirit in the town,” she says. Before the couple moved to north Kent, they had no connections to the area, although they had both grown up in coastal locations (Leask in Ayrshire and Thomas in Eastbourne). It was the opening of the David Chipperfield-designed Turner Contemporary that spurred them to visit Margate in 2011, booking into a bed and breakfast on a Georgian garden square that they would eventually call home. “We fell in love with the intimate scale of the town,” says Leask. “We had reached the point where we wanted to buy a home together, and the visit planted the seed of an idea.”

Six months later, Thomas put his Hackney flat on the market and the pair started looking in earnest, rapidly honing down their search to the garden square. “We became quite single-minded about wanting to live here; we loved the proportions of the Georgian houses, and the square is close to the old town centre, and just minutes from the beach,” he says.

An inquiry about a particularly handsome building led the couple to the property’s executor, a friend of the artist owner, Aleksander Werner, who had passed away. “It was serendipity,” Leask recalls.

The grade II-listed house had not been touched since the 1970s and the lower-ground and top floors, which had been used as studios by Werner, were not fully habitable. The couple reinstated many of the original features, returning the kitchen to the lower-ground floor and removing an incongruous mid-20th-century rear extension to recreate an opening with french doors to the garden. A second set of double doors was reinstated at the front of the house accessing the square.

The upper-ground floor was restored as a double reception space (the rear half of which is Leask’s office), and the cornicing and ceiling roses were replaced with designs in harmony with the house’s age and proportions. On the first floor is the master suite; the second floor houses a guest bedroom, bathroom and utility. The top floor, which was opened up to the full pitch of the roof, has another guest bedroom and Thomas’s office.

“We formed strong ideas about what we would do with one of these properties,” says Leask, who cites experimental postwar American houses as his inspiration, most notably the modernist-style kitchen and handmade wardrobes.

The floor of the kitchen-dining room has been laid with grey-hued Danish Petersen bricks. The walls are painted near-black. “We liked the idea of a masonry floor, and these are more slender than English bricks,” says Thomas.

The couple’s possessions are primarily Scandinavian and mid-century pieces. “Georgian architecture has well-proportioned, well-lit rooms that provide a great canvas for any style,” says Thomas. “There is a similarity in the restraint of the two periods.” To this mix, they have added a plan chest, two 60s Danish sofas and one of his paintings, which hangs in the dining room.

When they reflect on their decision to leave London, both admit it was a leap of faith. “But with hindsight it was a no-brainer,” says Leask. “We have met so many amazing people, it’s the best decision we ever made.”