A lifetime’s work
Antiques dealer Tina Pasco has put her specialist knowledge to use in the renovation of her seaside home
For many years Tina Pasco specialized in selling architectural and garden antiques, based in the village of Wingham near Canterbury. ‘Although I lived above the shop, I found it very constricting not having the freedom to do as I wanted, when I wanted.’ After 30 years in the business, the prospect of retirement became irresistible, so she sold up and started looking for a house nearby, as two of her three children lived in the area. ‘ When I viewed this shabby, 1850s house close to the seafront in Deal it seemed perfect. There was plenty of scope for improvement and I felt a year or two spent doing it up would keep me busy.’ Tina adds: ‘Deal is a fabulous buzzy town, and with the house only five minutes from the sea I looked forward to blustery early morning dog walks along the beach.’
Tina was fortunate that Spencer, her very capable son, lived nearby. A builder with two young sons of his own, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with them during those early years. ‘He agreed to help me with the house,’ says Tina, ‘on the understanding that we’d take his childcare responsibilities into account and do it at his pace.’ It’s been a mutually beneficial arrangement. ‘Spencer had guaranteed work and I had the pleasure of his company as well as his support and expertise. It took time but there was no rush – I loved my freedom and living beside the seaside.’
When Tina first acquired it, the house had a very di erent look. An ugly porch obscured the elegant facade and a cheap, PVC conservatory did
nothing for the back. The interior was filled with clutter and the carpets and wallpaper were a heady psychedelic whirl of pattern and colour. But the house had good proportions and Tina could see the potential.
Initially she concentrated on restoring the exterior. The unsightly porch was demolished and the half-glazed front door was replaced with an authentic, panelled version sourced from the local reclamation yard for £30. ‘Carl at the
local reclamation yard became our go-to source for everything. Whatever we needed would sooner or later miraculously appear in his yard,’ Tina says. After the front elevation was repaired and painted, the front garden was planted up with a symmetrical arrangement of pyramid box topiary. ‘From the outside it looked perfect but inside it was a di erent story. Chaos and mayhem!’ she laughs.
Having brought much of the furniture from her larger, former home, along with a lifetime’s collection of much-loved art and objects, meant that space to move, let alone work, was very tight. ‘ We managed it at a snail’s pace, floor by floor,’ she remembers. First to go was the lurid wallpaper and then the swirly carpets, which came up to reveal floorboards covered in a thick layer of sticky black paint. ‘ Sanding it o was painstaking work, but when I look at the boards now, bleached white, I’m delighted with the result.’ Spencer’s input was invaluable, she says. ‘He knew instinctively what sort of look I was after, and by panelling the walls in the garden room and building the sitting room cupboards and bookcases, both rooms were transformed.’
One of the major changes made by Tina was to move the kitchen from the ground floor down to the basement,
where the adjoining room is now the dining room. ‘I thought I’d have to sell my old dresser because it was too tall to fit in, but by the time Spencer had removed the carpet, underlay and blockboard, there was just enough height. Spencer painted the old screed floor in alternate squares of white, which contrasted with the grey concrete looks great. The outlay was minimal; a tin of white undercoat and another of varnish!’
Tina’s antiques- dealing past has provided her with many treasures, helped by rising at dawn to trawl the antiques fairs such as Newark and Ardingly. ‘I bought my stu ed crows for a tenner early one morning at Newark, where I bought most of the mirrors and
pictures. The gilded English overmantel mirror in the living room I found at Olympia, while the 1930s nude above the bureau in the living room came from Battersea Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair.’ Sources closer to home include the weekly Deal Saturday market and the Brocante Fair that is held on the green in Deal every summer. Tina’s taste is for understated, classic design. She favours English furniture of the 18th and early 19th centuries with the occasional Scandinavian piece, such as the painted wooden seat in the hallway, added to the mix. ‘Juxtaposing pieces of di erent styles and materials is part of the look. I like houses that seem as though they have evolved over generations rather than a fortnight.’
Now that the house is finished, Tina is once again involved in the antiques trade. Together with her daughter Ashley, she is running their shared antiques shop, which is conveniently close by in Deal. ‘Retirement was a pleasant concept but I’m not ready for it yet,’ Tina explains. ‘Renovating the house with Spencer gave me such a sense of satisfaction that I’m keen to start all over again on another. I think I’m happiest when covered in plaster dust and tripping over piles of rubble on my way to bed.’