BRAVE HEART
A rundown 1970s coastal house has been transformed into a spectacular family home featuring bold interiors and innovative design features
When Mel Payne’s twin girls were born, she was living in a terraced house in southeast London. She remembers feeding them on the sofa, looking out at the view from her front room window. ‘I could see this much sky,’ she recalls, indicating a one-inch space between her thumb and index finger. ‘And now? Well, you couldn’t get more sky if you tried.’ Mel and Steve moved out of their London home in 2015 and were living with their three children in Whitstable in Kent, when the house on Marine Parade came onto the market. ‘Steve was adamant that we’d never do a project,’ Mel recalls, ‘but I secretly had a desire to embark on a large-scale renovation.’
The property was built in the 1970s and had been lived in by the same family for decades. Locally, there was a lot of interest and it eventually went to sealed bids. Mel remembers the excitement of the process: ‘We came up with a figure, then added £1.20 to it and hoped for the best. We also wrote a little personal statement about who we were and what we wanted to do to the house. I think there was a danger this could have become flats, but we were determined to keep it as a family home – to retain some of the love in the house,’ Mel explains.
In 2016, having won the bid, they were about to sign contracts when Steve was involved in an accident; he was knocked off his bike by a car and almost killed. ‘As Steve was lying in his hospital bed, I remember thinking, ‘Should I be signing this contract?’ I didn’t know whether to carry on with it all, or just resell the house as quickly as possible,’ says Mel. Happily, Steve recovered well from the accident and, while he was recuperating, Mel took the lead on the project.
‘I suppose we were looking for something that was a bit lifechanging,’ she confides. Their son Gus is autistic and, with the twins too, they had previously struggled to find a home that provided everyone with what they needed. ‘We felt as though we’d lived on an island for quite a long time,’ Mel explains. ‘Autism and twins will do that to a family, I think. You can be accidentally isolated, and this house takes us off that island. Now friends visit all the time, and
DOWNSTAIRS HALLWAY
(Above) Partition walls, slats and sliding doors create opportunities for flexible living and allow light to flow easily through the property
MAIN BEDROOM
(Right) The bed is dressed in soft pinks and greys while the rug is from Made
UPSTAIRS LIBRARY
(Opposite) Walls in the children’s retreat are painted in Red Earth and Parma Grey by Farrow & Ball. The basket is from Trouva
TWINS’ BEDROOM
Pale pink linen bedding from Ada & Ina is offset by the striking geometric walls, which incorporate colours from throughout the house
DRESSING ROOM
(Opposite, far right) Brasstrimmed bespoke plywood cabinetry makes for generous storage, while subtle geometric wallpaper from Royal Design provides interest
‘Energy is palpable throughout the house, where dark spaces give way to punchy colours’
anyone who doesn’t want to be around can go off and do their own thing or choose to be part of the action. We’d never really had that before. The coastal location and seafront are the icing on the cake, really.’
The couple employed local architects Meme to completely remodel the house, adding a rear and front extension while maintaining the geometry of the pitched roof. From the street, the building assumes a ‘stealth-like’ appearance; black rendered walls and vertical timber fins create privacy at ground-floor level, while on the first floor, the ceiling has been removed and the front elevation glazed from the floor to the apex of the roof gable. The immense view is all sea and sky. ‘The angles are incredible,’ says Mel. ‘The house gets such a lot of attention as it’s obviously very different from anything else on the street – there’s always somebody pointing out an angle, or taking photos,’ she continues.
Architects Sonya Flynn and Mark Baker were friends of Mel and before work began on the house, they all had a meeting about the design process, which she says was entirely stress-free. ‘We sat together in their garden to discuss ideas,’ she recalls. ‘They listened carefully to what we said, and how we wanted to live and the first design they came up with is pretty much what we’re sitting in now.’
The build took a year from start to finish, with Mel overseeing the direction of the interiors. As a former deputy headteacher with no design background, her choices are surprisingly bold. She began by opting for a bespoke pink, green and gold kitchen – a space that is both elegant and playful. ‘From there, I just went for it’, says Mel. ‘I decided to be brave and got real energy from that.’ That energy is palpable throughout their home, where dark interconnecting spaces give way to punchy pockets of colour – a peach playroom, orange bathroom, and dark blue bedroom – all seamlessly linked by an oiled-oak parquet floor.
The rooms have been furnished with a combination of high street finds and family heirlooms, while plants, natural fabrics and bold textiles soften the sharp angles and hard surfaces of this joyful house. ‘I was really upset when it was finished, because the buzz had gone, and the people had gone,’ Mel admits. ‘Nothing was a problem and I never felt stressed, I just loved every bit of the process.’