HISTORY REVISION
In a Cornish farmhouse, an imaginative renovation has added charm without compromising character
Row upon row of books, mid-century Scandinavian furniture, handmade ceramics and sleek marble are among the eclectic elements that all play their part in the modern rustic style of Christen Pears and Chris Blake’s Cornish home. They bought this farmhouse near Penzance, along with a group of holiday cottages and two barns, seven years ago. First, they renovated the holiday cottages to provide them with a source of income and then turned their attention to the farmhouse, which dates from the 18th century. Unfortunately, some later building work had been carried out and this had not been entirely kind to the house.
On the plus side, ground-floor rooms had been knocked through, creating larger living spaces and an open feel. Less attractive was a corrugated plastic extension with windows held together with duct tape, and a roof bowed down by heavy concrete tiles. ‘It felt as if the house had lost some of its original character along the way,’ says Christen. But she and Chris decided to turn this to their advantage. ‘We didn’t want to put in fake period details. Instead, we restored the 18th-century features that remained and combined them with elements of mid-century design, which I love.’
Having shored up, decorated and furnished their three holiday cottages first, Christen was well versed in the traditional Cornish building techniques by the time they began work on the farmhouse: ‘I learned more than I ever thought possible about lime building,’ she says. Thick plaster was chipped away from the large inglenook fireplace in the living room, revealing its original shape with a granite lintel and a small bread oven set into its left-hand side. Other walls were also stripped back to the stone: ‘In some areas, the old, damp plasterboard practically fell off,’ says Christen.
In many areas, the floorboards were too rotten to keep, so pale Douglas Fir flooring by Dinesen was laid through the entire house. The old floorboards that were in decent condition were re-used to make the cabinets in the scullery. This room leading off the kitchen is what used to be the plastic-and-duct-tape extension. ‘It was completely rebuilt, so it’s actually the newest bit of the house, but it feels much older and functions like a traditional scullery,’ says Christen. ‘It’s where we do laundry and I make jams and chutneys with the fruit and vegetables we grow.’ This year, she had a bumper crop of raspberries for jam and pickled plenty of vegetables to see them through winter. ‘I pickled cherry tomatoes for the first time this year and they were fabulous, so I’ll definitely do those again. We also had lots of apples and pears, so I poached and bottled them.’
While the scullery feels like journeying back to the 18th century, the living and dining rooms have a 20th-century elegance, with furniture by Arne Jacobsen, Børge Mogensen and Ernest Race. ‘I think the
‘The mark of a well-designed piece of furniture is that it endures and can work in different settings’