leap of faith
A property-hunter’s prayers were answered when a former chapel in Sussex went up for sale
Rachael Hathaway has always been drawn to quirky buildings, and when she was ready to begin house hunting, she happened to wonder out loud, to a friend, whether there was a church for sale near her Sussex home. ‘Soon after, he came back with an advert for this extraordinary building,’ says Rachael. ‘The chapel was sited on Ministry of Defence land that was being sold off. It has had various functions over the years, but was most recently used as a community space by soldiers in the barracks. When I first saw the building, it was just one big open space. But somehow, I knew it was for me.’
The property came with certain constraints, however. The new owner had to use it as a single dwelling and was not permitted to alter the external structure. Rachael realised that this might easily put a lot of people off but she was undeterred, and when it came to putting in her bid she came up with a cunning plan.
‘There was no guide price,’ she explains. ‘So on the day that the bids had to be in, I turned up at the MOD hut with two completed tender forms. I sat outside and waited to see if anyone else went in. No one did, and just before the 4pm deadline, I checked with the lady who had been manning the desk all day, and realised that no other tenders had been submitted. So I handed in my envelope with the lower bid.’
In 2010, the keys were handed over, though Rachael and her two daughters, Phoebe, now 21, and Tara, 19, continued to live in their old house while she worked out what to do with the chapel. Gradually, she began to get a feel for the building, but finding the right architect proved
DECORATING TIP ‘In a large open-plan space, using subtly different paint finishes and tones is a very simple way to help accentuate distinct areas’
tricky. ‘Some came with great ideas, but they ended up being too fancy or not characterful enough,’ she says. ‘Eventually, I found someone who was really enthusiastic about the space and able to help me put my concept into practice.’
To visualise her ideas, Rachael built prototypes of walls and windows to work out what would look best and where things should be placed. Two years after the purchase, she finally submitted a successful planning application and soon after, builders began to reconfigure the space just as she had envisaged it. A mezzanine floor with two en-suite bedrooms was added, and two further en-suite bedrooms were created on the ground floor. ‘To break up the space between the two floors, I designed a staircase that has the look of a pulpit,’ explains Rachael.
As the kitchen was part of the larger openplan area, Rachael wanted it to sit unobtrusively within the space. A row of floating units sits along the back wall and she also had a large island unit designed to look like a contemporary sideboard set at a slant to appear more informal. Throughout the property, Rachael has used angles, a mix of sight lines and subtle changes of wall colour to create pockets of more intimate space within the body of the chapel. A mixture of bright earthy coloured furniture and textured cushions and throws, plus her eclectic art collection, means that there is a talking point at every turn. And it is this clever attention to detail that ensures that the chapel has retained its quirky, peaceful character in its new incarnation as a family home.