CORNISH COTTAGE
From rundown house to cosy holiday home, this characterful property has been made over by its interior designer owner
Getting her teeth into a project of her own was interior designer Jill Stein’s motivation for renovating this charming Cornish escape. ‘I had been working on five properties for a client and wanted to do something for myself,’ she says. ‘I didn’t have the budget for a sea-view property, so I went inland to a village I know well. Walking around, I saw this house for sale. It was a wreck, but at the right price, and it certainly ticked the “project” box.’ The deceptively large house was originally a Victorian barn and cottage, with later additions. ‘It was an interesting-looking place, as it was neglected and had been on the market for some time – but that was the challenge for me,’ says Jill. ‘There was a garage that I wanted to turn into a kitchen-diner. The central room in the house was the kitchen, but I thought it would work better as a living room. I also wanted to add another bedroom downstairs.’ Jill enlisted the help of her friend Tim Perring, a building contractor. ‘I didn’t need to employ an architect, as Tim and I worked out what to do by ourselves. We worked really well together and it was great to change our minds as we went along.’ Injecting extra period character into the property was a must. ‘As it’s a cottage, I wanted it to have a cottage feel,’ says Jill. The ceilings were opened up in many of the rooms and beams added to create drama. ‘Tim visited a reclamation yard and bought reclaimed beams that would make the house appear older,’ says Jill. ‘This worked especially well in the kitchen-diner – the former garage. I knew the features had to look as if they had been there for a long time. We removed plaster from some of the walls as I wanted exposed stone – but it just didn’t work.’ Jill was able to put many of her other ideas into practice, though. ‘I wanted to install a tiled floor, so we incorporated reclaimed terracotta bricks to lay in the living room and kitchen. We used wooden flooring throughout the rest of the house, which has stood up to wear and tear, and we added woodclad walls and ceilings in various rooms to emphasise the rustic look. I was keen to create a very traditional scheme rather than a contemporary one. I also wanted to inject warm colours.’ A more challenging task was the living room. ‘We put a Velux window in the ceiling to bring in more light but I didn’t like it,’ says Jill. ‘Not every room has to be flooded with light and I wanted to create an atmosphere in this room where people could gather for drinks. We built a window seat, which makes the room more intimate, and provides plenty of space to sit. I also installed a woodburner – most of the time we have cold weather, and the design has to accommodate that, as well as the few weeks of the year when the sun shines. I let out the house as a holiday home, so I didn’t want it to be cold and clinical. My aim was for people to walk in and feel cocooned.’ The structural work took a couple of years, but the interior decor went smoothly and Jill is thrilled with the end result. ‘I love the house. It’s such a great place – it’s looks so small from the exterior, but when you go inside, it goes on forever.’
❝I wanted to create an atmosphere where people could gather for drinks. we built a window seat, which makes the room more Intimate, and provides plenty of space to sit❞
❝Reclaimed beams were used in many Rooms to make the house appear older, instantly adding character to the space❞