PERFECTLY CRAFTED
In this characterful Sussex cottage, handmade details mingle with Scandinavian influences for a cosy festive feel
In a characterful West Sussex cottage, handcrafted details mingle with Scandi touches
Tradition comes naturally to Anna Phillips at any time of year. She likes the feel of individual, handcrafted things that are made to last, whether it’s the beautiful knitwear she designs in natural yarns and classic styles or the hand-built furniture she and her husband Jeff have created from old floorboards and packing crates.
At Christmas, she loves digging out vintage baubles to add a burst of vibrant colour to the backdrop of winter greenery and simple furnishings. Sprays of mistletoe berries gleam between the ornaments on a mantelpiece, while garlands of festive foliage trail along bedheads and bookshelves, framing pictures and mirrors – while the little corner fireplaces that create interesting angles in each room are filled with baskets of holly and clusters of big pillar candles.
Their Victorian terrace cottage, in the Sussex town of Steyning, has a cheerful intimacy that makes it the perfect place for Anna and Jeff to celebrate with their sons Miller and Herbie. ‘Jeff and I both work from home, so this is a rare chance to just “be” and have family time together,’ says Anna, who designs interiors as well as woollens. The house is less than ten minutes’ drive from the sea, and backs onto a path that leads straight up to the South Downs, where they enjoy long walks on frosty mornings.
The front living room, with its small bay window overlooking a quiet street, provides a grown-up retreat. The big family dining room behind – knocked through into the kitchen and extended into the garden – has a table that is large enough for Anna’s design work during the week and becomes the centre of festivities at Christmas. ‘I’ve got a studio shed in the garden,’ Anna explains, ‘but I use the kitchen a lot, too, particularly in winter.’ The first floor provides a bedroom for the boys as well as a spare, and the loft is Anna’s and Jeff ’s – an incredibly versatile space that is the sunniest room in the house in summer, but feels dark and cosy in winter. Anna’s mother is Danish, so she has inherited a Scandinavian sense of light and colour and the walls throughout are painted in contrasting shades of off-white, with highlights and accents that chase away any hint of December gloom.
Anna’s approach to interiors focuses on creating comfortable rooms that can be used and lived in. Despite the elegant palette she has chosen, and the antique pieces used throughout the house, there’s a robustness here that stands up well to the frenzy of games and present opening. ‘I’d hate to have to worry about finger marks on furnishings,’ she says. ‘With two small boys, things will always need cleaning and patching.’ However, hers are particularly lovely patches – squares of vintage French linen that make the original upholstery even more beautiful. ‘I don’t hide anything,’ says Anna, ‘except the television – and the underfloor heating, which was our one concession to modern luxury! I like being able to see how things
work.’ Hence the uncarpeted floorboards, the kitchen cabinets built by Jeff from the slats of packing crates, and the utilitarian-style squirrel-cage light bulbs – mostly unshaded – on their old-fashioned twisted-cord fittings.
All of this gives the festivities a simple, handmade feel. Upstairs in the boys’ room – where Miller and Herbie will be awake and bursting with excitement from about 5 o’clock on Christmas morning – the twin beds are made from the same salvaged boards as the floor Anna and Jeff laid in their attic bedroom. The children will rush in to open stocking presents on their parents’ bed, which has a headboard constructed from a pair of old doors picked up from nearby Ardingly Antiques Fair. Nothing goes to waste in this house, and everything finds a use: the kitchen work surfaces are cut from old school laboratory bench tops (suitably industrial alongside the zinc-topped table) and Jeff even made the oven splashback from leftover fireplace tiles. It takes much longer to source furnishings this way, Anna admits, but there’s nothing to beat the satisfaction of finding exactly the right thing – the old office swivel chair that acts as a ‘carver’ at the head of the kitchen table, the striped beach windbreak that creates a canopy over the spare bed, and the fireplace in the boys’ room that she found for £20 on Ebay.
And against this quiet, pared-back setting, Christmas decorations have even more impact. It’s a winter house, says Anna, and comes into its own at this time of year, when glowing candlelight brings rooms to life. Bunches of baubles hang on wall hooks and coat rails and even from kitchen shelves, and little white-painted wooden stars create frosted silhouettes against walls and windows. Strings of knitted
Danish red-and-white flags are swagged across the mantelpieces and around the tree (‘It’s a tradition in Denmark – everyone does it’), and a candle garland woven with ivy, myrtle and eucalyptus hangs above the big kitchen table. They celebrate Christmas Eve in Danish style, with a feast of roast pork and caramel potatoes prepared by Anna’s mother, and when they sit down to a lunch late on Christmas afternoon – after a long walk on the Downs while the turkey roasts – the candlelight will reflect in antique pewter plates and her grandmother’s silver cutlery.
‘It’s a wonderful place to enjoy the children’s excitement,’ Anna says, ‘and when the wrapping paper is finally cleared away, the house has a lovely sense of quiet – the perfect way to end the day.’
The house comes into its own in winter, when glowing candlelight brings its rooms to life