DARK AND HANDSOME

Thanks to careful planning and cost-saving tricks, a coastal home has been transformed

When Carmen Heesakkers decided to move out of London, she knew she wanted a project, somewhere she could do up. ‘I love old houses with high ceilings and period features,’ she says, ‘and I also needed to have three bedrooms so friends and family could come and stay.’

She found exactly what she wanted in St Leonards – with its boutique shops and relaxed lifestyle – on the East Sussex coast. As an interior designer, she was keen to put her stamp on the house and make it her own: ‘I’ve always loved dark colours and it was my aim to turn this house into a cosy, warm home with lots of personal touches.’

Whenever Carmen does up a house for herself, she likes to pretend she’s a client, so she creates a moodboard presentation for herself so she can gather together all the things she likes and make a ‘story’ of what she’s trying to achieve: ‘It’s important to think of the house as a whole, so the rooms all work together cohesively and you don’t end up with a mish-mash of styles.’

With a tight budget of just £15,000 to work with, she had to take a disciplined approach to what she was spending and where. ‘Fortunately the basic layout was good so no structural work was required, plus I was lucky as my father helped with the renovation.’ The laminate floors were ripped up to reveal the original floorboards, which were then painted black, bringing character and charm to the space and creating a streamlined look throughout. Then all the rooms were given a fresh coat of paint: ‘I used dark colours as a base all through the house and introduced a splash of colour in every room: yellow and red in the kitchen; yellow tiles and cabinet in the dining room; and a colourful tapestry I picked up in a local antiques shop in the living room.’

Carmen has created a space that looks expensive but includes clever budget-saving ideas. In the kitchen, for example, she has used basic Ikea cabinets but invested in a solid wood worktop. She also splashed out on the yellow tiles. Unexpected touches, such as a gold-framed oil painting, add interest and help enliven the space.

To continue the colour scheme from the kitchen to the dining room, Carmen also used yellow here.

She likes to mix old with new, and in this room, bentwood chairs sit alongside a table sourced from the Netherlands – where she is from – while the contemporary art in the alcoves comes from Desenio.

In the living room, Carmen kept to dark grey – Asphalt from B&Q – for the walls, which works

LIVING ROOM Carmen sourced the furniture from a mix of antiques shops in Hastings, and auctions in Belgium and the Netherlands. The coffee table is an old medical chest picked up at auction 10 years ago, while the chairs were reupholstered by her mum

ENTRANCE The bright red shade of the door and the Paradiso Tropical Bird pattern wallpaper from Erismann attract lots of compliments from Carmen’s neighbours! KITCHEN Now discontinued, the units were from Ikea and have been topped with a wooden worksurface. Walls painted in Deep Olive, RAL 6015, from Johnstone’s are the perfect dramatic backdrop to brighter touches, such as red accessories and an Ikea step stool painted in Release the Hounds by Valspar. Yellow was also chosen for the tiles behind the range cooker, which is from Flavel