TELLING A STORY
Treasured pieces – mixed with period features – reveal much about the owner’s life
Constantly researching and sourcing for her professional projects meant interior designer Helen Hooper had plenty of expertise and knowledge to draw on when it came to creating a home for herself and her son Ed. So it’s no surprise that she’s been able to completely transform a poky flat into a stylish space bursting with personality. ‘These high ceilings, detailed mouldings and deep skirting boards are all really special,’ says Helen. ‘I sometimes feel as though I’m a caretaker for an elderly building, looking after its history and period features.’ And it’s in good hands – Helen has renovated the flat sympathetically and introduced a contemporary flow and functionality to the combined Regency and 1980s space.
In the extension, which had housed a cramped bedroom and kitchen, Helen instructed her builders to create one open-plan space. ‘A lot of the flats here have bedrooms out on to the gardens, which I don’t think works,’ she says. ‘You want that area to be communal, so I made one long kitchen/diner-cum-sitting-room-cum snug, which goes straight outside through French doors.’ The kitchen area is bathed in daylight from a tall fixed window, installed to replace a side door and decking that was found to breach planning rules when new neighbours bought the basement flat. White Ikea units were installed and given a premium finish with bespoke marble worktops.
Helen contracted a builder she knew from her hotel projects. ‘I wasn’t living here at the time so he and a team lived here on the job,’ she explains. ‘It was rip-it-out-and-start-again.’ The work took about 10 weeks, with Helen project managing and sourcing and costing materials: ‘I planned it like any of my projects, so nothing scary cropped up!’
When she was looking for this home, Helen had been on a tight budget. ‘I wanted to be near the sea and in a really nice area,’ she says. ‘As they say, always go for the cheapest house in the best road and that’s what I did. I had to extend the lease though, which is why
I was able to buy the flat for such a good price.’
For the building work, she had to get building regulations and permission from the freeholder. As Ed was a teenager when they moved in, Helen added a summerhouse so he had his own den, and as the flat is in a listed heritage block, she needed planning permission for this too: ‘That was tricky because you had to be a certain distance from your main back door and it couldn’t touch any walls – some of
Over the YEARS, Helen has COLLECTED a stunning array of DESIGN PIECES
which are bungaroosh (a composite building material used mostly in the local area) and some are flint.’ By commissioning her builders to make the summerhouse, Helen says she saved money. The process wasn’t easy though, as all the materials had to come through the flat. It’s been built to her high specifications using waterproof membrane and insulation, which means it can be used as an office space all year round.
Prioritising essential works was key to Helen’s renovation budget. ‘It’s great to buy those gorgeous door handles or whatever but, for me, I just couldn’t live with Artex, so I had the ceilings skimmed as a priority,’ she explains. Over the years, she has collected a stunning array of design pieces and artworks. ‘I have a vintage Sciolari pendant light in the hallway,’ she says. ‘It took me a while to find exactly what I was looking for, so I lived with nothing until then. You need to spend time to find what you want and what’s right for you.’
In the living room a convex mirror from Alex Macarthur Interiors hangs over the fireplace and Helen points out that, ‘everything works around that. Sometimes you need just one or two pieces to anchor a space.’ She adds, ‘everything here tells a story of who I am, where I’ve been and what I’ve experienced. I have this papier-mâché jug that Ed made at school and I’d never get rid of it – it’s part of my scheme.’
Helen describes her style as ‘eco, rustic chic and tribal’, all complemented with pieces of contemporary art. Periods and styles are combined: ‘I like to mix things up a bit, for example juxtaposing items from the 1970s with vintage pieces from the [now derelict] Brighton West Pier, and I think they sit well together.’
The compact bathroom belies its size with a generous walk-in shower, tiled in a marble hexagon mosaic that continues onto the floor. Helen certainly didn’t scrimp on any of the fittings here, opting for Villeroy & Boch and Grohe. ‘They’re good quality products that have lasted, which is good as we have a terrible limescale problem here,’ she says. ‘I have thought about getting a Japanese-style bath, but maybe that’s the next renovation and another story!’