USEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL
This recently built timber detached house features an array of handcrafted items
gina Portman’s family home could easily pass for a woodsman’s cabin that has always been there. Hidden down a track in the Sussex High Weald, with silvering cedar shingles and a barn-like silhouette, the unobtrusive building nods respectfully to the area’s architecture but has, in fact, only recently been completed. Outside, a tussocky lawn and duck pond framed by oak trees planted centuries ago blend with the surrounding fields. The effect is of a building rooted in the landscape, yet true to its own time too, as the internal features, such as its polished-concrete floors and a mezzanine landing, have a clean contemporary feel. ‘Andrew prefers modern interiors and I really like shacks and cabins, so it was a case of how best to combine the two,’ says Gina.
Indeed, the entire building project was an inspired compromise. After leaving London, where she had worked as a stylist and costume designer in the film industry, Gina settled happily in the Cinque Port town of Rye with Andrew and their two young sons. They were living in an early-victorian house on the edge of town, which they had lovingly redecorated throughout, when Gina felt the need to move deeper into the countryside.
‘I wanted to be at the end of a track, with no lights and away from cars, where my children could have a magical outdoor life, building
dams in streams,’ she recalls. ‘Andrew loved our house so much though, he said he’d only move if we could build our own place – so I started scouting around on my bicycle.’ On one such exploratory ride through a nearby hamlet, Gina came across a derelict 1950s farm cottage marked For Sale, on a bridleway with no through traffic. The site also had planning permission for a new-build home. Despite the quick sale of their own property, this was only the beginning of what turned out to be a lengthy self-build saga. ‘We were meant to be in our rental house for six months – it ended up being four years,’ says Gina.
What took the time was, first of all, clearing the site: the original property needed to be demolished and asbestos was discovered, requiring specialist disposal. The new design cleared planning without a hitch but, as construction began, Gina and Andrew parted ways with the architects and decided to project-manage the scheme themselves. Finally, the builder also left before the property was finished, so when the family moved in, there was no electricity, no heating and no staircase. ‘We were all walking around with head torches,’ remembers Gina. ‘But it was so nice to be in at last, it didn’t matter.’
One of the benefits of having so much input into the construction was that Gina was able to make her mark on the fabric of the building. Clever touches – such as the huge sliding door that divides the kitchen/diner from the snug – help to oil the wheels of family life. ‘Open-plan living is great when children are small, but as they get older you want to zone them off!’ says Gina, whose sons, Alfie and Edgar
Gina MADE many of the HANDCRAFTED pieces
are now in their teens. The snug also comes into its own in winter, when the family can close the door, light the woodburner and watch a film. Much thought has gone into concealed storage too, so that only functional and beautiful objects are on show.
This pared-back look extends to the colour palette throughout, which mixes pale concrete and oak floors with Farrow & Ball’s
Strong White, except for a handful of accent walls picked out in charcoal and mauve. The double-height kitchen/diner, overlooked by the mezzanine – which houses the boys’ rooms – is made homely with natural textures, which include rustic wooden furniture and mohair blankets and sheepskins thrown over sofas and benches.
Many of these characterful pieces were made by Gina, an experienced knitter, or came from Folk At Home, an enterprise she set up just after moving to Rye, selling her own handmade socks, gloves and slippers at local craft fairs. Through these, she met other like-minded makers and began stocking their work too. ‘I built a collection that was based around the idea of things being traditional and usable,’ explains Gina. She sold hand-dipped beeswax candles from Cumbria, chopping boards and stools by the carpenter Will Del Tufo, and tactile blankets from Romney Marsh Wools.
Things have evolved over the years and Gina now runs workshops, produces collections of homewares and puts on art sales, as well as organising the annual Great Dixter Christmas Fair. ‘I recently started collaborating with painter Luke Hannam,’ she says. ‘We run life drawing and still life classes at a new local vineyard, Tillingham, and we’re hoping to start running painting holidays soon too, where we will go into the woods and paint anything we find.’
Plans include building a garden studio and to continue planting up the garden with wild flowers and native hedging. But for now, Gina enjoys the house’s remote, rural setting for which she had so longed.
For more information see @ginaportman on Instagram
Only BEAUTIFUL and functional OBJECTS are on SHOW