Crafting colour

Transforming a gloomy Edwardian house into a light, bright work and living space, Keely Fawcus has infused her home with resourceful creativity

From gloomy Edwardian house into a light and bright home – this seaside property is filled with colour and creativity

Homes like this spacious Edwardian property don’t come around very often, so when the former

sea captain’s house came up for sale in Keely’s beloved Hove, she knew it was the one for her. It offered Keely the renovation challenge she was after, with workspace for her and ample living space for her three teenage girls. Built over 100 years ago, the house had previously had just three owners and was in dire need of modernisation and love. However, Keely faced an agonising wait. After exchanging in July 2017, the owner sadly passed away and, as the property was sold in probate, it took a further six months before completion. The transformation took place over the following year.

The airy kitchen-diner, where Keely spends most of her time, required a complete rebuild. ‘The old L-shaped kitchen had a side return added to create a square space, where previously this had a lean-to and an old outside toilet underneath the first floor of the building,’ explains Keely. ‘There were four different height ceiling sections at the back of the house and these were all replaced with one new ceiling spanning the width of the building.’ The old conservatory and end of the kitchen were opened up onto the garden with a new section, which kept to the existing footprint. Keely also designed the French doors for the kitchen and the main living room.

In the hall, a fireplace and chimney breast were removed and a corridor created along the side of the house, with a large door added to bring extra light into the space. Keely found a creative local tiler who was able to handpaint and match the original floor tiles in the new space, together with reclaimed antique pine floorboards.

‘The house had been built for a sea captain and still had many of its original features, however not all of them fitted in with Keely’s plans to make the interior feel brighter and more spacious. ‘The original stained glass in the front door was mainly a murky brown colour with coats of arms, and it let no light into the dark hallway,’ says Keely. ‘I hated to get rid of something original, but it had to go. I worked with a local stained-glass designer to capture all of the colours I wanted to use in the house. It’s quite a simple design with the house number incorporated into it. It uses rondels and reeded glass, which I love.’ There is also lots of original Edwardian stained glass featuring an attractive daisy pattern, which Keely has kept in the living room windows, utility room and downstairs cloakroom.

Keely was not a fan of the austere Edwardian fireplaces, so she has replaced them with reclaimed marble Victorian designs. A lot of inspiration for the vibrant décor comes from her love of the signature Liberty Hera print: ‘I have it in cotton, linen and velvet from many different periods – 1970s, modern and antique,’ she says. Design, colour and print play important roles all over the house, displaying the owner’s talents of resourcefulness and craft.

All the windows were refurbished or reglazed and, in some cases, Keely defied the architect’s suggestions because, she explains, ‘they didn’t fit with the period nature of the property’. The original rooflights were over 1.2 metres square. ‘I replaced them with Velux heritage windows as we are in a Conservation Area, making them much smaller, flush with the roof and with a bar down the middle,’ Keely explains. She opened up a second floor, adding a bespoke staircase leading to a hallway, two bedrooms and a bathroom to give her younger daughters their own space. The two sizeable reception rooms also give the family plenty of options for entertaining and they all love the main living room. ‘It’s lovely and cosy in the winter with the wood-burner,’ says Keely.

Keely had planned to have the family bathroom floor tiled in encaustic tiles she had bought in a factory sale. Advised that they were unsuitable for the floor and being eternally resourceful, she sold them on Ebay and used the profit to buy handmade wall tiles from Douglas Watson Studio, which were reduced from £300 per square metre to £500 for the lot. Happily, she prefers the end result. As the budget became too stretched for all her renovation plans, Keely had the plumbing installed for an en-suite bathroom, in what is currently a dressing room, with a view to adding fittings in future. ‘I also plan to change the garage into a studio with a glass roof and French doors so I can paint while looking onto the garden,’ she adds. For now though, Keely and her family are more than proud of their beautiful home.

Original stained-glass windows are unusually placed either side of the sitting room chimney breast. The fireplace and surround are from Cast Fireplaces. The painting is by Keely, who also reupholstered the two chairs and painted the walls in Farrow & Ball’s Sulking Room Pink

Above and above right: The back garden is a generous size, thanks to the home’s corner plot; its proportions are accentuated by Keely’s dramatic, sculptural planting schemes Right: The stained-glass door and sidelights were replaced with Keely’s bespoke design and produced by Tim Gill Glass. The hallway has been widened by removing a chimney breast and a local vintage tile specialist, Max Tansley, added handpainted floor tiles to match the existing geometric design. Reproduction versions can be found at London Mosaic. The pink paint in the hallway above the dado rail is Plaster IV and below it is Perse Grey, both from Paint & Paper Library