A bolthole beside the sea Vintage look in a fisherman’s cottage
Vintage treasures are offset by the pared-down decorating scheme inside this 18th-century fisherman’s cottage in Sussex
When Linda and Ray Carter began thinking about buying a holiday cottage, they were torn between Devon and Hastings. ‘In the end we chose Hastings and everyone said we were mad as it’s only half an hour’s drive from our home,’ Linda recalls. ‘But we’re a busy family and, after much agonising, I realised that we didn’t really have the time to travel to Devon on a regular basis.’ Unusual as it seemed to some, their choice has turned out even better than they expected. ‘We’d always dreamed of having a bolthole by the sea,’ Linda explains, ‘and though Hastings is so close to us in rural Kent, it feels completely different. The town is quirky and arty, and we love the cafe society as well as the vintage and antiques shops.’
The interior of the two-bedroom 18thcentury fisherman’s cottage that Linda and Ray bought in 2010 is now the perfect mix of style and simplicity. Set in the old town, it is ideal for when they want a short break, and their three adult children love taking turns staying there as well. Downstairs is open plan with seating at one end, and a dining room and kitchen with the bathroom behind at the other. Stairs in the centre lead up to two bedrooms and a box room. The cottage has a neat little front garden and doors open out of the kitchen at the back into a private lane – known as a twitten – that leads round the cottage to the road. Then it is a few minutes’ walk to the
‘Hastings is quirky and arty, and we love the cafe society’
old-town centre on the way to the sea.
The cottage had been rented for years and Linda’s enduring memory of their early ownership is of pine floorboards, cupboards and wardrobes all radiating an orange glow under layers of aged varnish. ‘As a weekend bolthole, we didn’t need much storage and getting rid of excess furniture instantly made the place lighter. In fact, the cottage gets lots of natural light, which is unusual in this area, as so many houses are stacked up behind one another.’
Linda and Ray had the walls re-plastered and painted them and the windows in white, with other woodwork, floors and stairs in Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon. ‘It was wonderful to get rid of the varnished pine, and have the same paint scheme running throughout,’ Linda adds. ‘In a small cottage like this, it creates a natural flow between different spaces.’ The pared-down decorating scheme – with tableware contributing a graphic arrangement of myriad shapes in white and glass on pigeon-grey shelving – creates a contemporary backdrop for an array of vintage furnishings.
Linda can usually say where she has found every piece of furniture and accessory in the cottage – some feat, as she has been scouring antiques shops, bric-a-brac outlets, car-boot fairs and garage sales for more than 20 years.
She also buys in France, and, with two friends, set up The Three French Hens to hold three sales a year of furniture, accessories and linens purchased at
brocantes. Some of these pieces find their way to the cottage. One clever storage idea for the tiny kitchen is a wood-framed wire panel from an animal pen that Linda found in France. Cleaned up and fixed to the wall opposite the cooker, it now has the kitchen utensils
‘We made the decision to have no television or wi-fi’
hanging from it on butchers’ hooks. The worktop was the last piece of varnished pine that disappeared under Linda’s hand. After sanding, she painted it with Off-black floor paint from Farrow & Ball. ‘It has worn very well because I bought black glass chopping boards that sit there for all tasks that involve wielding a knife.’
A hoard of old linens is naturally part of the mix, though there are no curtains, as Linda feels they would make the cottage feel cluttered. A local joiner was commissioned to make shutters for the south-facing windows at the front, with blinds fitted elsewhere. There are striped French linen cloths for drying dishes and she combines old French sheets on the beds with striped duvet covers or quilted coverlets.
Linda felt she knew Hastings well before they bought the cottage, but staying here has brought discoveries. ‘This is a pedestrian-only area,’ she says, ‘so it’s quieter than we imagined and quite private. We park up the car when we arrive and don’t get in it again until it’s time to go home. We made the decision to have no television or wi-fi in the cottage and that’s been wonderfully liberating. When I wake up in the morning to the sound of seagulls wheeling overhead, I can’t wait to get down to the sea.’