Stylist Charlie Davis on the creative re-invention of a run down Victorian villa in Hastings, and why a Japandi style kitchen is, perhaps counter-intuitively, a perfect choice for a period home.
We are far from short of Victorian houses in England, with their defining features of bay windows, high ceilings and neat brickwork. But our favourite type of Victorian house are those which surprise on entrance. Namely those that juxtapose traditional and contemporary interiors with very traditional exteriors, and lovingly retain the original features. Just like Stylist Charlie and sculptor Piers Davis' home and location house in Hastings.
Charlie and Piers have performed the rare magic of reconfiguring the space into something wholly new, while retaining the old, and the result is a contemporary, tranquil, gallery-like home full of character, texture, colour, shape and light.
Victorian homes have such versatility. You can put modern / old /retro furniture in them and they all work, Mixing old with new gives a sense of balance without compromising the natural beauty of these properties.
It's what works for you. I think you need to embrace the old. I love all the original features and think when renovating a house you need to keep these even when you are reconfiguring the rooms.
Charlie and Piers chose a Scandanavian/Japanese style kitchen and said she liked the uniform look of having all the units as drawer units, or cupboards with fake panels to make it look like a drawer unit, so that the liner lines ran seamlessly throughout the kitchen. It added a calm simplicity in what is the busiest room of the home.
We really wanted a mix of materials to stop the kitchen looking stark. We originally liked the walnut finish but when we went home with the sample pieces we decided the texture of the brown crown oak and black textured oak was beautiful and added interest to the kitchen. We thought it would be more hardwearing for a family and shoot location as it is bound to get knocked and the textured pieces can get away with it a bit more.
My top tip for planning a kitchen is mark it all out with masking tape in the space and walk around it pretending to cook dinner for example and then you will see where you want things and what you need close by etc.
For example we wanted the dish washer next to the sink so it was easy to load. We also have our bin on our island as this is where we do all our cooking prep and we literally scrape the scraps off the worktops into the bin. Think about what you store in your kitchen and how much you use it. We have mainly drawers in our kitchen but I insisted on having somewhere for our extra large cereal boxes that we buy for the family. Piers suggested we pour it into smaller tubs but I knew realistically I would NEVER do this so we created an extra deep drawer under the cooker purposefully for them!
Reading reviews about Custom Fronts and having spoken to them on the phone they seemed like a very professional yet friendly company who understood the importance of getting the design right for each homeowner. They were willing to meet with us and talk through the whole design and put forward suggestions.
The kitchen echoes the black fishermen's huts in Hastings, with black textured oak kitchen fronts and long bench.
We chose Hastings as it has affordable Victorian houses in need of renovation, and we wanted to be by the sea.
Our favourite things to do in Hastings are :
- Walk along the seafront and stop to have some fresh fish caught that morning by the fisherman huts. There is a local fisherman that just pulls out a folding table on the beach and gas stove and cooks fresh fish. Very rustic but delicious!
- Take part in all the festivals here - Hastings is known for its fancy dress! This weekend is Pirate weekend which the kids love!
- Walks in the woods. We live in the centre of Hastings yet literally 2 roads behind us are some beautiful woods called St Helens Woods. 34 hectares!"
Read more about this Charlie and Piers on their website https://www.charliedavis.co.uk/
This home is available for location hire https://www.07crescent.co.uk
Photography www.timyoung.photography