Surrey Homes | SH23 | September 2016 | Education supplement inside

Left: The circular shelves in the study were found at
Decorex. Sebastien made the candelbra when he was
16. The wall is painted in Farrow & Ball Mahogany
Below: The giant desk lamps are by Anglepoise. He
found the rattan peacock chair in Little Treasures in
Hastings Old Town. The armchair is covered in French
awning fabric. The ethically sourced mountain goat
horn candlesticks are from TK Maxx. The table by the
wall houses a collection of white porcelain
large area of dense woodland. The house was also
effectively back to front; one entered through the
drawing room on the uphill side and walked through
to the kitchen on what would have been viewside - if
one had x-ray eyes and could see through foliage.
For some of us even that untapped view wouldn’t
have been enough to make up for the shortcomings
of the house, but with Sebastien’s experience as an
interior designer – and Alexa’s glamorous globetrotting
career as an agent for leading music video
directors – these two saw it not as a problem, but
an opportunity to create the Californian-style
home of their dreams, inspired by her American
upbringing, which they have re-named Chaletfornia.
“We’d had a large house with countless bedrooms
but it was pretty impractical for just the two
of us,” says Sebastien. “We wanted something
smaller which would really fit with the way we
wanted to live – so this meant looking at the
new property as a collection of outside walls
with a large single space between them.”
wealdentimes.co.uk
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