Wealden Times | WT176 | October 2016 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

owner – a very sweet lady – and put in an offer,” she
says. “We then got gazumped but the lady very kindly
turned down the better offer and went with us.
“We knew it was going to make an amazing beach house but
we wanted to take it a step further and make it somewhere
people would want to come and stay year round,” she says. “It
was not only going to have to have a cool bright summer feel
but a warmth that would make it a cosy retreat in winter.”
It was also going to need a considerable number of walls
knocked down and a considerable number more put up.
When the couple took possession the ground floor consisted
of two rooms and a sunroom. These have now been
knocked though into one large living area which opens out
through matching glass doors onto new decking front and
back made from old, black-painted scaffolding boards.
The sunroom remains a sunroom but is also now a dining/
breakfast area with terrific views down over the fields
toward the beach and a table and benches made by the
rightly-celebrated Hastings & Bexhill Wood Recycling,
with wood reclaimed from the old Hastings pier.
Right: Over the door into the kitchen the Fish sign is from
Wishbarn Antiques in Rye Below: Francesca “doesn’t do” fitted
kitchens. The natural wood shelving and a work surface were
made by H&B Wood Recycling. The full height cupboard was
made by Francesca’s father from old wooden tractor trailer doors.
Blue curtains in denim by Merchant & Mills in Rye cover the
dishwasher, freezer and washing machine. The kitchen walls are
painted in Ammonite and Stiffkey Blue by Farrow & Ball