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

Above left: Wrought-iron daybed from IKEA. Francesca designed the Roman blind, which is in Ralph Lauren fabric
Above right: The shuttered mirror in the bathroom is from Strand Antiques and the industrial style light fitting is from
Cox & Cox. The blue glass is from LSA International
games room’s south-facing glass doors lead out onto an area
of decking and while this room would have made a superb
bedroom, it sits below local sea level, so this is verboten.
Instead, equipped with large TV, it’s an elegant bolthole for
the young. The TV cabin came from H&B Wood Recycling
and the high desk from McCully & Crane. A nice touch are
the woollen sea urchin poofs which serve as mini bean bags.
So onward and upward to the top of the house and an
absolutely magical vaulted bedroom suite from which
there is not only a great view out over the fields but
one can also see the blue ribbon of the sea beyond.
This area was just one large one, stepped into from the
top of the stairs, but Francesca has remodelled the whole
floor to provide a landing, spacious double bedroom,
lovely bathroom accessed through a pair of elegant
reclaimed wood doors and a secret, curtained child’s
sleeping cubbyhole made from an old attic cupboard.
The brilliant touch here is the reclaimed scaffolding
cladding behind the Rowan Plowden headboard, made
all the more dramatic as bed and cladding are what
greet you the moment you step into the room. In the
window is an Ikea wrought-iron day bed. The table
lamps are, of course, McCully & Crane. The blinds
in both bedroom and bathroom are Rowan Plowden
designed and the fabric is Ralph Lauren while the
bathroom’s three industrial lights are Cox & Cox.
Predictably, Field View was an instant success. Its
first posting on Facebook had 4,000 hits and it’s
never looked back, proving virtually as popular a
winter bolt hole as it has a summer escape.
So what’s the secret of its immediate success? Why does
it stand out from the crowd? Why is it that one feels
at once so impressed and so at home when one walks
into, not only Field View, but any Rowan Plowden
gig? What makes the difference between a gifted
amateur and such an accomplished professional?
Personally, I have no idea whatever, which is why I try so
manfully to keep my views to myself as I wander around
yet another property in which I would be delighted
to spend the rest of this life and most of the next.
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