Sea pilot’s house

This five-story Victorian townhouse, across the road from the beach, was built to afford its sea pilot owner an unrivalled view of ships coming into the Downs. This house had been carved up into a plethora of small en-suite bedrooms to serve as B&B accommodation but now the space is reconfigured into generous accommodation that makes the most of those views.

The kitchen has a wall of deep storage formed of miss-matched, reclaimed doors, opposite an internal window that gives a view onto the stairs and brings light into the rear hall. The main bathroom is spacious and luxurious, with an antique flame-mahogany sideboard re-purposed as a marble-topped vanity. Mirror is used to great effect, with the whole chimneybreast wall clad around the original fireplace. A tromp l’oeil rug was painted by a local artist who also cleverly painted the staircase spindles from black at the bottom, though to white at the top, in a vignette of greys.

Antiques sit alongside new and vintage pieces to create a comfortable home that looks like it evolved over years.