This Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse overlooking the foothills of Hastings Country Park on the East Sussex Coast was recently renovated in collaboration with a local designer with expertise brought in by a specialist builder who works for the National Trust.



The quiet street running up a small hill from the popular Crown Pub on All Saints st is minutes away from the fishing huts at Rock A Nore, Hastings Contemporary and the heart of Old Town with its antique and gift shops and abundance of restaurants. The perfect bolt hole for someone escaping a busy city without losing some of the fringe benefits.



Lucy Ryder Richardson consulted on staging Tackleway 1 and 2, both owned by an actress working with a budget that allowed the owner and builder to spruce up some pieces already in situ to save money on a full staging.

Lucy and Tanya of MSPS then went about staging the house with pieces Lucy had bought locally and from Modern Shows' archive giving the house a rustic, painterly bolt-hole feel.

The owner also bought pieces suggested by Lucy to enhance the space including the Chinese scribes desk in the study, set of table and chairs in the living room and chests used as a low coffee table.

 

All other furniture was already installed. The focus was on warming up the space and make it more inviting with soft throws, rugs and a throw used as a tablecloth as well as dried flowers and a muted palette.



The study to the right as you enter the house was being used as a single bedroom. Lucy wanted to open up this space so you would feel less constricted as you walked in and so you could see the detailing in the room.



She put a Japanese print above the fireplace and adorned the hearth with twisted candlesticks and candles to reflect the colour of the print above suggesting the warm fire that would have been lighting up the room in earlier days.

She placed the writing desk to the left to open up the room and so you could see it as you walked past the house pairing it with an early Hans Wegner CH23 with original cracked leather seat and beautifully bowed back suggesting a writer could find solace here lit by the Dell lamp at night with leather books to the right and an artists diary and letters for inspiration.

To the right and behind the door as you step in there Lucy and Tanya added plans and an architects compass to a metal desk and industrial chair already installed suggesting a co-working space for a creative couple.

 

Due to the house’s elevated position, the large bay window in the sitting room has a spectacular vista of the Hasting’s rooftops, the sky and the sea. Lucy placed a simple Georgian amber bottle vase on the table to keep the view unobstructed. 



A steel wood-burner is set on brown gloss tiles so some dried flowers were brought in to soften up that area and a rug with items dotted around to give it a lived-in feel.



The whole house had been cut back to the bare flooring boards so a jute rug was brought in to the sitting room echoing the wood piled up beside the fireplace.



A simple Wabi sabi pot and textured plant on a Victorian wash stand brought the eye through into the sitting room from the stairs.



The MSPS team then set about making the kitchen and dining room on the lower-ground floor look like somewhere you could escape to to wind down, bake, or group around the dining table and chat.



As per Lucy's request the builder had added shelves in the kitchen for her to decorate with enough room left for a redundant trunk found in the house.


Mixing pale ceramics, wood and terracotta Lucy placed a French stick basket on the wall to pull the viewer into the kitchen as well as soften up the space.



She hung a fishing net in an empty corner to usher people further in where another entrance to the dining room can be found. Rye pottery casseroles were brought in to fill shelves under the central island made from timber topped with black slate.

There was already a very rustic set up in the dining room with a cut up pew and makeshift table but it looked a bit hard for the space so Lucy threw a throw over it bought from Reste in hastings to act as a tablecloth and brought in twisted candlesticks, a modern laced bowl and plant as well as some midcentury salt and pepper pots to add a splash of muted colour.




She softened up the fireplace with exposed brickwork hewn from a rugged stone with a basket weave vase, black jug and dried flowers and brought in a Georgian mixing bowl and lidded glazed stoneware flour pot above the dining chest adding in a still life and giving the space the feel of a captured moment from a painting.

 

On the first floor is a bedroom that used to house a bunk bed. The builder was able to make a double bed platform out of.the bunk bed so the stylists could turn this into a more usable room softening it with a rug and throws, placing a picture of a girl's head above the fireplace. 

There are two further bedrooms on the second floor; the room at the rear has a large built-in wardrobe and a bespoke desk made from poplar wood.


The fourth bedroom is similarly fitted with floor-to-ceiling wooden panelling, creating cohesion between the two rooms, which are connected by a Jack-and-Jill WC.

Lucy suggested getting one of the chairs that lay abandoned upholstered (unseen in this image) and used it with a Japanese acer and rug in the bedroom with hilly view to avoid having to bring in an extra bed to a small space on the top floor giving potential buyers a chance to relax at the top and admire the view of the gorse on East Hill outside.



The house’s location allows for a spacious town garden. The slopes of Hastings are mirrored in the gentle incline of the garden, with paving leading from the house towards a wooden area that catches the last of the day’s sun. . Lucy asked the builder to spray the outdoor furniture and tidy up certain aspects of the garden and front entrance with a cherry tree brought in to man the front and bring a texture to this stunning Georgian house. 

 


As Inigo.com says "Hastings is a thriving town, perennially popular with creative communities. Such are the idiosyncrasies of the area that, in 1990, the art critic Jonathan Meades suggested the town be renamed ‘Bohemia’.



The old town is home to some legendary antique traders and independent retailers, including AG Hendy and Co, Warp and Weft, Hawk & Dove, Vintage Bird, Robert’s Rummage and Hastings Antiques Warehouse. Art galleries are likewise abundant; the most significant is perhaps Hastings Contemporary (formerly the Jerwood Gallery) designed by HAT Projects, though there are many others of note, including The Rebel Gallery, Lucy Bell Fine Art and The Memorial Gallery.


This is a town rich in culture and traditions live large; the raucously surreal Hastings Jack-in-the-Green celebrations are the largest of their kind in the country, and the town bonfire procession is equally evocative."

The stage was set to style this house as the perfect bolthole from a city from which a creative couple or small family could enjoy the joys of the town Lucy has made home.


Stylists: Lucy and Tanya of modernshowspropertystaging.com and modernshows.com 

Contact lucy@modernshows.com for staging 

Photographer: Rachel Ferriman 

Contact rachel@rachelferriman.com

Lucy Ryder Richardson and Petra Curtis are the co-founders of Modernshowspropertystaging.com and run Midcentury Modern® events and The Modern Marketplace at modernshows.com