{"id":15667,"date":"2022-10-07T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T07:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=36148"},"modified":"2022-10-07T09:51:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T07:51:12","slug":"an-antiques-filled-farmhouse-in-sussex","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/an-antiques-filled-farmhouse-in-sussex\/","title":{"rendered":"An antiques-filled farmhouse in Sussex"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Serena Fokschaner\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 07 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Genevieve Harris was on her way to the shops when a sign caught her eye. Executing a tidy U-turn, she drove purposefully towards her new destination, a local car boot fair, as her children exchanged long-suffering glances. Once there, Genevieve disappeared into the bargain-savvy crowd; a tea dress-clad, heat-seeking missile on course for her target. Ten minutes later, she reappeared brandishing her motley booty: an Imari charger, Bakelite phone and Delft candlestick. As this \u2018unabashed\u2019 maximalist puts it: \u2018I don\u2019t stick to one style or era; it\u2019s just about finding things that I like, something with soul.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was her unerring eye for \u2018a diamond in the rough\u2019 that led Genevieve to the home she shares with her husband and two children. Framed by three acres of tumbling East Sussex countryside, the beam-filled house dates back to the 15th century: \u2018We knew it was a rarity,\u2019 says Genevieve, an Anglophile Canadian, who moved to Britain in 2002.<\/p>\n

The Grade II-listed property, near Rye, also proved to be a \u2018huge undertaking\u2019. In the 1960s its last owners, who were given the house as a wedding present by doting parents, subjected it to a brutal makeover. Original floors, ledge and brace doors and arrowhead windows were removed. Most shockingly, the wattle and daub fa\u00e7ade was masked with concrete and painted to create a black and white Tudor-bethan effect.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the rest of the house slid into a state of neglect. \u2018In truth, it was falling down,\u2019 recalls Genevieve. In her later years, the previous owner would drive to Rye in her Rolls Royce to buy a sack of bird feed every day. Dubbed the \u2018bird lady\u2019 by locals, the nature-loving widow allowed her ducks to wander, free range, inside the house. \u2018We found evidence of their existence everywhere,\u2019 says Genevieve.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Looking back, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d ever take on anything like this again. At one point during the work there were no windows; the house was so damp that the children ran around in their wellies, which, of course, they loved. Thank goodness we were so na\u00efve,\u2019 continues Genevieve, a former retail manager for Alexander McQueen and Liberty. \u2018But because it was such an overwhelming project, we love it even more.\u2019<\/p>\n

Genevieve whisks me off on a tour starting at the gabled porch, which leads to the huge lowceilinged sitting room with its wide inglenook fireplace and heavy beams. From its beginnings as a smoky medieval hall, built using clay dredged from the nearby pond, the house has grown organically over the centuries and the back of the property is an architectural mix of Georgian and Victorian additions.<\/p>\n

The couple hired builders, Evans Conservation, who also work on National Trust properties, and they restored the building using authentic materials. \u2018These structures are surprisingly simple. We were cheered when they told us there was nothing that couldn\u2019t be mended.\u2019 The wattle and daub was remixed and rotting woodwork replaced. For walls and beams they used a traditional lime-wash finish from Dorset specialist Rose of Jericho.<\/p>\n

These permeable finishes, says Genevieve, allow the house to breathe. There was a \u2018moment of joy in the midst of the stress\u2019, when they uncovered the rosy brick floor buried beneath a layer of moisture-sucking concrete. \u2018Once we\u2019d taken it off, the house felt so much less damp.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Over time, the couple have put back doors and combed reclamation yards for appropriate joinery. \u2018I don\u2019t like new things that pretend to look old. I\u2019d rather have old,\u2019 insists Genevieve, known to her keen Instagram followers as Mrs Trufflepig. And, in many ways, the house feels unchanged. Pipes still clank in the night, the floors upstairs slope so much that the beds are propped up on blocks.<\/p>\n

There are no showers (\u2018the next project\u2019) and one bathroom retains its splendidly Sixties black glass splash-back. But that\u2019s the way she likes it. \u2018I\u2019ve always told myself I was born in the wrong era\u2026 There are no straight lines or clean joins here. But that means I don\u2019t have to strive for perfection.\u2019<\/p>\n

Growing up in Canada with English parents (\u2018they were part of the big wave of emigration in the 1960s\u2019), Genevieve remembers television nights watching benign classics: Poirot or Midsomer Murders, whose cottage gardens and tweed-wearing heroine struck a chord: \u2018There was a simplicity to those dramas that I still love,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

A stint working at Liberty in her twenties cemented her appreciation of English decorating: \u2018I learnt so much. The Liberty way of doing things \u2013 putting oriental rugs next to a modern piece of furniture \u2013 was a huge influence. It opened my eyes to new possibilities.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Yet this house was hard to decorate. \u2018It\u2019s the oldest property we\u2019ve ever lived in and I found the architecture a challenge. The symmetrical Georgian rooms were far easier than the older bits. At first I went safe with neutrals, but that didn\u2019t gel with my personality. So, gradually, I introduced colour in the woodwork and doors,\u2019 she says, pointing out Edward Bulmer\u2019s Invisible Green shade of eco paint, which draws the garden inside.<\/p>\n