Tower House Project - Rye, East Sussex

Spring is in the air...if only for a minute and my latest project, the beautiful ,  listed Georgian gem, Tower House is starting to look like a home! Yippee!!!  I’ve been working on it since October and it is finally feeling like it’s been restored to the grandeur it once had - with some mod cons of course.

This project is a real challenge, especially for the contractor. The property was gutted but many of the period features have been retain and every nook and cranny is being optimised for functionality. The best examples of this are the creation of en suites in three of the bedrooms and the conversion of the attic into a home cinema. Very nice indeed. What’s good is a house if it doesn’t work with you? It’s being lovingly restored to be a fantastic holiday let that feels like an upscale boutique hotel. 

Working with media mogul Charlie Parsons has been challenging as well. He expects a lot from the people he works with and why shouldn’t he? He’s always busy juggling balls and is a little bit of a control freak but he has excellent taste.  It’s been a true collaboration. While we often agreed on the big picture, sometimes I have to fight for the little things that make a difference. Cutting corners is good in the right places but in the wrong places saving a penny can simply be a mistake that ultimately cost more money!

My soft furnishings expert, Steve Cant is in the process of crafting bespoke built-in seating, a plush, padded velvet headboard and voluptuous drapes for the large windows.  We have a floral and fauna theme moving through the wallpapers to add some air and grace to the aura. Many of them come from the hand printed F&B collection. We also used F&B on the walls. It’s expensive but the palate of colours is rich and distinctive. Not that you can’t cut corners these days by taking the F&B colour sample to some place like Chris Stevens to have it copied with a good base paint like Crown or Johnston.  

Most of the floorboards have been restored to their original lustre, but we’ve opted for carpeting on the quite grand stair case and through the hallways. Getting there!