No.1
Beautifully textured schemes make Tracey Gill’s cottage feel particularly welcoming at this time of year
FEATURE AND STYLING SARA BIRD
SITTING ROOM
The house had three stoves and they are practically the only thing Tracey has kept. Inglenook in masonry paint, Sandtex. The stove is from Clearview Stoves. For a similar leather armchair, try the Portofino from Oak World. For sheepskins, try Jord Home
When looking for her next project, location and land were top of the list for serial renovator, Tracey Gill. ‘I had a buyer for my last home which was a big manor house and I was in the process of buying a 30-acre smallholding but it fell through and I had to find something fast.’
The house she found was an old farm worker’s cottage just 10 minutes away but the location couldn’t have felt more rural. ‘The manor house only had an acre and felt quite suburban while this place has land. The fact it isn’t listed gave me the freedom to do what I wanted and that was a huge draw,’ says Tracey.
Tracey has lived in America in the past and her design drew on classic weatherboarded houses of the south with a veranda. ‘That look is actually old England, too – you see it in the vernacular of the Suffolk Downs into Kent and Sussex and it’s what the pilgrims took to America,’ she says. ‘The brief I gave myself was to bring New England style back to Sussex via Texas and the deep south.’
The cottage had two tiny reception rooms, four bedrooms and very low ceilings, with an exterior covered in pebbledash. The property was in need of a complete reinvention, but Tracey kept costs down by doing much of the work herself, managing all the trades on site, striking deals at trade prices and buying direct from suppliers. As an experienced renovator, she didn’t use an architect and did all the design and procurement herself but praises the skills a great structural engineer can bring.
Today, there is nothing visible of that cottage. The front door is now a window and the house has been extended to the left for a new kitchen-diner and to the back where a versatile veranda runs the entire length of the property. Because the house is set on a slope, it has been reasonably easy to improve the ceiling height indoors as the rooms have expanded.
KITCHEN
The pair of islands create an effective layout in the work zone, putting plenty of prep space where it’s needed. The antique workbench island came from Ardingly Antiques Fair; try UKAA for individual pieces made to order. The Mandal bar stool, The Wainhouse Co, is similar
Tracey has decorated the house in her individual, elegant style. She has a playful approach to interiors and her style hinges around quality antiques, auction finds and thrift treasures that are repainted to suit her schemes – it’s a sus
