Most Victorian terraces, once reworked, end up looking like most other Victorian terraces. This four-bedroom property for sale in Hastings has taken a different approach – bold in parts (a yellow wet room! A green ceiling!) but restrained where it counts.
The original Victorian bones – arched openings, decorative plasterwork, original sash windows and floorboards – are all present and intact, and the contemporary interventions work with them rather than against them; the hallmark of designers.
'Baldslow Road is owned by a couple, both designers,' says Jessica Durling, who manages staging and design at Croft Agency. 'They have utilised the majority of bedrooms as studio spaces, almost leaning towards an interesting live-work space.'
Entry is via a proper timber door with an arched fanlight, leading through a glazed vestibule into the entrance hall. So far, so Victorian. Then you are met by the kitchen, all ply cabinetry in deep black, with quartz worktops and a canted bay window with a built-in bench seat. The tall ceilings are lined with intricate plasterwork painted in emerald green. The dining room continues the theme, green giving way to a rouge marble fireplace with west-facing sash windows on either side. In afternoon light, this is presumably a very good room to be in.
The turned staircase leads to a first-floor landing of original exposed floorboards. The principal bedroom, currently an artist's studio, runs across the front elevation with original hand-drawn glazing. Cork panelling lines the chimney breast beside a Carrara marble fireplace – the texture of one throwing the coolness of the other into relief. It shouldn't work on paper, but does in practice. A second double bedroom sits alongside, fitted out with alcove joinery and shuttered sash windows.
The top floor holds two further double bedrooms with birch ply storage, a family bathroom with walk-in shower and tiled inset bath finished in what Croft Agency calls 'a playful palette', and a half-landing window with views across Alexandra Park – a literal window to the changing seasons.
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The lowest floor opens onto a rear terrace through tall aluminium glazing, with cork flooring underfoot and reeded glass doors dividing off the utility room. The wet room here – large, practical, and wrapped entirely in glazed yellow tile – is another statement of intent from owners who clearly do not find white grout aspirational.
Outside, the garden runs down through planted levels to a potting shed and greenhouse, both wired and plumbed, which will delight anyone who has spent time trying to grow things in inadequate conditions.
The front of the house is painted forest green, of course.
This property is on the market with Croft Agency for £775,000.
