Luck played a part in how interior designer Andrew Buchanan found his period English seaside apartment with Channel views.
Around 18 years ago, he and his former partner were on a weekend break in Folkestone, a waterfront town in Kent, when they spotted an arched garden gate while on a walk.
“We peered inside and saw this amazing garden, albeit overgrown, and coastal views,” Buchanan said. They noticed a for-sale sign, so they knocked on the front door and asked the owner for a tour, and she obliged.
“We weren’t really house hunting at the time, but we knew we wanted it,” Buchanan said.
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The property is a ground-floor apartment, forming part of a pale stucco villa, named the Priory, built in 1725, with a rich history, Buchanan said. From the garden, there are panoramic coastal views, including the town’s harbor and the White Cliffs of Dover. It sits beside a church in the historic Bayle part of Folkestone (or “Folkey” as the locals affectionately call it)—about 10 miles from Dover and 75 miles southeast of London.
In 2007, the flat’s unkempt garden was the first sign the home needed work. Inside, there were fire-engine red walls and matching shagpile carpets and garden brambles blocking the sea views. But worse: There was dampness in the walls and dry rot fungus, woodworm, and deathwatch beetles were thriving in its timber joists.
Few people would take on such a project for a second home, but the couple weren’t deterred. In addition to fine bones and panoramic sea views, it had a spectacular main reception room with full-height carved oak paneling, intricate ceiling moldings, and a huge casement window with direct garden access.
The property was going to auction in a week, so the couple tried to buy it before it went under the hammer, offering £30,000 over its asking price, but it was declined. Luckily, they bagged the home on auction day.
“We kind of saved the place from being ruined…a developer was looking to buy it and had planned to strip out its interiors to create a blank canvas,” Buchanan said.
The couple’s plans included reconfiguring its layout to make it more suited to modern living. This required planning and listed-building consent, as the home is Grade II listed, which protects its historic architecture. The permissions took 3.5 years to obtain.
“I’m originally from New Zealand, and I wanted to bring a bit of that lifestyle to the house with open-plan living and dining and a connection to the outdoors,” Buchanan said.
The Priory dates from the 18th century, but it was built with Kentish Rag (local limestone) from the remnants of a nearby pre-Reformation Benedictine monastery built in the 600s, which fell into the sea. In 1880, it was owned by Col. Charles Napier Sturt, and his wife, Mary. They employed architect Robert William Edis to turn it into a larger residence by knocking through to a neighboring property and adding the impressive, paneled dining room. By the 1920s the villa had been turned into flats.
Once they got planning permission in 2012, the couple cracked on with the building work, restoring its richly decorated rooms and crafting a modern layout.
They moved the kitchen from the front of the house to the rear, so it opened onto the garden. The light-filled space has soothing pale tones, a long stone central island and painted, custom-made tulipwood cabinetry.
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In the drawing room, they added a “jib” door (a concealed, flush-mounted door that blends into the wall) to connect it with the kitchen (“otherwise it would have been a bit of a walk to get some drinks,” Buchanan said). They replaced damaged sections of the ceiling and its cornicing; and restored the inch-thick herringbone parquet flooring that once hid under carpet and concrete.
“Each parquet block was removed, numbered and cleaned and set back in place,” he said.
The dining room, formerly part of the front hallway, is another sumptuous space with original oak paneling with medieval-style carvings of people playing instruments. With the garden tamed, the main bedroom has views of the English Channel and across to France from its bed. Its en suite shower, meanwhile, has book-matched marble walls.
“We kept the paneled rooms dark, with rich, warm tones; the living room is really cozy in winter when the fire is lit…while south-facing rooms like the kitchen were kept light and uplighting to create a coastal feel,” Buchanan said.
The couple spent “proper money” on light switches and fittings, sourced from Forbes & Lomox. One doorknob costs around £250. “Door furniture is super important; they are things you touch every day; the joy you receive from using them far outweighs the cost,” Buchanan said, who set up his interior design company, Andrew Buchanan Designs, in 2018.
They also reimagined the garden, paying £20,000 for a neighboring piece of land and spending tens of thousands more to landscape it.
“The walled vegetable garden has espalier fruit trees, two 40-year-old fig trees and a large Phoenix palm,” Buchanan said. “The main lawn garden has a paved sun terrace, a monkey puzzle tree, David Austin roses, peonies, agapanthus, euphorbia and more.”
Buchanan is now selling his home for £1.2 million (US$1.64 million) via the London Broker (he is staying in Folkestone and plans to build his next home from scratch), but he is going to miss living there. “It’s such a beautiful home,” he said. “I feel lucky to have lived here.”