A Private View: the stripped-back style of an interior designer’s Georgian house in Kent

When interior designer Sarah Pinn first encountered the Georgian terrace of Canterbury’s Castle Street she immediately knew that it was the right house in which to apply her design principles to a personal project. Having worked with various clients for more than a decade, she had established a set of beliefs that revolved around transforming buildings according to how spaces are lived in – and the quirks of their owners.

It appealed to Sarah that the house had Grade II listing because it meant she absolutely could not change the bones of the structure. “More space does not necessarily mean better space,” she says sagely. “I often discourage my clients from extensions and instead try to work with what they have to their best advantage first.” She continues to note how Georgian architecture is hard not to fall in love with – and how the townhouse she found, exemplary of the period, had retained the integrity of its original features, even if they were disguised under layers of commercial flooring and terrible 1980s wallpaper.

Embarking on the project of making the house her own was a journey of discovery. Peeling back the layers revealed not just the original lime plaster beneath but also inspired her to consider how she could subtly update the interiors and the garden with elements that suited her own way of life.

Now, the house is a clever combination of Georgian simplicity with contemporary and Art Deco design. It’s while speaking about this melange that Sarah brings up the fact that, intriguingly, her move into interiors was by accident, inspired by her curiosity about the ways in which design, drawing and problem-solving walk hand in hand.

This perhaps explains why her primary concerns are pragmatic ones: storage and lighting. Yet, despite her interest in these more modern concerns, Sarah is keen to emphasise how it was through stripping the house back and living with the shadows of its past that she realised how to reimagine this blank canvas. Now, with her home on the market, she reflects on how, when it comes to houses with so many layers of history, it is time rather than speed that sees you going the distance.

“When I first started to remove the wallpaper, it was apparent that the house’s original colours were still there underneath, rich and vibrant. There were deep reds, ochres and a dark green that particularly spoke to me. Then, one day I was walking down Castle Street and I passed a decorator painting a jewellery shop; it was almost exactly the same intense green. I stopped to ask what the shade was and he told me that it was simply an undercoat – but I knew I’d found my paint colour.

“When designing, I feel strongly you need to take inspiration from real, tangible experiences and this is a case in point. That deep green sits nicely with the colours that were thrown up when I was digging around. Georgian interiors can take some weight in terms of colour – and this is especially worth noting when thinking about transitional spaces, such as hallways, where you can use a strong colour without fear of it feeling oppressive.

“I left much of the lime plaster exposed in situ. I love the interplay between those walls and the ones I decided to cover up with wallpaper. For a while, I left everything uncovered in order to see how I felt about those historic elements, to work out whether or not I could live with them displayed en masse. I’m really interested in finding that balance between making something liveable in a contemporary fashion and playing tribute to history and the raw materials. Eventually, I decided to leave a some revealed and to cover others, settling on a combination of how they originally would looked over time.

“Historically, in a Georgian house, the basement and the attic were utilitarian spaces in which staff spent most of their time, either working or retreating at the end of the day. They were not public spaces. When I was designing this house, I wanted to pay homage to that form, which was why I put two of the bedrooms in there. Accommodation in basements can so often be dark and oppressive, but I wanted to give this space a warmth, almost a summeriness. To do so, I used plywood – a light, natural material – on two of the walls. It also brought nature into a room that doesn’t have direct views of the outside. Both the basement and attic have a great sense of privacy that’s really suited to bedrooms.

“I applied the same essential concept to the attic: set in the eaves, it feels fundamentally different to the rest of the house. It’s the most intimate space, which is why I picked it for my own bedroom. I wanted to lend it a calmness and in turn to accommodate what I felt I needed from the space. I chose to place the bath in the bedroom on a raised marble level, inspired by the fact that a Georgian house would not have had a three-piece suite in a separate space but a moveable tub that would have been brought into the room. It means my design is much more in keeping with the period of the house – plus, who wouldn’t want to have a bath looking out across the roofs and trees of Canterbury, listening to the cathedral bells ringing out across the city?”