A lot of heart and a great deal of art fills this tiny, two-storey home by the sea
Meet & greet
Lottie Consalvo (artist), James Drinkwater (artist) Vincenzo, eight, Hester, five, and border collie Bella.
Early each morning before her family rises, artist Lottie Consalvo walks her dog along the beach close to her home. It’s a daily ritual that never loses its allure: she loves the sea mist, the ocean’s many tones of blue, and the “sense of infinity” found in that wide horizon, where the silvery sky spills into the sea. “It definitely shifts something in me, being in nature each day, in a place that is beautiful,” she says. “I feel very lucky.”
The beach is a magnet for the rest of the family, too – Lottie’s husband James Drinkwater, also an artist, and their children Vincenzo and Hester. In fact, the desire to live as close as possible to
the water was the key reason Lottie and James purchased this two-storey home, one of a row of 1830s sandstone-and-brick houses, which they recently renovated.
When they bought the property in 2017, it was feeling its age. Nothing apart from its location really spoke to the pair. “It was small, had a bad layout and it needed work,” says Lottie. “But the house was clearly structurally sound – it had been standing for almost 200 years. It just needed some love.” Family members were bemused by their choice, as the house, sitting on a block of just 80sqm, was not exactly child-friendly.
“Our mothers couldn’t understand why we wanted it,” says Lottie. “But it was exactly where we wanted to live.” The couple traded a white picket-fenced home on a 500sqm block 20 minutes from the beach for this “rusty old sardine can by the sea”, as they affectionately dubbed it. “And it really is the best decision we have ever made,” she says.
When they married, they travelled extensively and lived in Berlin for three years. When they wanted to put down roots they loved the feel of this coastal house. “I could picture a good lifestyle with children here,” she says. “I love being by the sea.”
Pre-renovation, the house had two bedrooms, both upstairs. The bathroom was downstairs at
the rear, disconnecting the living areas from the courtyard. “Strangely, the kitchen was the first room at the front, and the only space for a dining table was under the staircase,” says Lottie.
To help untangle and reconfigure the layout, they turned to an architect friend. Their brief was… well, brief. “You always get the best results from an artist if you don’t give them too many parameters,” says Lottie. “We said we wanted a three-bedroom house with a bathroom upstairs and a connection to the courtyard.”
They assumed they’d need to extend the house to achieve this, but their architect took a different approach. “Instead of trying to turn our tiny place into a bigger house, he wanted to keep within the existing footprint, be clever with the minimal space, insert beautiful moments and create what he calls ‘a jewel’,” says Lottie. “It’s a design we could not have imagined. He has squeezed so much into our house yet made it feel bigger. He is a very clever architect and thinks like an artist.”
Inside, this ‘jewel’ sparkles with a materials palette of timber, steel, brick, bronze and mosaic tiles. Every room has its own moment of surprise and wonder. In the new upstairs bathroom, for example, a wall over the sink opens up over the staircase. In Lottie and James’ bedroom, the walls are deep forest green – “I love dark spaces to retreat to from the sun,” says Lottie. Vincenzo, meanwhile, adores his bedroom which features an elevated bed (“two metres high in the sky”) and a huge dormer window looking over a cityscape.
The art of contentment
Bespoke timber joinery throughout is complemented by upcycled furniture and vintage finds. Cleverly tailored details grace every room. “There are so many lovely nooks – it’s a small house of wonder,” says Lottie. The walls are all white, the perfect backdrop for artworks, offset by floors that have been stained in Black Japan finish.
Not surprisingly, colour and art play a key role in this home. Recurring hues include white, dark green, red oxide and ‘Pompeian pink’, one of James’ favourite colours. Every room is like a gallery space – but not in a precious sense. Here, the walls radiate warmth, soul, comfort and stories. Art is part of the home’s pulse and fabric. “It’s mainly other people’s works on our walls,” says Lottie. “James painted the dining room ceiling and I did the painting above the fireplace.”
Lottie and James rent separate studios close to home, and take a disciplined approach to studio time. “As our children are young, we both work a five-day week, nine to five,” says Lottie. For them, this area is the ideal place for nourishing both their creative and family lives. “As artists, we love to be away from [big cities] but we can dip our toes in when we want to,” says Lottie. “This region has so much happening, and there are great artists and galleries here. It’s stimulating without being too much, so you can just focus on making.”
And when the couple put tools down, they can always head to the beach beckoning on their doorstep.
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