{"id":304201,"date":"2026-02-18T11:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304201\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:58:24","slug":"an-18th-century-country-house-by-the-sea-becomes-a-charming-weekend-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304201\/","title":{"rendered":"An 18th-century country house by the sea becomes a charming weekend retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was some work to be done, of course. \u2018The house is right next to a lake, and it\u2019s lower than the lake, so when our client took it over, it was terribly damp,\u2019 says Henriette. The first task, therefore, was to dry it all out, insulate it properly and put in new floors and panelling, making it habitable and cosy. \u2018That was a big hurdle\u2013it was incredibly time-consuming and complicated,\u2019 she continues. But once that was done, the decoration<\/a> was a more straightforward matter.<\/p>\n

\u2018The family uses this house as a weekend retreat\u2013it\u2019s really a place to get away,\u2019 Henriette says. \u2018They wanted it to be comfortable and simple, and to avoid complications and over-decoration. In some spaces you can just have too much\u2013too many fabrics, too many frills. Instead we wanted to use a few amazing things that were carefully chosen, and only as much of them as we really needed. For example, where we could do blinds instead of curtains<\/a>, we did blinds, and made sure always to take the more minimal approach.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An antique hand-painted console table stands in the hallway.<\/p>\n

Simon Upton<\/p>\n

As an example of this low-intervention approach, the owners wanted to keep the charmingly old-fashioned kitchen, so Henriette and her team renovated it, put a new marble counter in, added in a slim island to provide more storage<\/a>. They painted it in a soft, inviting yellow, custom mixed for the space by Rose of Jericho.<\/p>\n

In most of the other rooms, a few key exquisite fabrics anchor each scheme. \u2018Our client loves antique fabrics,\u2019 Henriette explains. \u2018We also used a lot of Chelsea Textiles and had some custom-embroidered fabrics made.\u2019 These were set against a backdrop of more custom colours by Rose of Jericho. \u2018The light is unique in this house, so that off the shelf colours don\u2019t work. We wanted that old-fashioned chalky feel to them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The curtains are in Robert Kime’s \u2018Arles Linen\u2019. The pair of lamps on the antique tables are from Jamb, with shades from Robert Kime. An antique console table also from Jamb stands in the foreground.<\/p>\n

Simon Upton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was some work to be done, of course. \u2018The house is right next to a lake, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,13345,308,93,57062,50819,143555,61,60,51931,39081],"class_list":["post-304201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-country","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-houses-by-members-of-the-list","tag-houses-by-our-top-100-interior-designers-architects","tag-houses-by-the-sea","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-traditional-country","tag-traditional-houses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}