The country cottage in Sussex that Lois Cox shares with husband Robert and daughters Dulcie, Coco and Beau, lies on the edge of the historic Ashdown Forest. Acres of fields and ancient woodland gently give way to the rolling chalk escarpments of the Downs.
It is a landscape of real beauty, only marginally eclipsed by its literary counterpart. ‘Pooh Sticks Bridge is just down there,’ explains Lois, pointing out of the kitchen window and over the fields.
Anyone familiar with AA Milne’s tales of Christopher Robin and his favourite bear will know the fictional landscape of Hundred Acre Wood, with the likes of Piglet’s House and Eeyore’s Gloomy Place. The latter, conveniently, a suitable metaphor for Lois’s first impressions of the house she now calls home.
‘I really wasn’t interested in coming to see this house, as the photographs weren’t very attractive, but my husband persuaded me,’ she explains. ‘I was worried that it was rather dark and dated, but
after viewing it I could see that it had potential to become something I could love.’
Sitting at the end of a quiet lane, the house is one of three cottages built around 1940 as workers’ dwellings for a nearby manor. The exterior, with its white-painted brick façade, and a front door flanked on either side by bay trees in vintage zinc planters, is a big giveaway to Lois’s interior style. She is inspired to some degree, she says, by the faded vintage look of the brand Cabbages and Roses, as well as the interiors of Rachel Ashwell, queen of Shabby Chic.
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‘I can remember my mum saying to me about 20 years ago that she’d seen a picture of a pale, painted, tatty old room with a beautiful chandelier, and we chatted about how simple and beautiful this style was. I, too, love to create calm spaces by using antique and vintage items combined with clean simple pieces, both old and new.’
With this in mind, the couple started to make changes to the house within days of moving in, creating a blank canvas. ‘We painted every ceiling, wall and floor white,’ Lois explains. They ripped up carpets and black vinyl tiles, and even painted the concrete underfloor white as a temporary measure, until they laid a wooden floor over the top.
‘We also painted that white!’ she laughs. ‘It just goes to show, when searching for a new home, don’t rule anything out until you have been there. Try to ignore the decor and just look at what it can offer. Then paint everything white and voilà, you have a calm and serene home… or at least it will look that way!’
To create a sense of space, several cupboards and a large peninsula were removed from the kitchen, and Robert added tongue-and-groove panelling in here, as well as on the back wall of the living room. He then squared off the corners of the interconnecting archway and built a traditional, American farmhouse-style frame.
‘It immediately changed the whole feel of the downstairs,’ explains Lois, so Robert continued adding them to all of the door openings and windows, giving the interior an injection of character that had been removed over the years.
Further modifications involved removing the internal wall between the hallway and laundry room at the front of the house and building an inglenook fireplace, resulting in a much-loved second sitting room. ‘It’s cosy in winter and relaxed and fresh in summer, when we have the top of the stable door open,’ says Lois.
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A compact pantry space in the understairs cupboard came next, with leftover scrapwood that Robert had accumulated. Lois hand-painted the diamond-patterned floor to give the tiny space what she describes as ‘a little touch of magic.’
Constantly striving for a simple, uncluttered look, Lois regularly turns her hand to making slipcovers for old and new chairs, using pure white linen and antique French linen sheets. ‘For my family, having so much white is no big deal, as slipcovers can be removed and washed, floors can be mopped, and vintage furniture only gets better with a few knocks and scrapes along the way,’ she notes.
Her love for collecting old pieces spans places far and wide, from local Sussex favourite, The Three Angels in Hove, to online sellers such as @weatheredandworn and @periwinklecottage. ‘I just adore beautiful things. My loft is a treasure trove, full of antique chandeliers. Most don’t work, but they are beautiful, old and imperfect: just how I love things in my house to be.’
This creative attitude is, in part, an overspill from studying fashion design and textiles in London years ago, all aided by what she refers to as a very handy husband. ‘My husband can build pretty much anything I ask him for,’ says Lois, referencing a white Shaker-style laundry cupboard that has a deceptively vintage, timeworn feel.
With future plans for an extension to the house there will, no doubt, be opportunities for even more creative ideas, but for now it is a lovely, light and happy place to be. ‘It’s turned out to be a little gem of a property,’ she says, ‘which I very nearly didn’t even come to see!’
Find Lois on Instagram @vintage.white
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