A higgledy-piggledy house in Bray with a timeless interior by Christopher Howe

There are always certain objects that shopkeepers and antique dealers are reluctant to sell. For Christopher Howe, it was a Twenties armchair upholstered in a tufted Bute tweed. Fortunately for him, ‘it was the sort of thing you’d find in your granny’s house – an unassuming piece that most people ignored’. That was until 2012, when a young man walked into his shop, marched straight up to the chair and bought it. ‘As soon as he set eyes on its brown velvet cushion, I knew we would get along,’ says Christopher.

He was right. Five years have passed and Christopher has overseen the decoration of two projects for the chair’s owner: one, a small barn in Gloucestershire (which was featured in House & Garden in July 2017); the second, this house on the high street in Bray, Berkshire. This was not intentional. In fact, Christopher had advised his client against using an interior designer. ‘I told him not to bother. He has a great eye and might as well make his own mistakes rather than pay someone else to make them for him. I told him he could give me the odd phone call if he needed some help.’

But things snowballed, ‘the odd phone call’ became a site visit and, before long, Christopher was overseeing all of the decoration. It is a higgledy-piggledy sort of house, with parts dating back to the early sixteenth century, and so he repurposed certain rooms to make it a more coherent space. The glass-panelled front door leads into the entrance hall, off which are a snug and living room. The hall also acts as the dining room, with a restored staircase that leads up to the four bedrooms.

In the Eighties, a few slapdash alterations were made and a mishmash of false walls was installed. These were swiftly removed to create space and allow more light into what is naturally a dark house. Upstairs, two poky bedrooms and part of the hallway were remodelled to become the main bedroom and, by taking down several walls, Christopher created long views from room to room across the width of the house. Pine flooring was ripped up and – with characteristic resourcefulness – Christopher turned it into butt-and-bead panelling for the bathroom walls. The walls were stripped back to their original state, revealing handsome brickwork and exposing beams.

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The owners had been considering a steel and glass extension but Christopher nudged them towards a timber structure with Crittall windows. This now houses a smart kitchen complete with an island salvaged from a fishmonger’s, an eighteenth-century dresser to which a sink has been added and Neisha Crosland tiles above the powder-blue Lacanche range cooker. The extension is an architecturally sensitive addition to the house that quietly takes into consideration the history of the building and, despite its pitched glass roof, looks as though it has always been there.

Much of the flooring consists of wide boards from a reclamation yard in Herefordshire, maltings (a red-brown brick), or handmade Norfolk pamments (clay tiles). ‘These came from a brilliantly industrious guy who has set up a business called Norfolk Reclamation, where he manufactures his own bricks,’ says Christopher. ‘His father takes me to Chelsea matches, which is an added bonus.’