An effortlessly layered seaside house by Isabella Worsley

The stretch of coastline by Chichester Harbour is some of Britain's best. Here, sand dunes heap haphazardly, surrendering to the wind's whims, and fiercely blue waters roll under a big sky. There's little wonder then, that the area's sea-facing plots are coveted and rare–and when one came on the market, Isabella Worsley's client jumped at the chance to buy it.

The client was someone Isabella had worked with previously, on a small but perfectly formed mews house in Brighton. “The mews house was cheerful, playful, not too serious, and cemented the attraction of having a place to retreat to for my city-dwelling client," explains Isabella. What it didn't have was the scale or location that this new house could offer. Brighton became a stepping-stone. It was time to move on.

However, there was a rather tricky hurdle to clear before Isabella could get to work on the interiors. “The existing house was really quite outdated. It was very much of its time and needed completely redoing from scratch." The old house was to be reworked and a new house, better suited to modern life, erected in its place. The challenges didn't stop there though, as both Isabella and her client knew the project required a very specialist treatment. “The buildings on these sea-facing plots take a real battering, so the new house needed to be both marine-resistant and visually suitable for the coastal vernacular." Having worked successfully with architect Martin Taylor on the mews house, Isabella knew exactly who to call. The Brighton team was reassembled.

The large scale artwork is by Kate Friend. As Isabella explains, “what we loved this artwork is that the colours blend across to the sea outside.” The sofa is a bespoke sofa, upholstered in the ‘Temple’ fabric in olive from Isabella Worsley Collection. The antique cushion was sourced from Penny Worrall.

Helen Cathcart

Martin and Isabella pooled their creative powers and drew up a house that was architecturally beautiful inside and out. “We wanted to merge the building with its environment as much as possible,” explains Isabella. Perhaps the cleverest example of this is the house's flint façade, which directly references the beach location. Inside, wide, sea-facing windows flood the rooms with light and act almost like blinkers, pulling your focus out to the water. As Isabella explains, “the design needed to manufacture a sense of privacy because these waterfront plots tend to be quite close together. You don't want an ever-present awareness of your neighbours."

Once the interior architecture was completed, Isabella and the studio's senior designer Georgie Govan, began work on the decoration. “I've never been involved in a project from the very beginning, so it was exciting to flex a new muscle,” Isabella says. “In other projects, I've often had a client's furniture and items to work with, or a specific period of architecture to draw from, but here it was the location that gave the cues.” As such, the palette needed to complement, not fight against, the view. The idea was to create a comfortable, warm interior, but with a fresh and contemporary edge. Organic and natural textures were chosen in a bid to make the rooms feel harmonious with the setting. "We wanted to avoid the typical blue and white palette of beachside houses at all costs,” Isabella laughs. Bringing in richness was key, especially as the house was to be used year-round and the English coast can be stark in the winter. Olive block print fabrics were used, a Bauwerk paint finish applied to the walls for a layer of texture and lots of woven fabrics were chosen.