Julian Chichester brings laid-back charm to an historic townhouse on the Portuguese coast
‘It was a Friday in July 2020, still deep in COVID, when we first viewed the house, ' says Julian Chichester of his rambling, late-19th-century townhouse on Portugal’s south coast. ‘We had absolutely no intention of buying it. But, within 24 hours, there was a bank manager, a lawyer and a surveyor all involved, and we had sent the money over by Monday.’
Julian and his wife Holly had long based themselves in Spain and Portugal for holidays. When their children were small they acquired a small plot of land in the rugged and rural Spanish region of Extremadura. ‘We built a one-room hut with three walls and basically camped out there for about 10 years,’ recalls Julian. ‘It was magic. But, in the end, we realised that we needed to be more in the centre of the action.’ A couple of decades of visiting friends in the hills of the inland Algarve led them to fall in love with this part of the world and so they found themselves in a small fishing town in 2020 with a large and, as it turned out, rather demanding house on their hands.
There were plenty of reasons to fall in love with it. The property has an unusual situation, on the corner of two quiet, pedestrianised streets in the middle of the town, so the light streams in from both sides. This is especially magical in the main sitting room, which occupies the corner of the building and has glorious floor-to-ceiling windows. A short walk brings you to the sea, with the salt marshes characteristic of the area and several barrier islands. It is a similar landscape in many ways to where they live in the UK, on an estuary in Hampshire. ‘I think a lot of people come to the Algarve to play golf,’ remarks Holly. ‘But we love the sea and we love boats, so the fact that we can just jump on one here is hugely important.’ The region is also known for its wonderful bird life and Julian remembers seeing flocks of flamingoes flying over on some of his early visits. ‘It felt like a good omen.’
Of course, not everything was destined to go smoothly. When they bought it, the building was split into two parts with a restaurant on the ground floor (‘a pizzeria, done out in pink stipple’, says Holly) and a dwelling on the first floor. The generous outdoor spaces were part of the appeal, with a terrace on the first floor, a huge rooftop with its own kitchen and another small terrace perched above that. But the previous owner had concealed a raft of structural problems under a superficial smartening-up. ‘It looked like it needed a lick of paint, and maybe a bit of wiring and plumbing,’ says Julian. ‘But the reality was that everything was falling apart under the surface. The roofs were leaking and falling in, and what looked like lovely pine floors were rotten.’
A two-and-a-half-year renovation ensued, carried out by the Chichesters’ indispensable Brazilian builder Fabricio Carvalho and a small army of his friends. There were endless meetings with the town council in order to secure permissions, even though they were trying to keep the house as close to its original state as possible. However, there were difficulties in sourcing appropriate materials. ‘It’s very hard to find old things in this part of Portugal,’ observes Julian. ‘Everyone just seems to want new stuff here, so we had to import most things.’
A notable exception was Gilbert – ‘an interesting character who works from a van on a hillside in the middle of nowhere,’ says Julian, explaining how they came to source locally fired tiles and stone. ‘We bought about 6,000 tiles from Gilbert in the end – some for the roof and some for the terrace floors.’ These have made an immense difference to the character of the house. But the results have been almost too impressive. Having painted the exterior sky blue and left the distressed surface of the main door intact, they have found that the house is now an Instagram destination. ‘You can barely get out of the door in summer,’ says Holly with a sigh.
In the principal rooms, they worked equally hard to keep everything true to its past, embracing the patina of the characteristic cornicing, restoring the beautiful original shutters and installing elegant new wooden floorboards sourced in Belgium. Furnishing the house was a relaxed affair. The couple bought things at auction over the course of the renovation and then transported them to Portugal bit by bit, building an increasingly warm relationship with the local shipping company in the process. Slowly, boxes of books and pictures arrived and they put rooms together in a piecemeal fashion, adding items of surplus stock from the Julian Chichester furniture and lighting collections. At one point, Julian bought an enormous number of rattan chairs from Malawi and these now appear all over the outdoor spaces (although he still has about 100 in storage).
Holly and Julian now spend as much time in Portugal as they can throughout the year, delighting in the laid-back atmosphere of their surroundings. The house has become the ideal backdrop to their life there – relaxed, cheerful and colourful in a way that perfectly reflects its owners and their easy-going coastal lifestyle.
Julian Chichester: julianchichester.com
Davide Lovatti1/14Designed by Julian, this has marble-topped cabinetry and open shelving with unit doors and alcoves in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Arsenic’. Lighting includes a 1970s Ikea rattan pendant, vintage Paavo Tynell wall lamps over the cooker and a wall lamp inspired by Gubi’s ‘Bestlite’ above Tom Hammick’s painting of Julian and Holly’s house in the New Forest. A vintage Vico Magistretti ‘Carimate’ chair stands by the window.
Davide Lovatti2/14Walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Babouche’ showcase a headboard covered in fabric bought at a Dreweatts auction and a 1929 portrait of Julian’s father as a young man. The shade of the Emsie Sharp glass table lamp on a Julian Chichester ‘Colony’ table echoes the colours of the suzani in the main bedroom.
Davide Lovatti3/14A view from the main bedroom into the bathroom. The vanity is from Julian Chichester.
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Davide Lovatti5/14The hallway is decorated with a set of Elizabeth Frink prints of The Canterbury Tales. The chandelier is from Julian Chichester. The walls are in Farrow & Ball's ‘Setting Plaster’. The floor is topped with tiles that Julian had reproduced from a set in the original entrance hall.
Davide Lovatti6/14The guest bedroom features a headboard covered in a vibrant Nicola Taylerson fabric, which stands out against walls painted in ‘Cromarty’ by Farrow & Ball.
Davide Lovatti7/14A terrace on the first floor, behind which are stairs leading to the upper terrace.
8/14Behind the first floor terrace, a staircase leads up to further terraces on the roof.
Davide Lovatti9/14The shaded roof terrace.
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Davide Lovatti11/14The kitchen on the roof terrace echoes the style of the main kitchen downstairs.
Davide Lovatti12/14By the stairs leading to the top terrace, a Julian Chichester archive ‘Danny’ chair is next to a vintage rosewood table from Saigon.
Davide Lovatti13/14The ground floor front door leads to the space below the townhouse.
Davide Lovatti14/14Bedrooms lead off this partially covered ground floor space, where an extra large ‘Gili’ rattan pendant shade by Julian hangs above a table teamed with rustic seating, including his ‘Danny’ chair (left) and ‘Leagrave’ bench.
