Fashion designer Penelope Chilvers' charmingly rustic apartment in a medieval Catalonian town

The room is painted in what is locally referred to as ‘Montserrat blue’, mixed by Penelope. The fabric on the daybed is a vintage french design. Penelope's collection of local ceramics occupies the tall cabinet.

Simon Brown

'We’d sit out for drinks on the terrace and I’d watch all of the grown-ups. They were from all over the world and dressed head to toe in white', recalls Penelope. Some thirty years later, Penelope would return to the building, but this time to collect the keys to her bolthole, which occupies the first floor. Though she has certainly made it hers, adding an eclectic mixture of furniture and a hodgepodge of collected treasures, Penelope was careful not to change the essence of the flat. The two bedroom space tells the story of all the people who have lived, stayed or eaten there before.

Penelope kept the flat's existing solid marble sink in the kitchen.

Simon Brown

The colour on the cupboards was hand-mixed by Penelope.

Simon Brown

‘I have only missed one summer in Begur since I was a child’, says Penelope. ‘I remember being on the beach when I was about 12, when Franco was in charge, and the rules were strict. We were the only people in bikinis, as most of the women were wearing long black skirts. The police force used to march up and down the beach to make sure nobody was being promiscuous’, she recalls. Just as vivid a memory is the eruption of creativity that occurred when Franco died in 1975. ‘The whole area burst into celebration. It was called ‘La Movida’: it was a taste of freedom and the whole of Spain went completely bonkers. It was a fantastic time to live - it went from one extreme to the other and all this creative energy that had been restricted just came alive’.

‘I was living in Barcelona with my first husband when my parents decided to sell their house in Begur’, explains Penelope. ‘I was about to return to live in England but wanted to have somewhere small in Spain that I could visit on weekends and holidays’. Begur felt like a natural place to land. The small flat sits above a restaurant at the entrance to the town. The sea stretches out in front of it, while a hill ascends from the terrace behind the building.

The Indian wall hanging was bought by Penelope's mother from a Swedish neighbour who used to do summer textiles sales. ‘I loved those sales, even as a child, as you could always find something exotic,’ says Penelope.

Simon Brown

Despite only having two bedrooms (and a small sitting room with a daybed in it), and a kitchen-cum-dining area, it has somehow managed to accommodate Penelope’s ever-expanding family. ‘At first it was just the three of us: me and my two girls, and then I married a man with three children so it became our summer destination, and we’d bring five children – someone would sleep on the terrace, another on the daybed,’ she remembers fondly. ‘It has flexed and shrunk as we have needed it to’.

The simple way of life here informed the decoration of the flat. Penelope only reluctantly installed wifi two years ago (‘until then, everyone would have to sit on the wall opposite the flat to do their emails’, she laughs) and there remains no television. Just the bare essentials make up the kitchen appliances too, with a distinct lack of electric kettle. Indeed, why would you need one when just a few minutes walk away is the square with a cafe, where locals gather at 11am for what Penelope calls the ‘social golden hour’.

The chair is one half of a pair that Penelope's parents commissioned from a local carpenter in the 1970s. ‘They have lasted beautifully, I love the hand stitched saddle stitching’, she says.

Simon Brown

‘It was basically a white box,’ says Penelope of the flat when she first took ownership, ‘For the most part, I kept it as it was. I never really spent any proper money on it, it’s just a lovely place that I can go and unwind. I didn’t want to be extravagant, I wanted to make do with what I’ve already got. I think that’s how you make a house feel very welcoming’.

‘I love to tap into whatever feels right for the area’, she explains of the flat’s palette. 'At my house in Gloucestershire, I chose colours that would work with the garden as the seasons changed. In Begur, I wanted it to feel as authentic as possible, so I used classic paint colours and all the ceramics are as local as possible’. The kitchen is painted in what is locally referred to as ‘Montserrat blue’ (for the nearby mountain range), and has been used in ecclesiastical spaces for centuries. A former specialist painter, Penelope mixed the shade herself, and instead of noting down a formula, accepted that the shade ‘probably changes year to year as I repaint’. It is also Penelope’s own recipe that makes up the pale green of the tiny twin bedroom. Referred to as ‘Begurian green’, it is another typical colour of the area.

On the terrace, cushions made using kilims bought by Penelope's mother sit atop a bench seat upholstered in a local fabric to match the awning.

Simon Brown

The ceramics dotted throughout the house are all made by local potters. Often considered the epicentre of Catalan slipware is La Bisbal, a nearby town from where Penelope bought a number of her favourite pieces. Others were handed down by her parents when they sold their house nearby. The walls are hung with a mixture of textiles and paintings bought by Penelope’s mother or works painted by Penelope herself. Outside, a terrace the same size as the flat is adorned with bold, bright fabrics collected by Penelope’s mother.

There is a sentimentality to the way Penelope talks about the flat. ‘I am probably very strict. I don’t change anything until it desperately needs to be made good', she says. 'I love it as it is, it’s so full of memories’.