Finder, Keeper

Decorator Charlotte Collins’s journey to enjoying life in a village some two-and-a-half hours from Cape Town was unplanned. “I went to help a friend of mine with the interior of her home and my intention was to ‘flip’ a house that I found in her town, but as I got further into the project and spent time in the village I decided to keep it as a weekend spot,” she reports. Greyton is a quintessential country village where everyone is very friendly and knows your name, says Charlotte, who spent a year breathing life into and expanding what was once a rather nondescript space. “When I first saw it, it was literally a box with one room for the bedroom, a tiny room off the side, one bathroom and a living area. It took me just under a year to bring it to where it is now,” says Charlotte, who worked some magic to move forward by going back in time. “I wanted the staircase to look like it’s been there for one hundred years, so I bought new planks and traded them with builders for their old, worn planks. My amazing carpenter then used them to build the staircase to connect the rooms upstairs to the downstairs part of the house.” Moments of ingenuity like this have helped Charlotte create a country cottage that has an enormous sense of substance and authenticity. “I wanted to make the house what you would imagine the perfect little country cottage to look like, and I love how it really reflects my love of all things salvaged. I really feel that items with history can conjure up such a wonderful mood,” she says. Accordingly, the cottage bears a gently worn sophistication with its perfect blend of found and collected furniture, decorative details from yesteryear and a plethora of clever renovations and additions intended to look like they’ve been there forever. The idyllic country escape, where log fires after long walks in the fresh air are a part of everyday life, “may only have been a year or so in the making, but feels like it already holds generations of happy memories,” says Charlotte.

WELCOME HOME. The split stable door is a typical feature of period Greyton homes and fits the rustic style perfectly. The original slate floor is an unpretentious and no-fuss option for the comfortable country cottage.

PERFECTLY COZY. Easy-care linen slipcovers stand up to country living and stand out against the paneled and painted back wall, another new element designed to look old. The original reed and log ceiling was restored to their natural timber hues and focal-point fireplace is fronted with a fabulous find from a brass salvage yard. The coffee table is an upcycled piece that Charlotte conceived made from an old wheel barrow topped with glass, and a little loveseat shows off its elegant lines thanks to new upholstery.

HUNTED & GATHERED. Charlotte created a central kitchen island by adding heavy-duty casters to a large salvaged furniture piece. The worn duck egg blue paint helps to create just the right heritage-inspired mood. Beside it, the dining room table by contemporary designer Gregor Jenkin is an elegant foil to the history-laden details that surround it.

COOKED-UP DESIGN. With no WiFi or TV at the cottage, weekends are focused on slowing down and enjoying downtime—especially cooking. A discreet corner of the kitchen plays host to its hardest working areas, which makes room for a small stove in a nook that may have once housed a cooking hearth, and a porcelain sink with timeless marble countertops. At the far end of the kitchen, a timeworn server oozes personality and history and was a lucky find from a salvage shop. The open shelves made from unpretentious planks and brackets hold daily essentials, and details like the industrial-style clock and sturdy pestle and mortar complete the rustic picture.

ON THE SIDE. A little previously unloved space was transformed into a gorgeous reading room where guests can retreat in comfort. What looks like tile is actually wallpaper that Charlotte says transformed the room in “the most amazing little sanctuary,” complete with a worn daybed, jewel-toned fabrics and a metal basket of vintage bowling balls that can be used for outdoor games.

MIX MASTERED. The powder room is anchored by a patterned floor of encaustic tiles leftover from a project Charlotte undertook in her city home. A simple marble-topped vintage table got drilled in for the basin’s plumbing and upcycled into a charming vanity.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER. The downstairs bedroom is an atmospheric, inviting space. The headboard consists of two pieces from single “peasant beds” from Poland that were welded together to form a queen headboard, says Charlotte. The gorgeous wallpaper—something she picked up in England before even buying the house—found its perfect spot and sets a dramatic tone.

FRESH TAKES. Charlotte’s penchant for marrying old with new shines through in the ensuite bathroom, where vintage touches like the faded Persian rug, marble surfaces and intricate basin brackets—“its old ‘broekie lace’ which must have been salvaged from an old Victorian House,” says Charlotte. The black steel shower cubicle is a delightfully on-trend touch that brings the room into the 21^st century.

UP CYCLES. Charlotte is an avid collector of vintage portraits and the stairwell and staircase felt like the perfect place to create a gallery wall, she says. The stairs look like they have been around for years, and in a sense, they have, thanks to the old planks Charlotte gathered to form the stairway’s foundation.

LOFTY AMBITIONS. An upstairs bedroom is tucked into the roof and is dressed in a mix of inviting textures. The contrasting monochromatic tones in the ceiling create a dramatic effect, toned down with salvaged and antique finds, like another headboard fashioned from two smaller ones.

SALVAGE SOLUTIONS. Also tucked under the sloping roofline is a compact bathroom that echoes elements from the downstairs bathrooms for design consistency and features an eye-catching metal trough turned into a tub.

PHOTOS Greg Cox/ Bureaux
WORDS Vicki Sleet
PRODUCTION Sven Alberding