maison deveer, brittany, france

I sold my restaurants in 2013 and went on a travelling sabbatical for a year. With my batteries recharged, I moved to Brittany in France with an aim to develop an upmarket guest house. After a six-month search, I found the perfect Farmhouse set in 2 acres, along with old outbuildings that could form gites. I renovated and developed the main house, four gites and Maison Deveer was open for business. An old cider press shed formed my living quarters and I ran and cooked for all the guests. I enjoyed every minute of it. Always at my happiest when being creative, from choosing fabrics and wallpapers for the guest bedrooms to sourcing old Antique beds at Brocantes and many of the other furnishing at Paris flea market at Clignancourt. I would wake up every morning and go to the wonderful farmers market in Vannes and would buy the produce for the guests who were provided breakfast and supper.

nia restaurant group - brighton

I wanted to open my own restaurant and spent months looking for an abandoned space in Clapham SW4 where I could transform a space and begin my dreams utilising both my skill and love of interiors and food.
On a weekend down in Brighton, I found the perfect space in the North Laines – a derelict old warehouse space. I instantly knew it would be magical and peering through the window I knew it could hold 40 covers plus to make the project viable. Nia restaurant opened in 2002 and was wildly successful and I went onto open 2 more venues along the Southcoast. The interiors were quite industrial and light with chalky Italian plastered walls, hues of heritage white paint on opposing walls, polished concrete floors and all had open kitchens. I introduced lots of glass and steel-framed structures with fashionable industrial lighting components. I added warmth to space with worn-out kilims for the floors and well-sourced French and Belgium rustic tables and dressers. The starting point for the furniture was 40 old church chairs that sat very well with all the battered scrubbed tables. The Shoreham
site overlooked the Adur river. I removed the end elevation and designed a
cantilevered deck with bi-fold doors so the customers could enjoy spectacular views

nia restaurant group - shoreham & steyning

I had a more sympathetic approach to the Steyning site, which is a historical town nestled in the Southdowns in West Sussex. It was the old post office and a 17th century a frame brick and flint building. Once the builders started the demolition work they revealed two fireplaces that I set wood burners into and left all the weathered brick on the chimney breasts. All the walls were painted Farrow and ball, Bone and I added reclaimed tongue and groove from the dado rail down to the skirting. I went to Ardingly to get tables and chairs and got all the chairs covered in Nina Campbell fern-printed fabric. This was my first restaurant site that had a garden and an out building that I wanted to develop once the restaurant was open and had to go through a planning application being in a residential area. My planning application was approved after 12 months. I decided to make the outbuilding into a private dining room being able to accommodate 18 guests. I exposed a vaulted ceiling and had the beams cleaned up. All the walls were flint sol had them painted with a white distemper and got the contractors to rub back some of the bricks. Set a very generous cement hearth in with a beautiful wood burner in and the logs sat either side. I had two wing back chairs covered in Irish linen, adding
a sumptuous feel and accent of colour to the scheme. Industrial lighting was added to the walls through galvanised conduit piping and an enormous French Chandelier was featured in prime position, showing off a large oak refectory table.

rye - summer house

One of my frequent customers at the restaurant bought an old cottage and outbuilding in Rye, Kent, and commissioned me to undertake the renovation of the existing building, demolish the outbuildings and construct an A-frame timber building. This formed the guest accommodation, which overlooked the main cottage and beautiful garden setting. The project was featured in several publications, including 25 beautiful homes magazine.

press

“Makeover Master” – Wiltshire Living magazine

“Alastair Humphries transforms 17th Century pub in Dorset into his new home” – Country Living

“Alastair works his magic again in Kent, the garden of England and transforms a dilapidated cottage and adds a beautiful guest wing” – Featured in the magazine 25 Beautiful Homes

“Complete transformation of a Garden Cottage in Rye” – The Wealden Times

“Alastair  is interviewed on this is Alfred  to discuss his article in Country Living” – Listen below, link to the whole podcast is here.

kemp town apartment - brighton

In 2017, I purchased a 3-bedroom Victorian flat in Brighton in need of a major overhaul and redecoration with no outside space. Most of the rooms were small, which didn’t sit well with the high ceilings. I commissioned a structural engineer to advise on load-bearing walls and RSJ beams. With this knowledge, I took down walls to create a more spacious two-bedroom flat over two floors. I discovered a disused lightwell off the kitchen, which I transformed into an outside terrace for al fresco dining and storage.

frederick sauer house - pittsburgh, pennsylvania CURRENT PROJECT

In March 2019, I bought a house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Built in 1910 by famed architect Frederick Sauer. The Arts and Crafts home was owned by the same family for 100 years but had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair. My plans are to completely gut the house now I have made it watertight, put in a new boiler and soil pipe, upgrade the electric system and introduced 41 new bespoke windows to the house. Unfortunately, my next big interior design project was side-lined by Covid 19.

I have done some initial layout drawings and have got lots of nice architectural components to work with as my starting point. Fantastic cast iron radiators all in working order, all original hardware on doors are intact and five original fireplaces have been exposed. The old carpets have been pulled up to reveal original parquet flooring. There is mahogany panelling in both the dining and billiards room and a wonderful sweeping staircase connecting the two floors. Most of the original plaster cornicing and ceiling roses are in good nick with just slight water damage. I aspire to bring this stately home into the 21st century, using artisan paints, strong printed
wallpapers and luxurious soft furnishings.

well bean cafe - brighton

When you come out of Brighton station you are hit by the lovely slice of the sea at the end of Queens Road. Just before that is a row of Victorian terraces, one being an old greasy spoon unloved and abandoned known as Sues Snacks!

Once the demolition work started inside, it was apparent an RSJ needed to be fitted to the downstairs ceiling to stop the upper floor falling down.
Lot’s of hidden treasures were unveiled and they became part of the design concept.
The Queens Road site is situated over three floors. I had the idea to create a vertical garden with this very strong green living wall juxtaposed with the blue from the sea.
The client wanted a very relaxed interior, creating some lovely open spaces for eating and drinking to small nooks where you could read a book or magazine.
In the basement we found a door  covered up that led to a disused courtyard that we created into
a very calm private space.
The interior has lots of unearthed texture mixed with industrial components and dark grey/black used in the colour palette.

wimborne house - dorset, uk NEW PROJECT

My clients contacted me to re-do their beautiful thatched cottage in Wimborne which is a popular town in East Dorset

It is a pretty south-facing cottage with an outbuilding that they wanted to convert back into part of their living space.

They wanted to integrate the aga into the fireplace in the kitchen and used reclaimed timber for the kitchen units. Apart from that, they didn’t have too many constraints and after a couple of meetings to understand what they wanted from their home and several mood boards and layout sketches for them  I understood what they wanted for their beautiful cottage and set about the transformation to turn a beautiful building that had been unloved for many years into their home.

Click the image below to view the Wiltshire Living article:

dorset home

As featured in March edition of Wiltshire Living magazine.

After selling our flat in Brighton, we were forced to postpone our move to Pennsylvania due to the global pandemic. We did not want to stay put and we knew an adventure was imminent.

My partner and I had spent a lot of time in Dorset and it was always somewhere we considered living. So once the apartment in Brighton was sold we instructed our removal company to head for the West country to the small town of Shaftesbury, which is an old market town made famous back in the day by the “Hovis bread ad” filmed on Gold Hill.

I travelled numerous times from East Sussex to Dorset to try and find a nice cottage to rent. They were either too small, had low ceilings or would not allow dogs. A friend tipped me off about an old pub that was up for lease in Enmore Green, Shaftesbury. Since closing the landlord had split the pub into two spaces – one into our cottage and the other half laid dormant awaiting change of planning consent.

I arranged a viewing and once inside knew it could be a beautiful home for me, my partner and our two Weimaraners. The spaces were quite big although depressing with years of tarnished paint and the sitting room to be was the old snooker room. It had a generous commercial kitchen with two good-sized bedrooms upstairs with the addition of a dressing room and an old boot room that I knew would make a perfect studio for me!

It did have some redeeming features, lovely window seats and nice flagstones on the floor. A very generous courtyard which is south facing and gets a lot of sun where our dogs like to lounge, great place to sit in a chair and read and perfect for Alfresco dining.

I bought my favourite neutral heritage colour Farrow and Ball Pointing and hired a painter to paint the whole cottage to get rid of the dark paint and decades of nicotine stains.

Hired a local carpenter and handyman to put up some beautiful reclaimed tongue and groove to cover up the dreary stone walls, lots of shelves to house all my books and a woodburner to make it cosy and to have a focus in the sitting room.

I kept some of the floors with the original floorboards and got a natural coir put down over the rest of the floors.

I have two lovely Howard sofas that I got loose covers made for and found a lovely old wingback armchair at the local flea market, which I had recovered in a really lovely Irish tweed.

I was recommended to a person who specialised in soft furnishings, Thomasin and got her to work making me curtains, cushions, roman blinds and my footstool had a makeover in some lovely Mulberry home fabric and put up some traditional wallpaper to break up the new freshly painted walls.
Pattern was introduced to the bedroom with linens and bedspreads and bred new life into some antique lamp bases with some pleated patterned shades
I discovered Frome reclamation yard in Somerset and got some nice old doors to replace the ones that were missing and replaced the missing ironmongery. I found some old enamel factory shades in the corners of the yard and have been cleaned lighting up the landing area. The reclamation yard was well worth a visit finding a nice haul of Victorian tiles that I used in the upstairs bathroom.

I was very strict with my paintings and objet choices and found a lovely old Cornish dresser at the weekend antique market on the coast in Bridport to fill it with the selected possessions  I like free-standing kitchens and have quite a lot of kitchenware so I was very pleased when my dresser, old larder cupboard and 6ft butcher’s block all fitted in the ample sized kitchen.
I flanked the floors with old durrie rugs to add warmth and texture as I curated the rooms to make us a lovely cottage to live in for the next few years.

somerset houses NEW PROJECTS

Two houses in Somerset in need of an interior makeover. More details to follow.

Click the image below to view the Wiltshire Living article:

donhead

This fine example of a Georgian House is set in the beautiful county of Wiltshire in the stunning village of Donhead St. Andrew on the river Nadder.

The house has all the wonderful features that you expect from the Georgian era – perfect symmetry, large paned windows, high ceilings and wide staircases with rolling bannisters.

The house has a large basement with three further floors housing five bedrooms in total. My client wants a complete overhaul of all the rooms, changing many of them into different spaces than they were originally used for. I am initially doing a library, new drawing room and kitchen all on the ground floor and to deal with the porch/entrance upon entering this majestic house.

Contact

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions connected to my availability, services, and costs. If you provide your phone number or email address I will be happy to arrange a call or a meeting over a coffee to discuss your needs.

Tel: 07474 360077     email: hello@alastairhumphries.com