We featured Elle’s Cornish property last year and loved her fresh, coastal look. Today we’re back with Elle and her family but this time over in Wales for a tour of their holiday home with a huge history. You may remember my sister and brother-in-law are also renovating his grandparents home so I know how emotional it must have been to Elle to put her heart and soul into restoring the house. I’ll hand you over to Elle as she takes us on a tour of the home which has a very special place in her heart.

‘The House On the Corner’ was built in 1960 by my grandparents, Roland and Diana Grime continuing a family love affair with Morfa Nefyn, a beautiful coastal village on the Llynn Peninsular. They bought the plot of land from a Mr Parry the local coal man, who approached my Grandpa in the pub as he thought they would make nice neighbours!

A couple of years ago I inherited the house with my husband Mark, and to enable us to keep it as a family holiday home we also realised we needed to market it as a holiday let. We have now restored the house but we have tried to retain some of its 1960s retro charm and original features.
Mark and I have renovated three properties before we embarked on my grandparents house, but nothing had prepared us for renovating a property that had such sentimental attachment. In previous projects we had been renovating for sale and with our own taste and style but for this project much of what we would have removed or changed if we hadn’t known this house, were the very elements we couldn’t bear to change as they related to such happy memories.

Restore, Repurpose and Re-love

The most difficult room was the kitchen which was originally fitted in 1960 and was improved in the 1980s. This was where I spent many happy hours learning to cook or chattering away to my granny as a child, and latterly after she died, where I taught my grandpa how to cook for himself. Everyone said to us ‘so you are going to rip the kitchen out then?’ but I just couldn’t bear to do it. So with a lot of hard work we worked out how we could update the 1960s kitchen to include all the mod cons required in a modern holiday let. A carpenter fitted some new cupboards in the style of the originals to house a dishwasher and fridge, and we found a retro styled oven, repainted the units and purchased new retro Formica work tops. We reused all the original units, most of the handles, and even the original slim line sink and taps. The kitchen has a huge walk in pantry with pan hooks and a pan lid rack – its so useful, every kitchen should have a pantry!


In the rest of the house we reused items of family furniture where we could and tried to repurpose as much as possible.

The master bedroom has a six foot super king-size four poster bed, one of the only new pieces of furniture we purchased for the house, and a bit of a luxury. We also added a comfy chair for reading a book in the evening sun.

In the the second double room at the front of the house, I rehung the fabulous original Sanderson floral fabric curtains from the living room, and made a throw for the bed out of the the spare pair. We painted the dark wooden bed and towel rail in a more modern French grey. Our neighbours got used to seeing us on the lawn painting bits of furniture!

Upstairs this bedroom is where we used to sleep as children. This room has two twin beds and a view of the sea from the window. Decorated with a nautical theme it is fun and relaxed. A really nice room for visiting children to stay in and play in, with a view of the sea!

The other bedroom used to be where my parents slept when we came to stay with my grandparents, so this is decorated as a restful adult haven. Decorated in soft grey tones, we repurposed another childhood friend – our old bunk bed, giving it a face lift with a coat of paint and some lovely vintage glass door handles as bed knobs We also painted up the vintage dark wood dressing table, and Captain’s chair to bring them back to life.

When we took over the house every inch of woodwork (all the doors and skirtings) remained in the teal/turquoise colour my grandmother had chosen in 1960. We felt that this might not be to everyone’s taste today, but we left the open stair case as a feature, and as an ode to the colour my grandparents must have really loved I added a stripe down the entrance hall to tie the colour in. We even replaced the old and worn black and white floor tiles with new versions, again not an obvious choice, but as the first thing I see when I enter the house, I couldn’t imagine them not being there anymore!

The family bathroom is situated downstairs and contains a lovely deep original enamel bathtub to which we added with a rainfall shower. We also kept the original basin, but we removed the wall between the bathroom and the separate toilet.

The light and airy living room contains a huge corner sofa from Ikea, which has a mid century style perfect for ultimate holiday relaxation. I purchased a lovely 1960s extendable dining table and sideboard which is stuffed full of games for rainy days. There is serving hatch from the kitchen, which was another thing people thought we should remove, but I couldn’t imagine the room without it. I’m so glad we didn’t as it gives the kitchen a modern open plan feel, but leaves the option to close it over if you are cooking something smelly.

Originally the house had been pebble dashed with lovely white quartz pebbles, and the windows had always been painted a cheery yellow, chosen by my Granny. Over the years the pebble dash had faded to a dreary grey, which didn’t enhance the slightly ugly 1960s bungalow, so we had the outside of the house painted white and of course kept the lovely yellow woodwork.

The house is situated in one of the most beautiful spots in the UK on the stunning Llynn Penisular with the fabulous beach a stones throw away, the peaks of Snowdonia provide a backdrop to the coastal views. We have the award winning pub, Ty Coch on the beach, and one of the top ten golf clubs in the country stretching out along the peninsular. It’s a perfect place for a holiday, and I love that lots of other families are getting to experience staying in a house that holds so many happy memories for myself and my family. Recently we’ve welcomed a fourth generation of the family to the house and I hope my little baby cousin Astrid grows up loving it as much as we all do. I love returning to the house and feeling a sense of calm wash over me as I walk through the door.

If you get a chance to grab a few minutes and a cuppa (and maybe a few digestives) then please have a read of the pdf Elle’s dad put together detailing the history of the house. If you’d like to retreat to the holiday home then The House on The Corner is available to let via Quality Cottages.

{STEAL THE COASTAL STYLE}

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