This country cottage epitomizes gently worn sophistication. It’s a 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. Its owner, Charlotte Collins, has created an idyllic country escape, where log fires after long walks in the fresh air are a part of everyday life.
Falling in love with properties is a perennial problem for seasoned renovators and decorators like Collins. Yet some finds take hold of one’s heart more than others. That’s what happened to Collins, well-known for her interiors prowess and her ability to help clients find their own décor language through her skilled lens. Her weekend bolt-hole in Greyton has everything a country cottage should – it’s a moody space with a suitably sizeable fireplace; it has captivating décor details without feeling “too decorated”; it’s easy to maintain; and beyond all, it’s cozy and comfortable with inviting bedrooms and plenty of spaces begging to be lounged in.
Collins’ journey to enjoying life in this tiny village some two and a half hours from Cape Town was unplanned. “I came to Greyton to help a friend of mine with the interior of her home and had never even spent a night here. Originally, my intention was to flip the house that I found – my friend is an attorney and convinced me to buy it – but as I got further into the project and spent time in Greyton, I decided to keep it as a weekend spot. Greyton is that quintessential country village – everyone is very friendly and knows your name. When I go into the hardware store, they all ask why I haven’t been in,” describes Collins, who spent a year breathing life into and expanding what was once a rather nondescript space.
The now two-story home comes complete with three en suite bedrooms plus a cottage in the garden, but it started life rather differently. “When I first saw it, it was literally a box with one room for the bedroom – a tiny area off the side – one bathroom and a living area, and there was nothing in the attic. It took me just under a year to bring it to where it is now.”
Collins once worked on big advertising production sets, and it’s no doubt this experience that makes her fearless and incredibly resourceful in trying to create a look and feel that fits her clients. In this instance, she was the client. “I wanted the staircase to look like it’s been there for 100 years, so I bought new scaffolding planks off Gumtree and traded them with builders across Cape Town for their old worn planks. My amazing carpenter then used these to build the staircase to connect the rooms in the attic and the downstairs part of the house.” Moments of ingenuity like this have helped Collins create a home 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 reflects my fondness for all things salvaged. I really feel that items with history can conjure up such a wonderful mood,” she shares.
“I wanted to make the house what you would imagine the perfect little country cottage to look like, and I love how it reflects my fondness for all things salvaged.”
Color, of course, plays a huge role in Collins’ life and work. And yet, finding the shades that felt true to her ideals of rural bliss was not without its trials. The wood-paneled back wall, another clever, old-yet-new Collins addition, is the perfect shade of green for a home with historic appeal. “I took 10 test cans to find it, and it was the last one I tried. In the can it looked totally wrong, but I was so sick of the process, I thought, ‘Let me give it a go, anyway,’ and lo and behold, it was the color I had been searching for.” She laughs. “Everyone is now obsessed with it.”
While Collins’ color choices, along with this find of a cottage, sound like strokes of luck, the end results are the consequence of her extraordinary vision and determination to bring her ideas to fruition. It’s the same pioneering spirit that led farmers to these rural parts hundreds of years ago, and Collins to a house that may only have been a year or so in the making but feels like it already holds generations of happy memories.
Photography by Greg Cox.
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