Nantucket Style West Sussex Coast

This new family home is inspired by the aesthetic and lifestyle of Nantucket Island. We were commissioned to create a dream home on the Sussex waterfront and have overseen the architecture, interior design, and contract administration for the build. The home has a full-size basement and various outbuildings, providing three floors of living, all designed to a high level of finish. It was a labour of love over several years where every detail was considered.

Set on a beautiful site overlooking the harbour, the home maximises views of the estuary and South Downs beyond from the interior and external spaces. The first floor has expansive vaulted ceilings with large roof lanterns providing natural light deep into the open plan design.

All rooms benefit from large windows and doors opening on to balconies or verandas, and every part of the house has a direct connection to the water just a few steps away. There is a two-story vaulted entrance hall with views through to the library and harbour beyond and stairs to the gallery and open plan family spaces above.

Every detail of the interior has been thoughtfully designed with custom joinery and intelligent lighting throughout the buildings. The basement includes a state-of-the-art cinema room, gym, sauna, games room, billiards room and wine cellar.

The home is clad in cedar shake shingles and has double hung windows to evoke the Nantucket style. A self-contained two-story annexe and first floor balcony overlook the pool house, entertaining terrace, large pool and Jacuzzi tub. There are formal gardens surrounded by walls made from local flint and informal landscaping that slopes from the veranda to the water’s edge. There’s a huge first floor deck with outdoor fireplace for those cooler days or summer evenings – great for wine with friends watching the sunset over the harbour just yards away.

Behind the scenes the property employs green technology to reduce the environmental impact. There is a ground source heat pump which uses pipes buried in the garden to extract heat from the ground. This energy is then used to provide heat to the radiators, underfloor heating system and hot water in the home. Photovoltaics, hidden from view, supplement the house’s electrical demands and large batteries store electricity generated by the PV panels for use when there is cut in supply. A borehole on the property extracts water for the home from an aquifer deep underground.