Finders Keepers

When interior designer Charlotte Collins found a charming cottage to renovate and ‘flip’, she couldn’t have predicted she'd fall in and make it her own

- VICKI SLEET

Charlotte Collins’ charming cottage in Greyton, South Africa, epitomises the look for which the interior designer is known: gently worn sophistication, a perfect blend of found and collected antique and vintage furniture set against a backdrop of original decorative details, and clever additions designed to look as though they’ve been there forever.

When Charlotte first visited the tiny town of Greyton, some two-and-a-half hours from Cape Town, buying a cottage was not part of the plan, she says. ‘I was there to help a friend of mine with the interior of her home,’ she explains, adding that, having spotted the cottage for sale, her original intention was to ‘flip’ the property. ‘But as I got further into the project and spent more time in the village I decided I’d keep it as a weekend spot. Greyton is that quintessential country village,’ she adds. ‘When I go into the hardware store they all ask how I am. Everyone is very friendly and knows your name.’

The property was a very simple affair when Charlotte first saw it: ‘literally a box with one room off to the side for the bedroom, one bathroom and a living area’. Above this there was an empty roofspace, which has been cleverly used to create extra rooms. ‘It took me just under a year to bring it to where it is now.’ Today, the cottage has everything a weekend bolthole needs – enough bedrooms and bathrooms for guests, a generous fireplace around which to gather, a simply furnished open-plan kitchen and dining area and a pretty garden outside.