French Dressing

Interior designer Sophie Rowell has fashioned neglected Georgian townhouse, with views across the Channel, into a family home that blends English charm with continental chic

- SARA EMSLIE

It was originally built to house the captains coming up from the ships in the harbour below,' says Sophie Rowell of her pastel-colored home, set within a row of elegant townhouses in the quaint old-town area of Folkestone. You can see over to France from the top floor,' she adds. And, right on cue, as the mist clears, the coastline of northern France appears on the far horizon, across the Strait of Dover.

It seems only fitting, therefore, that interior designer Sophie has chosen to furnish her home with antique and vintage finds from home and the continent. The house is filled with signs of her travels across the Channel to France and beyond, where she visits brocantes and flea markets, sourcing items for her interiors consultancy, Côte de Folk. 'I love how this is a space filled to the rafters with all my finds from my travels,' she says. 'Everywhere I look reminds me of somewhere I've travelled to, or an antiques fair I've visited.