Colouring in the past

The owners of this bijou cottage in historic Rye have given it new life with an impactful decorating scheme and a cheerful combination of family treasures, vintage finds and modern touches

- SHARON PARSONS

Sometimes in life, past and present seem to criss-cross in time, coming together quite unexpectedly.

‘When my partner Rupert was a little boy, he used to visit a cousin in Rye who lived in a little house in the centre of the town,’ explains interior designer Amy Maynard. ‘He loved coming here and remembers being charmed by the house and the higgledy-piggledy little streets: he thought it was like a storybook.’

Fast-forward several decades and one day, in 2023, the couple were idly looking at a property site when a familiar-looking cottage suddenly appeared. ‘Rupert recognised it instantly as the house he had visited all those years ago,’ Amy says.

‘It was one of those serendipitous moments: we'd been looking for a bolthole in Rye, and he immediately knew that this was meant to be.’

The timber-framed cottage is perched in the citadel - this cinque port town’s ancient heart - tucked down a narrow passageway, between winding cobbled streets of medieval and Georgian buildings.