OCEANS OF WONDER

A lot of heart and a great deal of art fills this tiny, two-storey home by the sea

Homeowner Lottie Consalvo with daughter Hester and their dog Bella on the stairs of their revived historic home.

The dining table and vessel on it was made by Lottie’s husband James.

Early each morning before her family rises, artist Lottie Consalvo walks her dog along the beach close to her home. It’s a daily ritual that never loses its allure: she loves the sea mist, the ocean’s many tones of blue, and the “sense of infinity” found in that wide horizon, where the silvery sky spills into the sea. “It definitely shifts something in me, being in nature each day, in a place that is beautiful,” she says. “I feel very lucky.”

Meet & greet

Lottie Consalvo (artist), James Drinkwater (artist) Vincenzo, eight, Hester, five, and border collie Bella.

The beach is a magnet for the rest of the family, too – Lottie’s husband James Drinkwater, also an artist, and their children Vincenzo and Hester. In fact, the desire to live as close as possible to the water was the key reason Lottie and James purchased this two-storey home, one of a row of 1830s sandstone-and-brick houses, which they recently renovated.

When they bought the property in 2017, it was feeling its age. Nothing apart from its location really spoke to the pair. “It was small, had a bad layout and it needed work,” says Lottie. “But the house was clearly structurally sound – it had been standing for almost 200 years. It just needed some love.” Family members were bemused by their choice, as the house, sitting on a block of just 80sqm, was not exactly child-friendly.