House Fun Facts & Secrets
To date almost every guest who has stayed at 4 The Fish Cellars has asked about some aspect of the house, whether that be the art work or our fabulous tables. So, I thought I'd put together a page to introduce you to some fun facts and a few secrets about how I've designed the house to make it a unique and memorable experience that you'll come back to visit again and again.
​
I hope you find this interesting.
The Tables
I purchased 4 The Fish Cellars in July 2019 and decided to make the bottom floor, then only a games/tv room, into a twin bedroom. However, that had a knock on effect. If I wanted to sleep eight I also needed a table that sat eight and had only inherited a six-seater. When I discovered that 8-seater tables only came in very wide widths, I looked into having one custom made. With the help of Google I found Charles (Facebook page: byCharles) in Plymouth.
Charles suggested the resin and the use of the rotten yew boards he had rescued from a friend who had earmarked them for the firepit. He said he wanted the the table to look like a coastline, which when you see it up close you know that it really does. When we saw what he had planned we then asked him to make a matching coffee table and desk.
Subsequently I asked Charles if he would also do a wall unit to surround the TV, which had been mounted on the wall but with only a coffee table below for the additional equipment. After coming to the house and seeing the lovely blue on our feature wall, he designed the unit and burnt and painted it to match. My father was a cabinet maker (in my hometown in Wisconsin) and I really love the attention to detail and craftsmanship put into the joints on this piece.
​
Charles can be contacted on 07908916707.
​
PS: Charles does all sorts of old furniture renovations and even had been converting an old bus into a caravan that he then delivered up to Scotland! So, if you would like something special - give him a call.
Stained "Glass"
Because the Fish Cellars is, well, a cellar there is not a great deal of natural light in the middle and bottom floors. So I thought I'd make some false windows using LED panels (from IKEA) to make the rooms feel more open. Originally I planned on having photographs printed on clear acetate but then thought of trying (faux) stained glass. Well, the first one (in the hallway) was so fun to make, I made the other four that you find in the double bedroom, games room and basement shower room. But as you will see, the stained glass effect didn't stop there. Portwrinkle beach and harbour has been added to the bottom of the dining room windows so there is something a bit more interesting to see than the workings of the hot tub!
​
Little secret: My family and I are all Liverpool fans (long before they began winning!) and we drove from Buckingham to Liverpool for the Champions League victory parade a few years back. If you look carefully at the stained glass in the double bedroom, you may just see a piece of red confetti from that parade that says, LFC 2019.
​
Sponge Bob Room
We inherited this very small bedroom that had been crammed with bunk beds with no room for anything else. I was introduced to Clive, a Portwrinkle resident, who is fabulously creative with woodwork and together we tried to make the most of this little space. The result is a multi-sensory room with wall mural, glow in the dark stickers, coloured lights, porthole, tv and Alexa to make it as appealing and memorable to children as possible. I'm hoping to add more 'texture' in this space to make it even more fun.
​
Feel free to share with me your ideas.
The Paintings
I have a running joke with my husband that I need to buy another house because I have too many paintings and not enough walls. Painting has been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember and because I sometimes end up with too many, I often 'recycle' paintings as you will find out below.
​
Dining Room: The seascape over the dining table is an example of a recycled painting. Underneath the bright and sunny paint is a broody painting of Dunstanburgh Castle that used to be in the living room of our holiday home in Northumberland. The pilchards in the back double also had a previous life - it used to be the Farne Islands. For those of you who have come visit us on both coasts, you may recognise these and now know a little bit of (hidden) Northumberland has followed you to Cornwall.
​
Over the kitchen sink is a trio of colourful paintings that have been recycled from three small abstracts that I did with my children over 15 years ago one day when they were bored. A lot of the texture is the thick paint they 'threw' on. I made these paintings, and the one in the master ensuite, specifically for this house to reflect the Moroccan colours and ethnic feel in some of the soft furnishings.
Texture: I like to put a lot of texture in my paintings and you will see feathers embedded in the painting in the double bedroom ensuite. I picked these while climbing Glastonbury Tor. The man in the tree at the top of the stairs was created by mixing sand in with the paint and the spindly tree silouettes is fennel from my herb garden. Both of these paintings made it to Cornwall, unscathed, from the Northumberland house. The frame on the pilchards in the double bedroom is from the packing crate the downstairs wardrobes came in - I liked the idea of making this frame look like it was from a crate that used to hold fish.
That's all for now, I'm sure there will be more to add as the house transforms over the years.