In a former life, the Hastings Observer building housed the offices of a newspaper (among other things). Now it's a gathering place for style-oriented residents of the seaside town.
Owners Lorna Lloyd and Bryan Dyke (a ceramist and a film editor, respectively) saw the potential of the dilapidated building and purchased it in 2009. Today, they operate the Printworks Bed & Breakfast on the building's top floor; eventually, the couple hopes the building will house a shop, a bed and breakfast, as well as studio space for artists.
Photography by David Merewether.
Above: The Venetian Gothic building dates from 1879.
Above: Lloyd and Dyke bought the radiators from a reclamation yard and had them conditioned and painted in ivory. Lloyd made the drapes out of lightweight canvas painter's cloth.
Above: The walls were stripped back to reveal the blues and greens of various paint jobs over the original lime plaster. A water tank from the attic now serves as a planter in the indoor garden.
Above: The large cherry table and mirror are paired in the same way they were in the last Lloyd/Dyke home to create "continuity for us as a family," says Lloyd.
Above: The former factory lighting is from Hastings antique dealer Myerscough & Mairs.
Above: In the Caxton bedroom, floors are painted in Farrow & Ball Pointing.
Above: The simply outfitted Guttenberg guest bath.
Above: The couple stripped the galvanized stair treads.
Above: The living room is a mashup of wares from several centuries; the beech floor is a legacy of a former dance studio.
Above: A French fin-de-siècle sofa.
Above: "Everything we have done has been about restoring the building to its original condition, and we wanted to leave ‘vistas’ of its original purpose," says Lloyd. On the back wall, the pink painted line represents the roof of a lean-to brick building that once abutted the house. Lloyd and Dyke chose dark green paint for everything above the line.
Above: Teacups stacked against 130-year-old brick.
Above: "We left these lovely pieces of memorabilia throughout the building," says Lloyd.
Above: Lloyd bought these posters from the Guggenheim in the 1990s and hung them to offset the original green and brown paint on the facing wall. The gray plaster was required to stabilize the wall, and Lloyd intends to stain it eventually—in due time.
Above: In the bathroom of the Caxton Suite, the white bowl on the mantle is by Lloyd, an accomplished ceramist; the geometric painted vase is by Roz Katz. The floor paint is Farrow & Ball Almost Black.