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Fashion designer Penelope Chilvers' charmingly rustic apartment in a medieval Catalonian town
In the late 1960s, an Englishwoman named Elizabeth stumbled upon Begur, a tiny hillside town north of Barcelona. Its rocky, sharp-edged coastline made it somewhat difficult to reach (let alone build upon), and so it had been spared the influx of tourism that places like the Costa del Sol and the Costa Brava had enjoyed. Enchanted by the place, Elizabeth bought the town’s old coach house and turned it into a hostel, with a restaurant and an exotic terrace at street level where artists, creatives and dreamers would gather, sharing ideas and drinks under the shade of pine trees. It is rumoured that Salvador Dalí, Ernest Hemingway, Lex Barker (Tarzan) and wife Tita Cervera were among them.
Donald and Rosie Chilvers, a couple from the UK, had happened upon the village while on holiday and bought a house just down the road. Elizabeth's bar became their favourite spot to finish a day, from where they could take in the crowd and the surroundings. With them at the table was their wide-eyed daughter of just twelve years old, Penelope, perhaps better known now by her full name (and the name of her fashion brand), Penelope Chilvers.
'We’d sit out for drinks on the terrace and I’d watch all of the grown-ups. They were from all over the world and dressed head to toe in white', recalls Penelope. Some thirty years later, Penelope would return to the building, but this time to collect the keys to her bolthole, which occupies the first floor. Though she has certainly made it hers, adding an eclectic mixture of furniture and a hodgepodge of collected treasures, Penelope was careful not to change the essence of the flat. The two bedroom space tells the story of all the people who have lived, stayed or eaten there before.
‘I have only missed one summer in Begur since I was a child’, says Penelope. ‘I remember being on the beach when I was about 12, when Franco was in charge, and the rules were strict. We were the only people in bikinis, as most of the women were wearing long black skirts. The police force used to march up and down the beach to make sure nobody was being promiscuous’, she recalls. Just as vivid a memory is the eruption of creativity that occurred when Franco died in 1975. ‘The whole area burst into celebration. It was called ‘La Movida’: it was a taste of freedom and the whole of Spain went completely bonkers. It was a fantastic time to live - it went from one extreme to the other and all this creative energy that had been restricted just came alive’.
‘I was living in Barcelona with my first husband when my parents decided to sell their house in Begur’, explains Penelope. ‘I was about to return to live in England but wanted to have somewhere small in Spain that I could visit on weekends and holidays’. Begur felt like a natural place to land. The small flat sits above a restaurant at the entrance to the town. The sea stretches out in front of it, while a hill ascends from the terrace behind the building.
Despite only having two bedrooms (and a small sitting room with a daybed in it), and a kitchen-cum-dining area, it has somehow managed to accommodate Penelope’s ever-expanding family. ‘At first it was just the three of us: me and my two girls, and then I married a man with three children so it became our summer destination, and we’d bring five children – someone would sleep on the terrace, another on the daybed,’ she remembers fondly. ‘It has flexed and shrunk as we have needed it to’.
The simple way of life here informed the decoration of the flat. Penelope only reluctantly installed wifi two years ago (‘until then, everyone would have to sit on the wall opposite the flat to do their emails’, she laughs) and there remains no television. Just the bare essentials make up the kitchen appliances too, with a distinct lack of electric kettle. Indeed, why would you need one when just a few minutes walk away is the square with a cafe, where locals gather at 11am for what Penelope calls the ‘social golden hour’.
‘It was basically a white box,’ says Penelope of the flat when she first took ownership, ‘For the most part, I kept it as it was. I never really spent any proper money on it, it’s just a lovely place that I can go and unwind. I didn’t want to be extravagant, I wanted to make do with what I’ve already got. I think that’s how you make a house feel very welcoming’.
‘I love to tap into whatever feels right for the area’, she explains of the flat’s palette. 'At my house in Gloucestershire, I chose colours that would work with the garden as the seasons changed. In Begur, I wanted it to feel as authentic as possible, so I used classic paint colours and all the ceramics are as local as possible’. The kitchen is painted in what is locally referred to as ‘Montserrat blue’ (for the nearby mountain range), and has been used in ecclesiastical spaces for centuries. A former specialist painter, Penelope mixed the shade herself, and instead of noting down a formula, accepted that the shade ‘probably changes year to year as I repaint’. It is also Penelope’s own recipe that makes up the pale green of the tiny twin bedroom. Referred to as ‘Begurian green’, it is another typical colour of the area.
The ceramics dotted throughout the house are all made by local potters. Often considered the epicentre of Catalan slipware is La Bisbal, a nearby town from where Penelope bought a number of her favourite pieces. Others were handed down by her parents when they sold their house nearby. The walls are hung with a mixture of textiles and paintings bought by Penelope’s mother or works painted by Penelope herself. Outside, a terrace the same size as the flat is adorned with bold, bright fabrics collected by Penelope’s mother.
There is a sentimentality to the way Penelope talks about the flat. ‘I am probably very strict. I don’t change anything until it desperately needs to be made good', she says. 'I love it as it is, it’s so full of memories’.
Simon Brown1/9The coffee table is a 1960s design bought from a local antique dealer - Fin De Siecles - in La Bisbal.
Simon Brown2/9In the corner of one of the bedrooms, the rustic oak chair and cooking pots above the beds are from a local antique dealer. Penelope originally bought the pots as still life material to paint.
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Simon Brown4/9The blue vase is from a Spanish chemist's shop. 'It was very common to use these giant vials as decoration in "Farmacias" (chemists) in the early 20th century,' says Penelope.
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Simon Brown6/9Walls in the main bedroom have been kept light and airy.
Simon Brown7/9The tiles in the bathroom are a classic design of the region, bought locally by Penelope.
Simon Brown8/9Penelope sitting on the terrace, wearing her ‘Buttercup Sandals’ from her own collection.
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Simon Brown9/9A shaded dining area. The cushions on the sofa are antique kilims collected by Penelope's mother.
