White walls aren’t usually Pearl Lowe’s style. Describing her look as “rock ’n’ roll romantic”, the designer and former singer is a lover of bold patterns, jewel-toned velvets and blooming florals. And yet, there are rather a few of them in her beautiful new “beach shack”, as she calls it, in near Hastings, East Sussex. Cool and light, painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Pointing’, its spaces have become canvases on which Pearl can express herself, where her playfulness is proclaimed by dazzling disco balls, her femininity in the softness of lace curtains.
Close enough to feel the salt kiss of the waves, Pearl’s seaside cabin is the perfect getaway. “It wasn’t always like this,” she laughs. When they first moved in, Pearl and her husband, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, found themselves sleeping on the floor. It was the dead of winter and, with no heating, they couldn’t help but wonder if they’d bought the place in haste.
Yet now, a year on, it’s hard to imagine the cabin being anything other than warm and welcome. As the floral dresses, vampish vintage home accessories and fabric designs she sells under her eponymous label attest, Pearl has always had a distinctive vision, one awash in glamour. But the coast looms large in her imagination too, as her soon-to-be-published Faded Glamour by the Sea, proves.
The book, which comes out on 12 April, is Pearl’s second and gives glimpse of her inspirations, taking readers on a tour of her favourite seaside homes. Among them is her own, a place that Pearl says forced her to step out of her comfort zone. Showing us round, she talked about learning to embrace a new look – think fresh linens and yes, cream walls. They say that, sometimes, a change is as good as a rest. It seems here she’s found both.
