House Style with Francesca Gaskin
After showing us around her self-renovated Victorian home in Bristol, interior designer Francesca Gaskin shares her house style.
You’re happiest at home when…
Sunny mornings sat in the kitchen, with a coffee, listening to Charlie Bones’ NTS breakfast show.
I like to get up early and potter around. The kitchen gets the sun in the mornings, so it’s usually a bright space. The light comes spilling in through the large picture window, and shadows from the neighbour’s tree and silhouettes of my plants on the windowsill are picked up and projected onto the plastered wall, creating a new image most mornings. It’s like a live art installation that comes and goes.
How would you describe the interiors of your house?
Relaxed, fun and homely.
It’s also modest, to match the style of the period architecture. For the first time, I have a space to live in that is a reflection of my personality and I can have my collections of objects and furniture on display.
If you could only save one thing, what would it be?
The stuffed pike which I have in the kitchen.
My dad caught it on a fishing trip when we were little, so it reminds me of my childhood. I now look at it very differently from how I did then – I probably wouldn’t condone such a thing now, so I’d have to save the poor fish as a new reminder of the importance of preserving nature. That and my teddy bear, Monkey.
What was the last thing you bought for the house?
I try not to buy anything ‘new’.
If I can’t make it, I will buy vintage or reclaimed. My next project is the garden and I recently won some nice terracotta tiles from eBay. It’s mostly pots, plant and anything garden related at the moment.
Top three coffee table books?
Burning Man: Art on Fire by Jennifer Raiser. RHS Encyclopedia Of Plants and Flowers – I’m currently studying for my RHS Level Two in Horticulture, so there are lots of plant books around the house. I also really love reading philosophy books and one of my favourites is The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Christine Gross-Loh and Michael J. Puett.
If money was no object, what changes would you make?
I would do a loft conversion, as it would be great to have more space upstairs and free up one of the bedrooms so I could have a home office/room for guests.
You’re having people over for dinner: what do you cook?
Anything Italian. I’m pretty sure I must have been an Italian in a former life – or at least, my stomach thinks it was. I love all Italian cuisine so there would be lots of antipasti and pasta dishes.
What does a Sunday here look like?
I’m not sure what Sunday is anymore, as for the last year I have had a lot of work to do both on the house and my business, plus my housemates work different shift patterns. So Sundays or days off together can be rare and we usually plan ahead to hang out by going for a walk, having a group dinner accompanied by beers and a film, or in the winter, we make good use of the wood burner.
What are the best things about the neighbourhood?
There are so many great things about St Werburgh’s and I feel very lucky to live here. It’s got a real community feel, the demographic is alternative, relaxed and inclusive, and I have great neighbours. It’s a short walk from the city centre but I rarely need to leave, it’s like its own little village. It’s got some great pubs such as The Farm, which is next door to St Werburgh’s city farm, so there are lots of goats and farm animals on the doorstep.
I’m also near Ashley Down allotments which has some great running routes and is a lovely place to stroll through. It leads up to ‘The Mound’, a small hill that has a great view over Bristol and is a good spot to watch the sun go down.
How long will you be here for?
I don’t see myself going anywhere for a while. It would be great to have this house and a plot of land on the outskirts of Bristol to live and work between. I see the land having a couple of workshops where other creatives can work, from building a community maker’s space to having some room to grow flowers and vegetables.
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