Cruising Dorset s Jurassic Coast. Sailing and Sandbanks Special. Tour of Wessex. Sandbanks Boat Show. The Broadchurch Effect. Hong Kong to Hooke

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1 Sailing and Sandbanks Special May 2013 Tour of Wessex The ultimate cycling challenge The Broadchurch Effect Why West Bay loves the media spotlight Sandbanks Boat Show Fabulous craft at Salterns Marina Hong Kong to Hooke Dorset s woolly entrepreneurs Cruising Dorset s Jurassic Coast Lyme Regis, Portland, Weymouth and Lulworth 2.75 SANDBANK S GLAMOUR Celia Sawyer s designer home blue Spring or Autumn leaf? Colourful fashion to suit your season english home Claim your free copy inside

2 92 DORSET May 2013

SANDBANKS HOME The epitome of cool Celia Sawyer made her name creating stylish homes for pop stars and millionaires so it is no surprise that her home in Sandbanks has an eye-catching array of

Celia has opened up the wall between the living room and dining room.

3 SANDBANKS HOME The epitome of cool Celia Sawyer made her name creating stylish homes for pop stars and millionaires so it is no surprise that her home in Sandbanks has an eye-catching array of interesting pieces and curiosities Words & PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER BOOTON Above: Celia posing with Roadkill Couture in the entrance hall of her Sandbanks home. Celia has opened up the wall between the living room and dining room. Viewers of Four Rooms on Channel 4 will be familiar with the format of this tensely competitive and entertaining show, but for anyone who isn t, let me explain. Members of the public with interesting antiques or curiosities to sell are given an opportunity to negotiate a sale with the four resident dealers, who each sit in separate rooms. Sellers may visit the dealers in any order, but once they have received an offer and left that particular dealer s room without accepting the offer, they cannot return. During the first and second series of the show, which began in 2010, the dealers were offered a wideranging and sometimes bizarre selection of items, including a Victorian hangman s rope, an antique sex aid and Hitler s toilet! Antiques Roadshow it isn t. The only female dealer in the current series is Celia Sawyer - a tall, slim and attractive 40-something mother of two who lives with her husband Nick on the Sandbanks peninsula. Celia joined Four Rooms at the start of the second series after seeing an online advertisement asking people for photographs of interesting items they would like to sell on the show. Bravely, or perhaps cheekily, she ed a photograph of herself, and asked, Would you like me to be one of the dealers? She received a call the next day. After many years as a successful property developer and interior designer, in 2007 Celia launched Cool 10 which specialises in luxury interior design at the top end of the property market and has an office in Knightsbridge. Clients include pop stars, politicians, actors and actresses, famous sporting personalities and high net-worth business people in the public eye. Although Cool 10 is the main focus of Celia s work, this entrepreneurial lady is also involved with business investment and film development. Modestly, she describes herself as a businesswoman. DORSET May

As well as creating very individual and highly desirable interiors for her clients worldwide, Celia designs bespoke furniture and sources collectable items for their homes.

Contractual obligations don t allow her to say which these are, but she does reveal that three pieces of art entitled Roadkill Couture displayed in her entrance hall came from Four Rooms.

years ago. I asked Celia what had attracted them to the property. The views across the harbour are amazing. That s what really sold the house to us. I m always drawn to the sea.

Celia only had four weeks to transform the house before they Either side of the new fireplace are paintings by one of her favourite artists, Michael Forbes, who created the voluptuous portrait of

4 As well as creating very individual and highly desirable interiors for her clients worldwide, Celia designs bespoke furniture and sources collectable items for their homes. Being a dealer on Four Rooms is useful in this respect and her Sandbanks home contains a number of items she purchased on the show. Contractual obligations don t allow her to say which these are, but she does reveal that three pieces of art entitled Roadkill Couture displayed in her entrance hall came from Four Rooms. Thanks to Celia s well-honed design skills her Sandbanks home is very different today from the somewhat characterless 1960 s house she and Nick purchased on the harbour-side of the peninsula four years ago. I asked Celia what had attracted them to the property. The views across the harbour are amazing. That s what really sold the house to us. I m always drawn to the sea. And it s quiet here, she adds. Celia only had four weeks to transform the house before they Either side of the new fireplace are paintings by one of her favourite artists, Michael Forbes, who created the voluptuous portrait of Celia which appeared on Four Rooms and now hangs above her staircase moved in. I started on the fireplace area in the living room. There was an old fake fireplace which I took out to leave just a flat wall. I thought, let s have a feature here and do something interesting hence the logs, the hole-in-the-wall fire and the little holes of interest and intrigue. Then I opened up some of the interior walls so we could see the harbour view much further through the house. The two main rooms on the ground floor are the living room and dining room and Celia has furnished these with an eye-catching array of interesting objects. Either side of the new fireplace are paintings by one of her favourite artists, Michael Forbes, who created the voluptuous portrait of Celia which appeared on Four Rooms and now hangs above her staircase. Large, comfy, bespoke sofas in the living room surround a glass-topped occasional table supported by two brass ram s heads. Suspended from the ceiling is a 1960 s Perspex bubble chair which provides a perfectly relaxing way to Above: Living room with its unusual fire place Left: Glasstopped occasional table in the living room supported by a brass ram s heads that Celia bought from Talisman in Gillingham. 94 DORSET May 2013

I collect items as I go around, reveals Celia. And I get stuff from auctions and abroad.

5 SANDBANKS HOME view Europe s largest natural harbour. Adding eye-catching interest to the dining room are two Johnny Sainsbury mirrors, an art mosaic of Clint Eastwood s face, by Ed Chapman, and Muhammad Ali memorabilia. I collect items as I go around, reveals Celia. And I get stuff from auctions and abroad. Also, being on the show I get offered lots of things and that s really good because I have clients who collect as well, and I look for items for them. I like collectables that I haven t seen before. I don t want grandma s teapot but I do want something interesting with a great history. Provenance is very important, she adds. One of Celia s favourite places to shop in Dorset is Talisman in Gillingham, a fantastic emporium of unusual and desirable antiques. This is where she bought the ram s heads for her living room table and the steel cabinet in the dining room which is decorated with snakes and reptiles, and designed by Christian Maas. Nearly every piece of furniture in Celia and Nick s fabulous home is bespoke and most were designed by Adding eye-catching interest to the dining room are two Johnny Sainsbury mirrors, an art mosaic of Clint Eastwood s face, by Ed Chapman, and Muhammad Ali memorabilia Celia and then made by local craftsmen. Although you can move with your furniture, I think it s nice to design your home and furniture all together, if you can, she advises. Although Celia and Nick also have homes in London and Barbados, where Celia is involved in property development, they spend most of their time at Sandbanks and their two children, Lili and Jack, go to school locally. Celia says that a lot of her time is spent visiting clients worldwide, but she is also involved in projects closer to home. When I visited her at Sandbanks she was actually in the middle of working on a property nearby. This week I ve got up at half-past three every morning to get some work done before going on site up the road to crane furniture over a roof, she explains. It s very hard work, especially if you have children. I try to get everything done before school pick-up time if I m in the area, and then I ll carry on working in the evening. I don t have a nanny because I want to spend as much time with my children as possible, but occasionally I have to call in help. Celia admits that she d like to do more television work in the future, because although it s hard work she enjoys it. Amazingly, for a working mother with such a hectic schedule, she still manages to find time for herself. I like to go for a run every day, she says. And in the summer I enjoy sitting by the water, with a big, chilled glass of wine. We also have a boat and I like going out to eat. But I think it s important to burn the candle at both ends, she adds, laughing. You only live once! n Above: Muhammad Ali memorabilia DORSET May

Write these words from the article next to their meanings. The paragraph numbers will help you. scene artists pier busy fireworks

Write these words from the article next to their meanings. The paragraph numbers will help you. scene artists pier busy fireworks 1 Warmer: words and sounds Did you notice that the two adjectives before the name of the town start with the same letter as the town? Use your dictionary to make similar slogans for your town. For example,