Sea Air, Six Hundred Metres In

The flat was six hundred metres from the shore, which was the whole reason the family had bought it, and also the reason its three-year-old interior was coming apart. Wardrobe hinges had seized, the veneer on the door faces was lifting at the edges, and a run of MDF near the balcony had swollen enough that two drawers no longer closed.

We rebuilt on the assumption that salt and humidity are the normal condition here, not a bad month. Marine-grade ply throughout, stainless hardware rather than mild steel with a coating that eventually loses, and laminate instead of veneer on every face that gets weather. It is a less romantic specification than the one it replaced. It will still be shutting properly in ten years.