Turner’s House Trust has launched a month-long Crowdfunding campaign to raise the final £125,000 required to restore Sandycombe Lodge.

The St Margarets villa, designed and lived in by the renowned artist JMW Turner, is close to meeting its fundraising target of £2.4m.

Donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Architectural Heritage Fund and other private supporters have allowed the trust to appoint contractors.

Restoration work is scheduled to begin in early April, with the house set to reopen to the public in 2017.

The trust’s chairman Catherine Parry-Wingfield said: “Until all the money is raised, our work is not done.

“We do not want to take up a loan we have no funds to repay – meeting the funding gap is now urgent.

“Sandycombe Lodge is a rare three-dimensional work of art by Turner, England’s internationally renowned landscape painter – we must save it for future generations.”

The Grade II*-listed country retreat was built by Turner 200 years ago and is still almost totally preserved but for a few later additions.

It is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register and in need of urgent major restoration due to damp and decay.

To donate, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/turnershouse or follow @TurnersHouse on Twitter.