When interior designer Lonika Chande and her husband bought this Victorian former railway worker’s cottage in north-west London, it was in good condition, but had been stripped of any architectural detail. ‘It was a sweet house, but lacked original features,’ explains the decorator, who is known for her warm schemes imbued with saturated colour and interesting patterns.

One of the first things she did was apply panelling on the walls and restore a fire surround to create a focal point. Both are painted in a warm neutral.

Next, she added colourful textiles. ‘I don’t like anything to match, so have deliberately chosen different shapes of furniture and upholstered pieces in varying materials here,’ she explains. The two-seater armless sofa is upholstered in Dans la Forêt by Décors Barbares, via Tissus d’Hélène. Opposite, the main sofa is covered in paprika-coloured linen from C&C Milano.

Much of the art was sourced from London’s Portobello market or early-morning visits to Kempton and Sunbury antique markets in Surrey. The Arts-and-Crafts-inspired console, which provides extra storage space — was found on eBay. ‘I like having a table behind the sofa, as it’s a perfect place to put lamps or piles of books.’

The lights have either been collected by the family or found at online auctions, whereas the battered brass jug was once owned by her mother, the artist Lucy Dickens. As the house faced directly onto the street, privacy was a concern. The café curtains are made in plain linen by Tinsmiths.

Lonika Chande — 020–7627 0472; www.lonikachande.com

Breaking the fourth wall: How Country Life's interiors editor redesigned and restored his own home

When he bought a tired 17th-century cottage, Giles Kime set out to discover if it’s possible to make an old

Interior designers Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham, better known by their company name Salvesen Graham, have earned a reputation as some of Britain's most sought-after interior designers, developing an aesthetic which blends classic principles with modern touches.

Yet as well as having a great love of beautiful rooms and objects, they're both firmly rooted in how people actually live day to day in their homes.

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'You have to be hugely practical, and you have to have a love, and want to create something and solve a problem,' says Nicole. 'My love of it came from how people live in a home, how they want to use it.'

'I think people are almost surprised actually that it's almost the practical side of it that we tackle first,' adds Mary. 'The decorative side is layered on top of that.'

It makes for a fascinating episode of the Country Life Podcast as Nicole and Mary speak to our host, James Fisher, talking about everything from fabric samples and paint colours to one of Britain's great design resources: the shops that line the Pimlico Road in central London.

You can find out more about Salvesen Graham at their website, follow them on Instagram, and see one of their projects — a house in Berkshire — which was featured in Country Life.

Episode credits

• Host: James Fisher
• Guests: Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham
• Editor and Producer: Toby Keel
• Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Credit: Salvesen Graham

'A bathroom should be somewhere you spend time and relax, rather than a purely utilitarian space'

Interior designer Nicole Salvesen, co-founder of Salvesen Graham, offers advice on adding warmth and decorative detail to a bathroom.

Credit: Simon Brown

A gloomy kitchen entirely re-created as a cosy living space

When Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham were asked to redecorate a country house in Berkshire, the first task was to

On the map

The Srinagar Map wallpaper collection is based on an exquisite shawl from the V&A archive, embroidered for Queen Victoria in the late 1800s. It shows a map of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, and is reproduced as a life-size print — shown here as a Maxi 3m by 2.68m panel in Garland colourway, £543. 01453 878517; www.lewisandwood.co.uk

Reading room

The rich colours and bookish inspiration of End Paper wallpaper in Red and Green, £195 per 10m roll from Mulberry Home, make it well suited to a library or study. 01202 266700; www.gpjbaker.com

Tranquil choice

This soothing shade of green, Eucalyptus, creates a calm backdrop to balance richer hues, £45 for 2.5L emulsion, from Susie Watson Designs. 0344 980 8185; www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

Outer space

Benjamin Moore’s Aura Exterior paint is a multi-surface outdoor option. Selected for renovations on the National Trust’s Slindon estate in West Sussex, it costs £39 per 0.94L. 01753 575756; www.benjaminmoorepaint.co.uk

Twice as nice

Paint and wallpaper house Little Greene introduces ‘Double Drenching’, its name for painting two or more related colours on all surfaces to create confident impact. Here, walls painted in Yellow Pink, ceiling in Middle Buff, window in Affogato and cabinetry in Bassoon produce a layered look of mustard and caramel hues for creative wow. Prices from £57.50 for 2.5L of Absolute Matt Emulsion. 0845 880 5855; www.littlegreene.com

Debut collection

Admired for her ability to combine antiques and contemporary pieces to create rooms with layered elegance, interior designer Rita Konig has produced her first ever collection of wallpapers and fabrics. The range includes Olive wallpaper, £165 per 4.11m roll, inspired by an 18th-century design, available from Schumacher. 020–4532 0960; www.schumacher.co.uk

The Experts' Experts: Britain's top designers, architects and craftspeople name the people they trust to work on their own homes

Giles Kime and Amelia Thorpe ask some of Britain's top designers, architects, builders, craftspeople and landscapers to name the specialists

The infinite nuances of a paint chart never fail to trigger a shudder deep within my solar plexus. Add a couple of charts from other brands and the anxiety dial cranks up a notch or two on the Richter scale. Cuisse de Nymphe or Setting Plaster? Calke Green or Hopper? Dead Salmon or Old Trout? Help!

Then there’s the stress that choosing paint puts on relationships already left a little threadbare by a stressful building project. Consultants come at a cost: Farrow & Ball charges from £140 an hour for a virtual consultation, so it’s now cheap. But it's cheaper than hiring an interior designer — or, indeed, a divorce lawyer. You’re also less likely to run the risk of making a mistake that will undermine a project.

As well as a network of consultants in its showrooms, Farrow & Ball boasts a pantheon of colour deities that includes Joa Studholme and Paddy O’Donnell, who advise customers on their choices.

"It's akin to handing the keys of your car to a chauffeur who has notched up a few decades behind the wheel"

Mr O’Donnell is an alumnus of the Pardon School of Specialist Decoration with deep experience in his field and Mrs Studholme has been developing new Farrow & Ball colours (and advising on their use) for more than 20 years. She’s also the author of two invaluable books on the use of paint in decoration for those happy to go it alone.

Using an experienced colour consultant of this pair’s calibre is akin to handing the keys of your car to a chauffeur who has notched up a few decades behind the wheel; it’s slightly unnerving at first, but then you settle back luxuriously in the back seat to enjoy the unfolding view. But you aren’t travelling to a mystery destination; consultants work with the aesthetic cues they find when you discuss a space and prescribe accordingly.

For anyone unsettled by the nuances and apparently arbitrary nature of choosing colour, it is reassuring to realise that there’s a science to it; the magical symbiosis between suggested colours reveals itself as they are applied to walls, ceilings and woodwork.

In an ever-more open-plan world, consultants understand the challenges of achieving coherence between adjacent spaces. Some might see taking advice as a dereliction of aesthetic responsibility, but, having experienced it first hand, it’s a burden I’m more than happy to relinquish.

Credit: Simon Brown - via Papers and Paints

The man they call 'the paint detective' shares his 10 tips for choosing the right colours for your house

Patrick Baty can reveal a room’s colourful past using only the most scant evidence. He spoke to Amelia Thorpe about

Why you'll see matching front door and window colours across great swathes of the English countryside

The colours that estate owners choose to paint their buildings and cottages lend them a highly distinctive feel. Eleanor Doughty

Six things you need to know before painting a room off-white — and five beautiful tints to consider

Trying to choose a neutral? You’ll be presented with a sea of confusing choices. Amelia Thorpe asks leading colour experts

Wine rooms appear to be yet another of the enduring legacies of lockdown. ‘Whereas we might have designed the occasional one in the past, now just about every project seems to include a wine room or wine display area,’ says interior designer Philippa Thorp. ‘Nowadays, we want to have a little fun with our wine and show it off, rather than cellaring it away so that no one knows it is there.’

Although there are all sorts of ways of designing wine rooms to suit individual taste and size and value of collections, what they share, says Mrs Thorp, is a celebration of the magic of display. ‘Make the wine worth looking at, just as you might a piece of art,’ she says. ‘Choose beautiful materials, such as felt and velvet mixed with metal and wood, perhaps with an aged stone floor, and light it well.'

In a recent project, Thorp Design created a basement den, with areas for playing music, singing, playing poker and drinking wine late into the evening. ‘Unlike traditional cellars, these are interactive spaces, designed to be enjoyed with friends,’ she says. In this room, frameless transparent glass doors offer excellent views of the bottles, stored in bespoke joinery, with a wine fridge to condition bottles ready for drinking. ‘Lighting accentuates the sense of theatre, a rustic brick floor introduces texture and different styles of shelving create interest,’ she notes.

Interior designer Emma Sims-Hilditch agrees that a wine room can heighten the enjoyment of entertaining at home, having recently completed a design in a 17th-century manor house. Here, the wine room has been built between the kitchen and dining room, linking the spaces and enlarging the entertaining areas of the house. ‘It has no windows, so there is limited natural light, and we deliberately avoided underfloor heating and radiators to ensure it remains cool, perfect for a wine room,’ she explains.

‘A wine room is a luxury, not an everyday room, but if you have the space, it can be used to conjure up a special atmosphere, reflecting some of the passion that goes into making wine and the enjoyment of it as an art form,’ she continues. ‘Although it is important to prioritise functionality, so that the layout isn’t cluttered, there is also an opportunity to create a moody, candlelit feel reminiscent of cellars in Burgundy or Bordeaux.’ Here, dark painted walls accentuate the atmospheric feel and brass lighting casts a warm glow. An oak centre table is both decorative and practical, creating a serving space, a sink is used for rinsing glasses and storage includes a wine fridge, a glazed cabinet for stemware, drawers for corkscrews and knives and — out of sight of the camera — a wall of bespoke racking is used for displaying bottles.

Another option is to create a tasting room, with seating to welcome guests. ‘In addition to thinking about how much wine you want to store and display, it is also a good idea to think about how you want to entertain,’ advises interior designer Pippa Paton. ‘Is the room for two people with a couple of armchairs or do you want to be able to taste wines with a group of friends, perhaps with counter stools around a tasting table?’

In this wine-and-whisky room for a house in the Cotswolds, Mrs Paton took inspiration from contemporary tasting rooms in New World vineyards, featuring Perspex shelves with integrated lighting set behind sliding glass doors, box steel shelves for glassware and cupboards made from timber floorboards, salvaged from other rooms in the house. ‘These are rooms generally used at nighttime, so a warm, dark palette tends to work well, with lots of texture from wood and leather, softening all the edges,’ she says. ‘A little glamour comes from glassware and lighting. Whereas some clients want a bar-drinks experience with good wine storage and display, connoisseurs may be looking for climate control systems,’ she continues. Such systems are typically designed by specialists to a particular size of space to ensure optimal conditions for wine.

If you don’t have an entire room to devote to wine, you might choose to create a display in a section of your space — from an alcove to a space under the stairs to a Spiral Cellar showcase in the floor, or to create a wine zone in the kitchen. ‘This can make a real feature,’ says Tom Howley, creative design director of the eponymous company, which offers X-wine bins, pigeonhole storage and angled shelving for displaying bottles as part of its kitchen furniture collections. Typically used for short-term storage, they can look eye catchingly attractive and allow bottles to be stored in easy reach of the dining table or bar stools at an island.

Luxury wine-conditioning cabinets include those offered by brands such as Sub-Zero, Gaggenau, Miele, EuroCave and Elite. They are designed to keep wine in optimum condition in a stable environment, avoiding the extremes of temperature that are the main enemy of wine. Says Mr Howley: ‘High-end wine fridges offer clever features, such as different temperature zones, light protection, lockable doors and adjustable shelving to accommodate bottles of all shapes and sizes, from dessert wines to magnums of Champagne.’

The Country Life Top 100 architects, interior designers, craftsmen, builders and garden designers in Britain

It's now six years since the original Country Life Top 100 was published, but the aim hasn't changed: we name

A fireplace, a painting and a free-standing shower

The restoration of a bathroom at Ven House in Somerset is sympathetic to its historic roots

The best interior designers in Britain

Of all the decorating trends that have been in vogue over the last 50 years – be it Scandi, Minimalism

Tess Newall: 'People working from home want to feel that they are in a place that is inspiring and thoughtful'

Tess Newall has taken time off from painting murals to design a collection of wallpaper and lampshades, finds Eleanor Doughty.

Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: 'The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions'

Lord Norman Foster, one of Britain's great architects, joins the Country Life podcast.

For several years, the owners of this Arts-and-Crafts house in north London had struggled to work out how best to use this room. The main section is long and narrow, opening up into a generous bay window at the far end, and it proved a challenge to decorate.

Together with Georgina Cave, founder of Cave Interiors, they embarked on a root-and-branch programme of renovation.

‘A previous owner had stripped the property of many original features,’ explains Mrs Cave, who works alongside her daughter, Anouska.

‘I’ve no idea how they got away with it, as the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust is very strict about what can and can’t be done with these houses.’

After replacing and repairing the floor, cornicing and windows, the next intervention was a bookshelf at the far end that draws the eye through the room. ‘All our projects go through a space-planning exercise that, apart from configuring furniture positions, delves into details, such as lighting design, power sockets and smoke alarms,’ says Mrs Cave.

Next, a plain wooden fire surround from salvage specialists Retrouvius was installed. Mrs Cave and her daughter sourced all the furniture and lighting for this room, much of which is antique or vintage. Mrs Cave’s mother was an antique dealer: ‘We were into buying or restoring old pieces rather than acquiring new, well before sustainability became such a buzzword.’

A Regency sofa was upholstered in a velvet by Métaphores and the lack of arms on the small sofa next to it helps to create circulation space. The central ottoman is covered in a fabric by Howe.

Cave Interiors (020–7722 9222; www.caveinteriors.com)

The new look in kitchens isn't chic and sleek — it's decorated and pretty

There’s no reason why a kitchen can’t be pretty; Arabella Youens speaks to designers who've made it their mission to

How to make a Super Cottage, by designer Bee Osborn

There’s no reason why a small house shouldn’t feel like a big one, says interior designer Bee Osborn.

Why bold pattern is a magic ingredient in a scheme

Going large and bold with pattern is a brilliant way to breath new life into a room. Giles Kime explains

This room was decorated as part of a root-and-branch reorganisation of the house that involved moving the kitchen to a larger and brighter adjoining room and transforming this space into a cosy family area.

Before interior designers Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham embarked on the redecoration, some structural changes were made, including the installation of sash windows that were more appropriate to the architecture of the house. The opening between the two rooms was also widened to allow for an easier flow.

A palette of yellow, burgundy and blue echoes colours in the kitchen, but it’s the sofa that lends drama to this space. As the clients have three children, they opted for Barranquilla by Josef Frank, sourced through the Swedish interior-design company Svenskt Tenn, a playful, mid-century pattern that is in striking contrast to the classic sofa, with its generously gathered skirt and rounded arms.

The designers say that, although L-shaped sofas can be a challenge, as they feel quite contemporary, they are so useful, particularly in family rooms where a lot of people have to be accommodated to watch a film.

‘We try to make them look as timeless as possible,’ says Mrs Salvesen. Cushions in different shapes and sizes pulls in other colours and patterns. The result is fun and not too tailored.

The Salvesen Graham team designed the ottoman, which has a tray for placing drinks in the middle, plus a shelf for storage, and is upholstered in a mustard-yellow linen. This colour is repeated on the blinds and armchairs from George Smith.

The rug is one of Salvesen Graham’s own designs from its collection with Jennifer Manners. On the wall is a piece by the Danish artist Gitte Brandt, which was found by the clients.

Salvesen Graham — www.salvesengraham.com

Seven beautiful new looks in kitchens, from classic cabinetry to 80s revival

The latest looks in the kitchen, selected by Amelia Thorpe.

Although this 17th-century house had been very well looked after by its previous owners, it had lost much of its character. ‘My job was to reconnect the house with its past and create a sense of place,’ says Nicola Harding.

The project began with the 17th-century rooms at the front of the house, where the ceilings were lower and the natural light restricted through smaller windows. This is the front hall, which opens into a double-height inner hall. ‘I call it a decompression chamber. We covered it in a strong green paint on the walls and ceiling, enveloping the space with colour, which helps to blur the lines of where the walls stop and the ceilings start.’

The paint is Pesto by Pure & Original and its deep, soothing tones provide a cocooning environment before you move into the lighter, brighter inner hall.

When lighting a room with low ceilings, the best approach is to have as little as possible coming off the ceiling; too many sources of overhead lighting will accentuate the lack of height, she explains.

A pendant from US lighting brand Obsolete is deliberately hung asymmetrically to allow the owners to position tall vases and play with the scale of the central table.

The furniture was bought through auction houses and house sales, and Miss Harding was asked by her clients to take a common-sense approach to the project and avoid removing elements in the house that were in good working order, including the floorboards.

She used antique fabrics and rugs to bring pops of contrasting reds into the spaces; the central rug was sourced through specialist dealer Gallery Yacou.

Nicola Harding & Co — 020–8743 6690; www.nicolaharding.com

Credit: Paul Massey / Nicola Harding & Co

The transformation of an old office into a family kitchen at this fine Georgian townhouse in Bath

Simple joinery and subtle lighting have dispelled the institutional feeling of former offices in Bath, put together by Nicola Harding

Credit: Designer's room - Nicola Harding and Christopher Howe

A library in Bath transformed into a bright and beautiful room to think, play the piano and just enjoy the view

Nicola Harding and Christopher Howe joined forces to transform this first-floor library into a serenely elegant sitting room. Arabella Youens

Credit: Peter Wright

A spectacular country house in the Surrey Hills, possibly designed by the greatest British architect of the 20th century

Sir Edwin Lutyens had a hand in shaping many of the buildings of Surrey but actually conceived fewer than are

‘We can recognise and give credit where credit is due, to the debt of taste we owe Europe, but we have taste, too,’ said Billy Baldwin, the most inventive and distinctively American of American decorators, who pioneered a style that married comfort and simplicity like no one else. It was a skill that served him well; he ‘did’ for the Kennedys, Paul Mellon and, famously, for Cole Porter at his Waldorf Towers apartment.

Forty years after his death, Europe owes a debt to Baldwin. Although the slipper chair originated in bedrooms of the 18th-century haut monde as a place to perch when putting on shoes, he reinvented it for American beau monde 200 years later (Greta Garbo and Barbara Hutton were also clients).

The masterstroke was making it big enough to perch comfortably, but also — like the best occasional furniture — easy to move around according to the occasion. ‘Small women and football linebackers find it equally comfortable,’ he said admiringly of his brilliance.

As demonstrated by Emma Burns and Philip Hooper, co-managing directors of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, in their drawing room at last year’s WOW!house (pictured top), the slipper chair is key to creating a crisply elegant interior that isn’t heavily burdened with upholstery (this year’s show kicks off on June 5, at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour). If not imposing symmetry, they also fit neatly and discreetly into otherwise redundant gaps.

Among the other attractions of the slipper chair is that it can be dressed up and down at a whim; reductivist chic at one extreme and gathered excess at the other, via discreet kick pleats. Compared with curtains and sofas, slipper chairs require far less fabric.

According to the US magazine Architectural Digest, Baldwin was notably thrifty in his choice of fabrics, favouring cotton and linen — although, apparently, Diana Vreeland was not; she opted for a scarlet floral. The slipper chair offers yet more evidence that, when it comes to furniture, interior designers tend to know best.

Credit: Rose Uniacke

The luxury of an armchair which one wishes to sink into and never escape

The activity of sitting has been much-maligned, but now receives an elegant makeover in the form of a moss green

Credit: Alamy

How to keep a dog off the sofa, by top trainer Ben Randall

Fed up with Fido leaping onto the furniture — whether it's your sofa, armchair, or your bed — whenever he

A Nina Campbell-designed bedroom where comfort and beauty go hand-in-hand

Nina Campbell combines comfort and calm in this harmonious bedroom scheme. Amelia Thorpe takes a closer look.

The death of the sitting room

When was the last time you were entertained by someone in their sitting room? Or did you enjoy a preprandial snifter propping up their kitchen island? Or leaning against their Everhot? Or warming your toes by the stove in the intimacy of their snug? The inexorable rise of the all-singing, all-dancing multi-functional kitchen has already done for the dining room and it seems that the sitting room will soon be redundant, too.

Fruity fabrics

Everyone from Caravaggio and Zurbarán to Cézanne and William Morris knew the visual appeal of fruit. So, too, did William Hooker, whose beautiful illustrations in the RHS Lindley Archive have been brought to life in a new collection by Sofas & Stuff. Alwinton sofa, from £2,907, from Sofas & Stuff — www.sofasandstuff.com

Jute mats

Before the wall-to-wall seagrass and sisal revolution (about 1986) — and the subsequent rush-matting renaissance — jute mats offered a simple and inexpensive way to add a rustic look to floors. Today, they provide a textured look that is very much in keeping with the spirit of the times. Robertson jute rug, £450, from Tate & Darby — www.tateanddarby.com

White

In the scramble for rich, atmospheric colours, we’ve forgotten the simple joys of white — not dazzling, send-you-round-the-twist white, but easy-on-the-eye hues that magically create instant calm. Chichester Kitchen, from Neptune — www.neptune.com

Fabric borders

Anyone who remembers the 1980s will be familiar with the fabric border, a key component of the interior decorator’s armoury, together with fringes, tassels and tie backs. Now, borders are back, adding a discreetly decorative look to upholstery, cushions and blinds. Pop art border trimming, £95 per m, by Kit Kemp for Christopher Farr — www.christopherfarr.com

Surface spotlights

The fight back against the massed ranks of fixed spotlights has started. Salvation lies in the judicious use of discreet directional lights that provide light where it’s needed, rather than swamping the space with blinding light. Corston leads the field with elegant designs, such as its Baylis, as well as the Brompton, which can be painted the same colour as the ceiling. Perryn single spotlight, £76.80, from Corston — www.corston.com

Terracotta floors

Much as we remain wedded to stone in all its wonderful incarnations, terracotta looks set to enjoy a renaissance not seen since the 1970s. Alicante Terracotta Hexagon, £59.85 per sq m, from Mandarin Stone — www.mandarinstone.com

The discreet, stucco-fronted façade of the Inchbald School of Design just off Sloane Square gives few clues to its pivotal role in engendering a spirit of professionalism and unlocking creativity in generation after generation of interior designers since it was launched more than 60 years ago. In a profession where, to the outsider looking in, so much can seem arbitrary and sometimes quite frivolous, the school has created a range of courses built on a breadth and depth of teaching that has been the foundation of some stellar careers. At the same time, it has demonstrated that interior design is a discipline that needs to be taken seriously.

Last month, its founder Jacqueline Duncan and I invited three alumni to share some of the lessons they had learnt since they left the Inchbald including Nina Campbell, Henriette von Stockhausen and Rupert Cunningham. The event was in aid of 3dadswalking, a charity that seeks to raise awareness of suicide.

Anyone in the audience who came along looking for tips on paint colours or lampshades will have been disappointed; the conversation went straight to the heart of the matter. ‘It’s vital to listen,’ said Miss Campbell, whose 50-year career has included the transformation of a cellar in Mayfair into one of the world’s most celebrated private members’ club and homes for a starry client list that includes Ringo Starr. She is now the most sought-after British designer in the US. Understanding the desires of a client is, she believes, key to every successful project, allowing a designer to create spaces that fit hand in glove with the needs, whims and aspirations of a client.

According to Mr Cunningham, it isn’t only good communication with clients that is vital but also with everyone involved in a project, in particular to avoid what he describes as ‘design drift’. The effective flow of communication ensures collaboration between architects, interior designers, builders, surveyors and the dramatis personae required to bring the original ideas to life.

For Miss von Stockhausen, the benefit of sticking to both a brief and a design concept is comfort — physical, visual and emotional — and the result is spaces that focus more on the needs of their occupants than the requirement that they are flattered by a camera. What she says she has also learnt is that, in the rapidly evolving world of interior design, it’s vital to keep learning. One particular lesson is that carefully conceived design will last far longer than anything influenced by the whims of fad and fashion.

Find out more about the 3 Dads Walking charity at www.3dadswalking.uk.

50 best interiors tips of the last 50 years, from legendary interior designer Nina Campbell

In the half century since Nina Campbell set up her decorating business, she has accumulated a depth and breadth of

Ben Pentreath: 'The minute something is of its time, it will date'

At the heart of Ben Pentreath’s magic is his ability to reinvent the past, as Giles Kime explains.

Credit: www.georgesmith.co.uk

Interior design: Why the profession with creative ADHD will return to elegance

Giles Kime makes a bold prediction as he perceives a new wind blowing through the world of interiors.

Credit: VSP Interiors

How to blend ancient and modern in historical bedrooms

A bedroom in an historic Oxfordshire house has been brought to life by the designer Henriette von Stockhausen.

How to create the perfect bedroom: 7 things you have to know, by Henriette von Stockhausen

Interior designer Henriette von Stockhausen shares her thoughts on how to create the perfect bedroom.

Bespoke fabric artist Natasha Hulse is known for her dramatic three-dimensional botanical designs using handcrafted and painted appliqué, upholstered on to furniture to create bespoke pieces — her striking headboards for Kit Kemp’s bedroom designs at Firmdale Hotels have garnered plenty of attention and admiration.

Now she is launching a range of hand-painted lamp bases and embroidered, appliquéd shades, inspired by the flowers and plants of the British countryside.

‘I draw inspiration from the beauty, elegance and simplicity of Nature, creating pieces that bring the serenity of Nature into a home,’ she says.

All designs start as intricate paintings, which — in the case of the lampshades — are then developed using layers of fabric into finished works of art. Each piece is hand embellished, petal by petal, with luxurious fabric paints, embroidery thread and appliqué fabric combinations before they are constructed and sewn.

The concept is always to create one-of-a-kind artworks that set off a room with individuality and charm. ‘My aim is to evoke a sense of whimsically restful and uplifting energy drawn from the pureness of natural beauty’, adds Miss Hulse.

Natasha Hulse’s hand-painted lamp bases start from £320, shades from £240 — www.natashahulse.com

In 2021 we bought our fourth house in little over two decades. Each of them has presented its own set of challenges. The first was a tired south London terrace, the second a similarly weary townhouse, the third an Arts-and-Crafts house on a river untouched in 50 years and, now, we’re knee deep in the business of dragging a 17th-century cottage, with later additions, into the 21st century.

All four have provided a learning curve, the steep trajectory of which has been suppressed by a combination of experience and growing faith in our own convictions.

It was probably easier a generation ago when there was much less choice: terracotta or cork? Sanderson or G. P. & J. Baker? Dulux or Crown? Stripped pine or paint?

Nor was there the internet or social media, only a handful of magazines and the brilliant Terence Conran’s The House Book to hold our hand.

We’ve found that experience teaches you what lasts, what falls to pieces, and why. Because creating a busy home full of people and pets is rather different to creating a pretty picture for Instagram.

1. Ignore your friends

Isn’t it amazing how friends reveal hidden depths of expertise when you show them around a project? Magically, they all transmogrify into Kevin McCloud, Kirsty Allsopp and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen all rolled into one, dispensing advice about every aspect of a project you’re embarking on.

Most of these pearls of wisdom are couched in rhetorical questions. Should the staircase be there? Have you thought about removing that wall? Have you seen this new paint colour on Instagram? Have you thought of knocking the house down and doing a new-build? Of course, it’s all offered with the best of intentions. Well, most of it anyway. Ignore it all: trust your architect, your builder and your instincts.

2. Remember that you don’t live in a museum

The best interiors are those that serve the needs of the occupant (a quality known in the trade as people-centric) rather than offering a showcase for your own extensive collections, unless they happen to be both comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and you don’t trip over them when you are trying to find the remote.

The master of the art of using antiques and textiles in a disciplined way was my namesake Robert Kime, who died recently. Another was David Hicks, who succeeded in using antiques in a way that made them feel refreshingly modern. The benefits of restraint in interior design are not only practical, but also aesthetic.

3. Invest in fitted joinery

In the pecking order of priorities, good joinery comes right after effective sanitation and just before central heating. In most cases, it might also be more expensive, but the transformative impact on an interior provides an opportunity to make a house your own (and hide your clobber out of sight). The only possible exception is if you have bought a significant pile with huge rooms that will accommodate the sort of vast wardrobes that often go for a song at auction houses (but then there will be plenty of other calls on your cash).

For the rest of us, cramming the impedimenta of our lives into period houses built for people whose worldly goods didn’t run to more than a milking stool, butter churn and a smock or two requires a feat of logistics and aesthetics.

As well as focusing on the obvious places such as utility rooms, seek out storage opportunities in every last nook and cranny that yield spaces for everything from books to walking boots.

However, at the same time as chucking money at the problem, also chuck stuff away or secret it in a garage or lock up; less stuff requires less storage.

4. Don’t kill the spirit of a house

It’s easy (and fun) to rip out walls, shove in floor-to-ceiling windows, add extensions and hotel-style bathrooms, but the hard bit is to do so at the same time as preserving the intrinsic character of a house. It’s a balancing act; of course you want creature comforts, plus light and space, but ask yourself if that has to involve throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Thoughtful, experienced architects will suggest subtle interventions that make the most of internal space and find opportunities to bring light into an interior without extinguishing the period charm of a house. There’s much that can be done with antiques and materials to add texture, but sometimes it simply won’t be enough to save an interior that has been stripped bare or poorly extended.

5. Paint small rooms in dark colours

There was a period in the 1990s when ‘light’ and ‘airy’ were the two most oft-repeated buzzwords in the design world. It precipitated a ubiquitous new look that involved painting everything white; walls, floors and furniture and even the family dog if it stood still for long enough. It’s a great vibe on a Greek island, but can be pretty bleak on a chilly afternoon in the northern hemisphere.

Nowhere is it bleaker than small, white north-facing rooms that look so much better in a rich cosseting hue that creates a womb-like feeling of loveliness on a cold winter evening. Also note: there’s a popular misconception that pale colours make rooms look bigger, but this has yet to be scientifically proven.

6. Decorate in haste, repent at leisure

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Credit card in one hand, a second brimming glass of wine in the other, we settle down to a quiet evening with our laptop to do some sourcing (also known as googling furniture and materials). It’s a voyage of discovery, the deeper you get into your search for a new sofa/eiderdown/bathroom tiles, the more your head swims with images encountered on Pinterest and Instagram. Then you take the wrong turning down an aesthetic rabbit hole that leads to an option you would never consider in the real world.

Down there, with your Chablis goggles on, that ‘ironic’ sofa covered in a patchwork of jolly fabrics or ‘faux zebra’ seems like such a ‘fun’ choice… until it arrives a few weeks later. In the cold light of day, it’s not quite so ‘fun’ and you spend the evening not on Pinterest, but googling ‘what can I do with a brand-new sofa I can’t stand?’, like Dr Crippen planning what to do with the body of a victim. Do your research in the morning with a cuppa in your hand — and your wits about you.

7. Love your builder

Your builder — or, at least, a good one — should be your guiding light. Firms such as those listed in the Country Life Top 100 have spent years at the cliff face, learning what works and what doesn’t and history tends to relate that they are usually right. Of course, it’s tempting to question possible motives behind any advice they might proffer (money and their convenience being the chief causes of concern), but, if they’re professional, have worked with you before — and want to do so again — they’ll share your desire for the best possible outcome.

8. Seriously question the need for overhead lighting

Few things invade your retinas or drain your skin quite as effectively as massed ranks of low-voltage spots. It’s hard to know exactly why some electricians over-spec them; fear of under spec-ing them? Lack of knowledge? A revenue opportunity? The fact is that you will probably need far fewer than the number an over-zealous spark will suggest.

The chances are you might not need any at all; in most cases, your money will be better invested in plenty of low-level light in the form of table lamps and floor lamps that are significantly easier on the eye and create a pleasing atmosphere. A few strategically placed spots can undoubtedly serve a purpose, but, a year into our fourth project, we haven’t specified one.

9. Avoid anything even remotely fashionable

Trust me — and I speak from bitter experience — you’ll regret it. The idea of interiors being fashionable was a conspiracy dreamt up in the 1990s by retailers and breathless PRs, aided and abetted by journalists who should have known better (myself included). The aim was shifting more merchandise/finding more things to write about and, ultimately, it did nothing but contribute to landfill.

Peddling trends is an iniquitous business and most fads have a habit of dying a death before you’ve paid for your latest folly on a credit card.

10. Relax

Finally, remind yourself that projects should be fun. If you spend too long with your head immersed in Pinterest, your head will be full of other people’s ideas and none of your own. Although imagery can be helpful in formulating ideas, remember that you’re creating a home for yourself, your loved ones and your pets, not a pale imitation of a scary stylist’s overthought home, usually in a converted warehouse or beach-front villa in some part of the world where the light and lifestyle are far removed from yours.

The two are very different; your own home is very real, whereas those on Pinterest are a heavily edited fantasy. And remember: there are few things more boring than perfection.

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Veere Grenney is no stranger to the departure lounge. As well as homes in London and the countryside, he has a third in Tangier and clients all over the world. But, in 2020, Covid brought the merry-go-round to an abrupt halt and he retreated to the fishing lodge-cum-folly he has rented for the past 30 years near Stoke-by-Nayland on the borders of Suffolk and Essex. It was built in the 1760s by Robert Taylor in parkland at the now demolished Tendring Hall and more recently it was the weekend home of the interior designer David Hicks.

Not only was Mr Grenney’s diary suddenly devoid of relentless travel, but like the rest of us, things he took for granted vanished overnight: friends, parties and the stimulation of the outside world. His permanent presence at the Temple, as it has become known, with only his lurcher, Rio, for company, threw his beloved bolthole into forensic focus.

The building is best described as pocket Palladian; in addition to a beautiful drawing room, with views over a tree-lined canal, are a bedroom and small kitchen, a dining table and little else. There are few concessions to the 21st century: no dishwasher, washing machine and at the beginning of lockdown the television stopped working. ‘I rediscovered the joys of domesticity. Cleaning, cooking meals every day and doing laundry by hand changed my relationship with the Temple and I saw it in a rather different light,’ he says of that spring and summer of 2020.

It became much more of a hard-working home, ‘previously it had been a weekend retreat, where I spent holidays with my parents and my niece was married.’ For those few months the Temple and surrounding parkland became his home, office and the limits of his world.

Mr Grenney’s prolonged stay demonstrated that comfort is a complex concept. ‘People assume it’s all about upholstery. Well, of course it is, but that’s a given,’ he says. There are so many other factors that also need to be addressed and spaces need to be humanised. ‘The scale of Palladian proportions can be quite intimidating,’ he says. The answer, he says, lies in balancing and humanising the scale with a coherent arrangement of furniture that directly addresses the needs of the occupants. ‘More important than anything,’ he says ‘is balancing the geometry of the space.’

At the Temple — as it is in all Mr Grenney’s work — achieving perfect geometry is as much about the contents and decoration of a room as the architecture of the building. Colour schemes and curtain treatments are startlingly simple, giving the drawing room a look that is, if not contemporary, then certainly timeless, a talent he honed early in his career when he worked with two masters of the art, Mary Fox Linton and David Hicks. It was an apprenticeship that, when combined with the time he spent as a director at Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, allowed him to develop the knowledge, experience and confidence that have made him one of the most sought after interior designers of his generation.

‘Combining comfort and style,’ he says, ‘are about so much more than pictures on Instagram.’ Having arrived in London overland from New Zealand in the 1970s, he doubtless also knows a thing or two about discomfort. But it is also the sort of experience that gives a designer a broad frame of reference.

In many cases, he says that the foundations of a pleasing environment are many, varied and about more than simply the way things look. ‘People underestimate the importance of all the senses when creating a great space.’ As an example, he mentions that each day, the ebony floorboards at his house in Tangier are washed with water scented with rosewater. Where comfort is concerned, it seems that the little things go a long way.

The long months of 2020 also reminded Mr Grenney of so many of the other pleasing characteristics that drew him to the Temple in the first place; the views over the rectangular stretch of water and west over farmland, the beautiful light and the shallow stairs that provide an effortless ascent from the kitchen to the drawing room above.

Back in the office, in the homes of his clients and in Tangier — where, this summer, he hosted a one night performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies — his exile has reinforced his view that where comfort is concerned, the whole is far greater than the sum of its imperceptible parts.

My favourite painting: Veere Grenney

'In his Moroccan series, which I love, he captures the light, colour and exoticism of North Africa.'

Credit: Hasselblad H3D

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Anyone around in the 1970s and 1980s may remember the highly inventive, full-throttle style of that era’s greatest interior-design practitioners, including David Hicks, Roger Banks-Pye, John Stefanidis and Tessa Kennedy, as well as the early work of Nina Campbell who is still at the height of her powers half a century later. In following decades, decoration with a capital ‘D’ never really went away, of course; it was simply never featured in the slew of new interiors magazines that were cheerleaders for decorating that relied more on shopping than paint finishes, beautiful upholstery and carefully curated collections. In those days when the chill hand of minimalism had many of us in its thrall, others stayed true to the cause, like a hardened bunch of recusants continuing to secretly enjoy the comfort, colour, pattern and texture that classic English decoration affords.

If we have learnt anything from the past two years, it’s that hard edges and insipid colour palettes offer little succour in troubled times. A visit to the WOW!house, on show at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour until July 1, eloquently demonstrates the joy of the comfortable interior and reflects the focus of a new generation of designers on the possibilities of carefully conceived and layered decorating schemes. Working with brands that have showrooms at the Design Centre, such as Julian Chichester, G. P. & J. Baker and Morris & Co, designers have created a succession of rooms, including a drawing room, dining room, bathroom, bedroom and dressing room, especially for the month-long show.

It is the temporary nature of the rooms at the WOW!house, like those at the annual Kips Bay showhouse in New York, that speaks volumes about the transformative possibilities of decoration; in a matter of days, the designers taking part — including Emma Burns and Philip Hooper of Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, Rita Konig, Bunny Turner and Emma Pocock of Turner Pocock, as well as Linda Boronkay and Brandon Schubert — performed that magic trick that never fails to impress an audience: they created something from nothing. Designers achieve all sorts of amazing feats, from the sensitive refurbishment of old houses to the addition of mood and character to new buildings, at the same time as juggling the hopes, aspirations and impossible demands of clients. At the WOW!house, they started with little but the dimensions of a notional space and a floorplan.

The event is celebration of a new confident approach to decoration that has gathered steam over the past few years. It’s not only the succession of beautiful, thoughtfully conceived rooms that has an impact on the solar plexus, but the details that lift them head and shoulders above the everyday: the lampshades hand-painted by Alvaro Picardo for the exquisite Colefax and Fowler drawing room, the Egyptian-inspired velvet on the walls of the Pierre Frey Salon by Linda Boronkay, the deep-red marble fireplace from Westland in Brandon Schubert’s Morris & Co courtyard bedroom, the Blow bookshelves in the Julian Chichester library by Turner Pocock.

With a wide range of stellar designers cherry-picked from the UK and abroad, the WOW!house could have felt jarringly disparate as visitors moved from one room to the next. In reality, both the quality of the rooms and the quiet confidence with which they have been decorated creates a coherence that ensures they hang together beautifully. There’s no hint of a trend here, only the sort of aesthetic self-belief that is the mark of every good designer and allows them to push the boundaries without scaring the horses.

Like the first ever cover of The World of Interiors, which featured the London home of the designer Anouska Hempel in 1981, they look set to be as smart and relevant in 40 years’ time as they do today. Rarely has the timeless nature of great interior design been quite so evident.

The WOW!house demonstrates many things; alongside the persistence and brilliance of those at the helm of the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour it speaks volumes about what can be created with a heady mix of pattern, colour and texture — as well as creativity, wit and significant quantities of very hard work. What adds an extra layer of fascination is the fact that the spaces have elicited such an array of different looks from the designers involved, displaying not only the transformative powers of good interior design, but also that those possibilities are infinite.

WOW!house runs until July 1. Entry costs £20 (students £10). A portion of each ticket price will be donated to charity partner Centrepoint, in aid of ending youth homelessness. Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, London SW10 (020–7225 9166, www.dcch.co.uk)

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As humans, we’re naturally drawn to beauty in all forms, so we have an inbuilt response to save and protect beautiful things. Objects should be both useful and beautiful, but when it comes down to which is the most important, we believe that beauty is the fundamental element to ensure longevity. Over time, utility changes. Take, for example, a candlestick. It was once a utility item — providing light in a room — but, today, it’s only a thing of beauty. Old candlesticks that weren’t beautiful aren’t preserved, but those that were can now be decorative items.

I’d argue that a piece can’t be beautiful unless it’s well built. The construction of an object, the quality of the materials it’s made from, how it feels to handle, all these things contribute to your experience as much as the way it looks. In the applied arts, unlike fine art, design and engineering are completely intertwined in the making of a beautiful object. The impact materials have on how long lasting something will be is not only about how well they’ll physically stand up to the test of time. Plastic is strong, but it doesn’t look or feel as good as oak or linen. If a piece of furniture produces positive feelings and is aesthetically appealing, we’re more likely to take care of it.

The same goes for how we finish materials. We made an early decision, for instance, to retain as much of the natural grains of the woods as we could. We have to protect the surface, but we also need to connect with the pure beauty of the wood as well. It’s why we devised our subtle IsoGuard finish. A wooden table contains the story of its journey as a living thing.

We use the best joints and internal mechanics — they may not be visible, but, because they are made with care, they make a difference. We favour traditional joinery techniques — they are still in use for a reason — but we’re equally willing to embrace the evolution of using modern production methods. It’s really about whatever’s right for the piece, the material, and the person whose home it’ll live in.

Traditional ways of working with timber take into account that wood moves over time with temperature and humidity changes. Mortice and tenon joints in cabinet frames or breadboard ends on tables allow for this movement, so the risk of warping and cracking are kept to a minimum.

But modernity has its uses: almost all our timber is cut by a machine rather than by hand. Machines produce consistent cuts every single time, meaning there is much less waste. We do use glue, but only alongside traditional joints, mechanical fixings, and timber-locking methods. For us, it all forms part of a belts-and-braces approach to ensure our pieces last.

Neptune — 01793 934011; www.neptune.com

Credit: Adam Carter / Sims-Hilditch

Where I work: Emma Sims-Hilditch, interior designer

Credit: Ed Sheperd / Sims Hilditch

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It takes more time and imagination to make furniture that lasts a lifetime. Custom pieces help to promote longevity because clients are involved in the story from the start. The piece has an inbuilt attraction that, I think, helps to ensure it’s loved and looked after. That’s the difference between bespoke and the click-and-collect nature of buying today; having something made for you is an experience and the result is something to cherish forever.

As these pieces grow old, they show their age and improve, become part of someone’s life and gather an identity. Clients are sometimes alarmed when they see their new piece of furniture, but I explain to them that, like a new leather jacket that might be stiff and uncomfortable, furniture needs to settle before it fits in. That’s why we use historical finishes, such as wax and natural oil, which allow for the surface to change over time. Modern finishes look spick and span at first, but they don’t allow for an elegant ageing process and a piece will start to devalue in the same way as a new car. Good furniture, made to last a lifetime, is the opposite — it gets better with age.

What I think has been lost along the way is the deep knowledge of the property of timbers that, in the past, would be used for different purposes in the formation of a piece of furniture. For instance, a Windsor chair would be made using three or four types of wood to create strength. Once, this knowledge would have been universal among cabinetmakers, passed down from father to son or maker to apprentice. I’ve had to take a different route to acquire this knowledge and surrounded myself with the elder generation of cabinetmakers to learn from them directly.

My wife, Tess, and I are instinctively drawn to pieces of furniture that have had a previous life because they often tell a story. The design of our Orkney chair, for example, stemmed from the need of the islanders to protect themselves from the cold and the wind — we love that. Old pieces inform how I design my work — I often go to auction houses to look at items in order to get a greater understanding of how things were made in the past. Really good-quality things have an inherent timelessness of their own.

Alfred Newall (020–7846 7314; www.alfrednewall.com)

Credit: William Yeoward

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Credit: Bentley Interior

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Making wallpaper has been a tradition since printing presses were invented in the Middle Ages (Dürer was an early adopter) and over subsequent centuries it has swung in and out of favour. In the 1990s, the unstoppable rise of Farrow & Ball created a fashion for the nuances of paint. Recently, however, a new generation drawn to a more layered look and the transformative possibilities of wallpapers has precipitated a revival of interest, coinciding with the arrival of digital technology and its exciting new possibilities.

Although digital printing is less labour intensive than traditional block, screen or surface printing, the quality was initially variable. Now, the technology has come on leaps and bounds and digital printing can mimic the subtle nuances of traditional techniques. It has created opportunities for smaller design firms to establish their own print-on-demand collections, offering consumers an almost infinite choice of pattern and prints.

One of those embracing the possibilities of digital liberation is Dado, a new wallpaper company that produces a seasonal collection of finely edited wallpapers designed in house, alongside collaborations with creatives from the fields of fashion, fine art and printmaking. For the launch range, Dado worked with painter Matthew Burrows (who established the Artist Support Pledge to support emerging artists during the pandemic) printmaker Jo de Pear and Gabby Deeming, former creative director of House & Garden magazine and founder of the clothing label Daydress.

It’s not the first time that artists and designers have crossed over into wallpaper: the 20th century saw a number of well-known artists turning their hands to surface design. From 1960 to 1980, Andy Warhol created several; the first was called Cow Wallpaper and featured vast pink cow heads on a zingy yellow background, described as ‘ridiculous and vulgar’ by the art dealer Ivan Karp. There were others, too. ‘Raoul Dufy, Sonia Delaunay, Matisse, Picasso and Duncan Grant — they were all at it between the wars,’ says Miss Deeming. ‘What I wouldn’t give to get my hands on their original designs.’ Before that, she says, textile and wallpaper designers worked in a freelance capacity — with the exception of Morris and Voysey — so we’re unlikely to find many documents attributed to them. ‘It’s a shame, as many of them are incredible and executed with such beauty and skill.’

Miss Deeming established her clothing business in 2017 with a capsule collection of hand-block-printed cotton dresses inspired by 18th-century Indian and French prints. ‘I was approached by Dado last year with the idea of turning my block prints into wallpapers and I jumped at the chance,’ she explains. ‘For me, a huge attraction is preserving the appearance of the block print and its inherent handmade charm.’ More sophisticated digital printing ensures that the detail of the original designs for the dress fabric is preserved.

Miss Deeming has long been a fan of wallpaper — particularly in bedrooms. ‘I’m always drawn to designs that take their inspiration from historic documents and have a gentle, trailing feel. I think they can bring magic to a space, elevating it from the domestic into something romantic.’ Her Jaipur Flower design was one of the first block prints she created, influenced by the simplicity of the Mughal flowers painted in palaces all over northern India. ‘It’s a pattern I keep reprinting in new colours and its charm hasn’t faded.’

Future collections for Dado will feature collaborations with interior and textile designers. ‘Our aim at Dado is to be able to tell our customers about the collaborations behind each piece,’ explains creative director Kate French. ‘We’ve created an online lifestyle magazine to showcase our designs where customers can shop straight from the pages.’ As a former deputy editor of Homes & Gardens, she is a fervent advocate of the possibilities wallpaper presents. ‘It’s an easy way to express your own taste. We’re all spending more time at home, so what surrounds us has become more important. Wallpaper adds texture and pattern in a way paint can rarely replicate — unless done at considerable expense.’

Dado — 020–8191 1060; www.dadoatelier.com

Credit: Plain English

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Credit: Paul Raeside

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Credit: Turner Pocock

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Credit: Getty

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The Classic Britannia 50cm (20in) floor-standing globe

A wonderfully classic addition to any library — or home, for that matter. Dog unfortunately not included.

from £6,990, Bellerby & Co www.bellerbyandco.com

Brass Model of a Car bookends

Classic car lovers can keep their bookcase in order with this fun pair of brass bookends.

£595, Brights of Nettlebed www.brightsofnettlebed.co.uk

Onslow Buttoned chair

A comfy chair and a good book...is there a better combination? This sumptuous buttoned option from David Seyfried comes in a decadent plum and is destined to suit any library.

£2,550, plus 6m (20ft) of fabric, David Seyfried; www.davidseyfried.com

Zac library light in Antique Brass

Good books require good lighting, and this antique brass wall lamp from Hector Finch is just the ticket. Your eyes will thank you.

£618, Hector Finch www.hectorfinch.com

Cheetah bookends

If fast cars aren't really your thing, but fast cats are — then this pair of Cheetah bookends will make the perfect, quirky addition to any bookcase, or as a standalone decorative ornament.

£395, House of Hackney www.houseofhackney.com

St Germain bookcase

Speaking of bookcases, India Jane has designed this one in a minimalist and industrial style, crafted in metal with an antique effect.

£750, India Jane www.indiajane.co.uk

Grisewood lamp and shade in Paprika

The warming tone of this paprika coloured lampshade is perfect for a cosy nook or reading corner.

£215, OKA www.oka.com

Painted Pyramid bookcase

If you have over £6,000 to splash on a bookcase, then look no further than this made to order pyramid shaped number from Sibyl Colefax.

£6,360, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler www.sibylcolefax.com

Wood library steps

For the more serious book collectors and library enthusiasts, these wooden library steps are ideal for reaching the higher shelves. For everyone else, they could also double as a coffee holder and excess book collector.

£395, The Great English Outdoors www.greatenglish.co.uk

Wantage floor lamp

This floor lamp from Vaughan plays a trick on the eyes with the mid level circular divider made to look like the base of a standard sized lamp. The cream silk lampshade adds a touch of elegance and the hand carved twisted central column injects movement to the piece.

£731, with 17in Pembroke knife pleat shade in Cream silk, £369, Vaughan www.vaughandesigns.com

Tenbury game table in Navy Oak

Full of secret drawers and compartments in which to store dice, cards and other board games, the Tenbury game table from William Yeoward is a unique and fun addition for any library, and as Mr Yeoward said himself 'no library should ever be without one.'

£3,450, William Yeoward www.williamyeoward.com

Arada: Hot colour

Teaming warm colour with clean-burning credentials, the compact Farringdon Small Eco stove in Spice exceeds Ecodesign standards when burning wood or solid fuel. Shown here with its log store.

£1,611 from Arada — 01297 632050; www.aradastoves.com

Charnwood’s Classic style

Manufactured on the Isle of Wight, the design of the Cranmore wood-burning stove is inspired by the work of neo-Classical architect John Nash, who lived the last years of his life on the island. Featuring clean-burn Blu technology and a clearSkies level 5 rating.

From £1,700 from Charnwood — 01983 537777; www.charnwood.com

Chesneys: Amazing grace

Simple, elegant and graceful, the Chesneys Cirencester design disposes with traditional plinth blocks to give it a more contemporary look. It's part of their British Materials Collection and can be delivered in different stone finishes; this one is Yorkshire Swaledale Fossil.

From £2,500 — 020–7627 1410; www.chesneys.co.uk

Incidentally, if you're looking for a way to keep enjoying outdoor living in the winter months, Chesneys have a newly-launched Clean Burn XL garden heater, designed to produce greater heat output and enough warmth for you to enjoy your garden for more of the year. It has a 110cm-wide fire chamber with a panoramic glass window for the best view of the fire.

£1,999 — 020–7627 1410; www.chesneys.co.uk

Haddonstone’s Period piece

Haddonstone offers a range of cast-stone fireplaces, including this Art Deco fireplace with slips and hearth, available in Portland, Bath, Terracotta, Coade or Slate colours.

£1,395 — 01604 770711; www.haddonstone.com

Jamb inspired by the Italian Renaissance

This handsome Roma black marble chimneypiece is based on an Italian Renaissance design from the American Academy of Design in Rome.

£11,760, from Jamb — 020–7730 2122; www.jamb.co.uk

Martin Moore: Custom made

This classical Gothic Rosette fireplace is made in Burgundian limestone by Martin Moore Stone. It can be made to any size to suit your room.

From £3,000 — 0330 311 6574; www.martinmoorestone.com

Renaissance London’s Antique find

This Georgian fire surround is one of a pair, each featuring a finger-fluted frieze, bull’s eye corner blocks and impressive scrolled legs. Made of Bath stone with some restoration work required.

Each fireplace costs £14,000 from Renaissance London — 020–7251 8844; www.renaissancelondon.com

Westland London: Rare piece

This rare Scottish pine and composition chimneypiece, from about 1805, by Richard Foster of Edinburgh features a central tablet depicting Lady Emma Hamilton leaning on a ship’s anchor and gazing out to sea at the distant HMS Victory, the ship on which Lord Nelson would meet his heroic end. This scene is surrounded by a profusion of seashells and seaweed, as a celebration of the Scottish coast.

Price on application from Westland London — 020 7739 8094; www.westlandlondon.com

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Credit: Graham Aktins-Hughes / Renassiance London

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Amelia Thorpe picks some of the finest fireplace surrounds and accessories for your home.

Sophie Conran’s Wiltshire home demonstrates, very eloquently, the extraordinary adaptability of good architecture. ‘I love Palladianism because it works,’ she says. The qualities that worked in 1795 also do their job in 2021: in particular, the proportion, the light, the windows and the views combine to create a succession of spaces that are friendly, welcoming and charming and blend seamlessly with their bucolic setting.

When she bought the house eight years ago, Miss Conran’s ambition was to ensure that the house looked as if she ‘hadn’t done anything very much’. Anyone who has tried to pull this off will tell you that this particular feat is easier said than done, especially when there was so much to do, not least removing the gloss paint, orange and dark-green carpet and illuminated exit signs that were a legacy of when the house was a bed and breakfast. Most transformative of all, however, was lifting the nylon carpet on the stairs to reveal a magnificent stone floor that glows beneath the vast glass cupola that spans it.

The furniture Miss Conran has assembled helps promote the impression that nothing has been done. ‘I’m a sucker for what the patina of age lends to a space,’ she reveals. Yet she is no slave to the burden of historicism and was adamant that the house should ‘never look like a museum’.

Most of the chosen antiques have a simplicity that creates a pared-back feel. The fresh, contemporary atmosphere is enhanced by pale upholstery punctuated with splashes of colour, notably in the drawing room, where cushions and throws in jewel-like colours bring the space to life in a manner not often associated with houses of the period. She also has a quiet knack of challenging the status quo when things get in the way of her desire for simplicity, in particular ‘the faux Victorian picture rail’ that she says ‘messed everything up’.

The pervasive feeling of calm on the ground floor is facilitated by a warren of ancillary rooms in the basement that take the pressure off the main spaces. Functional they might be, but prosaic they certainly aren’t; the laundry room has a row of cupboards with floral curtains rather than doors and the flower room is painted in a vivid green.

Colour is a passion and Miss Conran is an advocate of the depth and breadth of hues offered by Dulux’s vast rainbow of choice to avoid a ‘cookie-cutter’ look. Elsewhere in the house, there are other immersive colour experiences, notably in a circular guest bedroom, the one space where she kept the vibrant yellow walls she inherited.

Her own bathroom has been transformed with a vibrant pink, whereas, next door, her bedroom is a riot not only of shade, but also pattern in the form of bed hangings in a discontinued design by Brunschwig & Fils. Her desire for colour extends to the garden to which the eye is drawn, depending on the season, by generous swathes of tulips, lavender, sweet peas and dahlias.

As the daughter of the late Sir Terence Conran, nature and nurture have given her an understanding of identifying pieces that are pleasing, not only to her, but also to her guests: ‘I wanted to bring together the ingredients of a happy home.’

It is at the two happy homes she has created, in west London and Wiltshire that she evolves ideas for her tableware collection and the burgeoning range she sells on her eponymous online shop, www.sophieconran.com. As cook and home maker, they are inspired by her own experience of what works and what doesn’t.

Both her 20-something children, Felix and Coco, have followed in the footsteps of their grandfather and have their own collections of, respectively, furniture and fashion. In her view, ‘a happy home is less about aesthetics and more about the experiences enjoyed by family and friends — comfort, informality and plenty of cake’. For guests, it’s an experience that is as beguiling as it is delicious.

My favourite painting: Sophie Conran

Sophie Conran chooses her favourite painting for Country Life

Credit: Packshotfactory/Heals

11 of the best kitchen chairs and dining chairs to place around a country house table

How to make a hallway that’s more than just a dumping ground

The best hallways create a bold statement. Amelia Thorpe explains.

There are few hard-and-fast rules of decorating, but simply following your instincts can be both time consuming and expensive.

One rule is that comfort and practicality are the foundation of every successful room; after a lifetime of projects that have included everything from decorating Annabel’s and a box at Ascot to English country houses and apartments in Manhattan, I’ve learnt that decorating relies on anticipating the needs of clients and their guests. No detail is ever too small to be overlooked and, when they have all been properly considered and planned, the whole will be infinitely greater than a sum of the parts.

What the past 50 years has also taught me is that, as well as being comfortable, the best rooms are also fun, interesting and memorable places to be. Get that right and you’ll never want to leave.

A few eternal truths

Rooms should be as comfortable as they are stylish

John Fowler told me never to plan a room completely. Sort the bones and then walk into the room and it will tell you what it wants

The excitement in a room is when it contains a combination of things: some new, some that have been in the family for ages and some unusual finds

Wit is important: have something in a room that is a bit quirky

You can get away more easily with a bad design in a good colour than a good design in a bad colour

Scale is vital; avoid the middle road and remember that contrast is king

Don’t coordinate things too much — you always need a spark of something unexpected to make it look as if you haven’t tried too hard

Shop around; it may be more difficult than buying everything from the same place, but it’s much more interesting and satisfying

A room needs time to settle into itself and it often looks better a few weeks after it’s been finished, so don’t pass judgement on your efforts too soon

Husbands can come and go, but whatever you do, hang on to your curtain-maker

Sitting comfortably

Be sure to choose a piece of furniture that suits everyone —you don’t want older guests to sink into a deep armchair (together with the dog)

If you’ve fallen for a fabric you can’t afford, have it made up into cushions rather than curtains or a sofa

Think of conversational possibilities: you never want anyone to be stuck on a chair by themselves

Club fenders are wonderful, but, in my view, they are only suited to English fireplaces. They don’t tend to work on Continental styles

Remember to tint your ceiling to a colour — a dead-white ceiling will look grey

Don’t be afraid of strong colours. If considering Hermès orange, for example, remember you’re going to cover it with paintings

Have occasional chairs that can create a triangular arrangement

Always consider the possibilities of corner seating; it offers the ideal set-up for conversations or games of backgammon

A beautiful bathroom

For those with hectic lives (particularly those with children) a beautiful, calm and spacious bathroom is pure luxury

Try to have an armchair in a bathroom; bath time is a good opportunity for a chat and a glass of Champagne

To avoid accumulating things in bathrooms, steer clear of too much storage. A surface next to the basin will keep paraphernalia to a minimum

Carpets are fine in bathrooms as long as they only have a bath or basin; those with a shower need stone or ceramic floors

If a bathroom is small, try to have some elements with legs, such as the bath or basin. It will help to create the impression of space

Never put the loo directly in front of the door — hide it around the corner

Bedded bliss

The most important thing is to keep bedrooms calm with a walk-in closet, so that clothes are kept out of the way

To avoid bedroom joinery looking too much like a fitted kitchen, replace the central panels of wardrobes with chicken wire over pleated fabric

In small bedrooms, if there isn’t room for a bedside table, consider building a niche into any adjacent joinery

Lightweight piqué covers are particularly useful on beds if you have dogs as they can be easily thrown into the washing machine (the covers, rather than the dogs, that is). Antique tablecloths make wonderful covers

Put baffles on central ceiling pendants so you’re not lying in bed looking up at the glare of a naked lightbulb

Much as I love blinds, there are some occasions when a bedroom calls for curtains. There’s nothing more comforting than shutting the world out at the end of a long day

Always have a bookcase in a bedroom. There’s something deeply pleasing (and soporific) about being surrounded by books

In my view, bedrooms — rather than sitting rooms — are the ideal place for family photographs and watercolours

Hang wallpaper on the inside of wardrobes so that they look pretty when you open the doors

I don’t have any rules about colours for bedrooms; I once stayed with a friend who had lined the walls of their spare room in a deep burgundy cloth. I have never slept better in my life; it was like being back in the womb

Bedroom lighting should be multi-layered: you need lights to read by, lights to wash by and you should be able to control them from the bed

I have to have a television in my bedroom and don’t see any reason to disguise it

Be a host with the most

Make sure to have nice hangers in cupboards; beware of dry cleaners’ hangers creeping into the mix. I like to have soft, upholstered ones for dresses and shirts and wooden ones for everything else

Keep a lavender sachet on the pillows of your guest bedroom. They can be a great way to induce sleep

Display an up-to-date selection of good books

Spend a night in any spare bedrooms you have to make sure they’re comfortable for visitors

It’s no longer enough to leave a hairdryer in a drawer — keep a phone charger ready for use in the spare bedroom, too

A radio is always a good addition, especially for insomniacs

Fun with friends

Is there anything nicer than the sight of a heavily laden drinks tray with an ice bucket filled to the gunwales?

Dining rooms that are rarely full of people become sad and musty. Find another purpose for them, such as a billiard room

Antique plates were made to be used, although make sure you wash them yourself rather than entrust the job to someone else

Linen sheets that have tears or have been damaged can be cut up and hemmed into napkins or dishcloths (glasses should always be dried using linen)

A thoughtfully laid table is a joy to behold; I have lots of china ready to create different table settings

I only serve Champagne and wine at parties; cocktails can get incredibly complicated when people arrive at the same time

Keep the hors d’oeuvres simple: cheese straws, served in glass ice pails with silver tops, go very quickly

I’m not keen on ordinary water tumblers — they remind me of boarding school. I love having a mix of different types and scour antique markets for them

Credit: Joanna Wood

Beautiful bathrooms: How to design your lighting, draw the eye and make the most of your space

Bathrooms are typically the smallest room in the house - interior designer Joanna Wood shares her top tips and tricks

Six top tips on how to 'upcycle' old homeware, creating stunning original pieces and safeguarding the environment

Sustainable interior designer, upcycler and self-proclaimed ‘warrior on waste’ Lynne Lambourne offers her expert tips on how to upcycle items found in your home

Country Life's 10 best interiors articles of 2020, from baths in bedrooms to colour schemes for Georgian country houses

Enjoy our list of the most-viewed interior design and decoration articles from Country Life in the last 12 months.

The Country Life Top 100 architects, interior designers, craftsmen, builders and garden designers in Britain

It's now six years since the original Country Life Top 100 was published, but the aim hasn't changed: we name

Annie Sloan

Artist and colour expert Annie Sloan, well known for her chalky finishes, is launching a collection of 32 durable and quick-drying water-based matt emulsion wall paints, including Piranesi Pink and Pointe Silk.

£46.95 for 2.5L from www.anniesloan.com

Designer Paint

Online store Designer Paint offers an impressive selection of premium paints, delivered to your door. The range includes many key brands and its own Albany Design paints, including (top to bottom) Birch Grove, Steepleton, Mulberry Lane and Juliet.

Prices from £36.37 for 2.5L vinyl soft sheen from www.designerpaint.com

Farrow & Ball: Sunshine ahead

Farrow & Ball’s colour curator, Joa Studholme, predicts a return of cheerful hues in 2022, including sunny Babouche, shown here combined with timeless School House White.

Both £49.50 for 2.5L of estate emulsion from www.farrow-ball.com

Fenwick & Tilbrook: Colour confident

This combination of stimulating colours would add individuality to any room schemes: walls in Still Norfolk, woodwork in Flat Iron, screen in Aged Copper and Ocean and border in Indian Prince.

Prices from £47 for 2.5L pure matt paint, Fenwick & Tilbrook from www.fenwickandtilbrook.com

Francesca’s Paints: Custom selection

Francesca’s Paints offers more than 200 different colours and a bespoke paint-mixing service, to match any shade or create any colour of your choice.

Prices from £27 for 1L eco-emulsion from www.francescaspaint.com

Colours of England: Beauty in Britain

The Colours of England collection from Little Greene includes a range of timeless shades that draw on inspiration found all over the British Isles. Shown here, walls in Garden Intelligent Matt emulsion.

£53 for 2.5L, and far door in Scullery Intelligent satinwood, £75.50 for 2.5L from www.littlegreene.com

John Myland: History in the making

Founded in 1884 by John Myland and today run by his great-grandson, Dominic, Mylands has launched its Archive Collection, a small, but well-formed range of colours inspired by the company’s rich history. Beehive Place No 140, Egerton Place No 297 and Peach Flesh Pink No 268 are shown here.

£53 for 2.5L marble matt emulsion from www.mylands.com

Susie Watson: Tranquil tone

A soothing shade for a restful bedroom, Sea Mist is the latest colour from Susie Watson Designs, available in water-based emulsion and eggshell formulations.

£45 for 2.5L of emulsion from www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

Zoffany: Marvellous matt

True Matt is a new water-based emulsion from Zoffany, designed to have a durable and wipeable, yet chalky finish and a sheen that’s less than 3%. Shown here in Tuscan Pink.

£52 for 2.5L from zoffany.sandersondesigngroup.com/paint

Rose of Jericho: Special effects

Rose of Jericho, the Dorset-based specialists in materials for traditional and historic buildings, offers a range of handmade products, including limewashes and distempers. Vapour permeable and long used to allow buildings to ‘breathe’, they are designed for the decoration of porous building materials, including lime plasters and renders, limestone, soft brick, cobs and daub. Made using natural binders, fillers and artist’s quality earth and mineral powder pigments, limestone and distemper have a softness of texture and lack of uniformity, with subtle variations of colour and tone rarely matched in modern coatings—which is also the reason why designers are now revisiting the materials to create dry brush effects with rustic depth of hue and tonal interest.

Prices from £39.48 for 5L of pure limewash and from £51 for 2.5L of casein distemper from www.roseofjericho.co.uk

This elegant bedroom is at The Bradley Hare, a recently renovated pub with rooms in the village of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire.

The work of James Thurstan Waterworth, interior designer and former European design director at Soho House, it is situated in an old coach house that sits next to the original farmhouse building.

‘The property is typically Victorian, but is Georgian in its proportions,’ says Thurstan Waterworth. ‘We decided to strip it back and rebuild, maintaining the traditional feel, but adding a lighter, fresher and more modern touch.’

To achieve this, he used a palette of soothing, neutral shades and textural materials, including limed-oak timber flooring, natural linen curtains, throws and upholstery and a slubby, bleached hemp rug.

"We wanted it to be very serene, comfortable and cosy, somewhere you can really relax and clear your mind."

‘These beautiful, tactile surfaces and textiles create depth and add layers of interest,’ he explains. ‘We used antique African fabrics as cushions for a hint of low-key colour.’

Central to the multifunctional space is a handsome, freestanding London Bath by Burlington.

‘I love a bath in a bedroom and the room is capacious enough to carry a big tub like this,’ says Thurstan Waterworth. ‘We placed it centrally, so it’s flanked by the two beautiful windows. It makes the whole suite feel very open.’

Carefully curated furniture and accessories add subtle character to the room.

‘We sourced a 19th-century oak chest of drawers and placed a pitch-pine chest at the end of the bed. A 17th-century Spanish picture frame sits next to an antique Chinese vase,’ reveals the designer.

‘These individual pieces give the room an understated charm. In the pub, we’ve used 24 different colours, but in this space you’re entering a slightly different zone both physically and mentally, hence the pared-back design. We wanted it to be very serene, comfortable and cosy, somewhere you can really relax and clear your mind.’

For more information, visit Thurstan Design

Credit: David Parmiter

How to create an outdoor room you can use all year round

Interior designer Sarah Vanrenen has created an outdoor room that’s equally suited to summer and winter entertaining.

‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing,’ wrote Alfred Wainwright the late, great Lancastrian fell walker and author. The past 18 months have taught us that the same principle applies to outdoor spaces, which have become a vital part of our social lives and simply need to be properly kitted out. Together with Zoom parents’ evenings and home deliveries, structures prepared for alfresco entertaining look set to be one of the enduring legacies of lockdown.

The interior designer Sarah Vanrenen is a vocal advocate of outdoor entertaining, come rain or shine. When pondering the use of a 300-year-old flint barn next to her home on a farm in Wiltshire, she decided to create the ultimate outdoor sitting room.

‘Even in summer, it can be chilly in the evenings, so I considered how I could create a warm, inviting place to sit outside around a roaring fire,’ she says.

Having persuaded her husband, Grant, that it would be better to re-purpose the barn as a garden room, rather than an office, she set about planning the project in the same way she would an indoor room. Choosing to leave the sides of the barn open to make the most of the setting, she began by restoring the fabric of the tumbledown structure.

Next, she installed a carved wooden fireplace as a focal point and slips cut by the builders from old concrete slabs found on the farm. Rough plastered walls are painted in Invisible Green by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint (01544 388535; www. edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk), chosen to blend in with the barn’s verdant surroundings.

A large carved mirror was hung above the fireplace to accentuate its role as the focal point of the room and logs stored in a vast copper cauldron, inherited from Sarah’s grandmother in Stellenbosch, South Africa. ‘I remember hiding behind it as a child,’ she says.

The space has solved another problem. ‘There are no trees around our house, so eating on the terrace can become uncomfortably hot, but this room is shaded and cool,’ she says. A large dining table is dressed with a cloth made in Dahlia Blue linen, one of Sarah’s own designs, plus splashes of pink and green in napkins and tableware and small vases of just-picked blooms. ‘I like to use what I find in the garden. Flowers help to bring different colours and patterns together,’ she notes.

Sarah’s instinctive enjoyment of multicoloured prints is inherited from her mother, the interior designer Penny Morrison. She acknowledges that decorating is in her DNA.

‘Ever since I can remember, I’ve visited antique and interiors shops, so it’s always been part of what I’ve known and understood.’ After a spell at Christie’s, Sarah set up her own interior-design studio before joining forces with fellow designer Louisa GrevilleWilliams to form Vanrenen GW Designs three years ago.

‘We love colour,’ says Sarah of the studio’s signature look — a passion for joyful hues and pattern is evident here in the choice of fabrics, decorative china plates next to the fireplace and the bold splash of yellow introduced by the scalloped drinks trolley, a design that is new to her range.

Rattan furniture with cushions makes for relaxed comfortable seating, some covered in another of Sarah’s fabrics, Wiggle, and others made in designs from her collection of antique textiles. Metal armchairs from the 1960s, which once belonged to Grant’s mother, have been re-covered in vintage French linen, and a 1970s wicker Peacock chair adds to the relaxed feel.

A scalloped jute rug, also from Vanrenen GW Designs, adds warmth to the concrete floor and defines the seating area. And the coffee table? ‘It’s surprisingly difficult to find a large design suitable for outdoor use, so I bought an old outdoor dining table and cut down the legs.’ To complete the room, several reproduction lithographs hang on the wall. ‘I love the juxtaposition of old prints in modern frames,’ she says.

Does Sarah worry about wind and rain causing havoc? ‘I bring the cushions and rug inside in winter, but I don’t worry unduly in summer, because the roof provides good shelter,’ she explains. She adds that many fabric houses now offer durable performance collections, designed to repel water and resist fading.

Sarah’s advice for anyone considering building a similar outdoor room is to plan it as carefully as you would an indoor room.

‘Avoid creating a wind tunnel, ensure you have enough walls around the fireplace and that the fire draws properly,’ she says. ‘Nobody wants to sit in a room with the wind whistling in or clouds of smoke billowing from the fireplace.’

Get it right, however, and you have a glorious extension to your living space. ‘This room is wonderful in summer, but it works well in other seasons too — we were out here on Christmas Day to enjoy a glass of Champagne around the fire.’

For more details, visit Vanrenen GW Designs

Credit: Andrew D Steel

Susan Deliss's fresh country-house drawing room that shows how to be smart without being stuffy

Susan Deliss used a simple, but uplifting mixture of colours to transform a country-house drawing room.

‘Irises, bluebells and forget-me-nots have long demonstrated that blue and green look beautiful together,’ points out Nina Campbell, who has recently launched Parvani, a fabric and wallpaper design featuring peacocks, flowers and paisley shapes in a blue and green colourway. ‘I was taught that they shouldn’t be seen together, except on a faerie queen,’ she says, ‘but you only have to look at the Black Watch tartan to see that it’s perfectly fine to mix them. It’s the tonality that is most important,’ says Mrs Campbell.

She particularly likes the addition of an acidic green into the mix, which adds a sharpness to a scheme. ‘What’s much more challenging is pairing red and green. It’s difficult to avoid that sort of scheme looking too Christmassy.’

One theory is that the saying derives from a seafarer’s tradition that that the hulls of boats should not be painted green lest they become invisible when capsized. Historical paint consultant Patrick Baty of Papers and Paints in Chelsea believes that the origins of this mantra go back to the colour wheel, where blue and green sit side by side. He gives short shrift to the idea that they don’t work together.

‘Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools,’ he says. ‘Look at some of the ceilings by Adam and you see that the two colours have been used happily together for centuries.’

‘It simply doesn’t occur to me to work with a rule book when it comes to colour,’ agrees decorator and textile expert Susan Deliss.

‘It’s about what feels right for the room, its light and the environment around it. It’s a question of tone and judgement: in a sunny climate, you can get away with more acidic greens, for example, but in an English country house, it’s important to dial things down and look at Nature for inspiration.

‘Also, beware that two colours can look sickly in a scheme and that there should always be a third accent colour in the mix.’

Decorator Penny Morrison remembers being given the blue/green advice as a child by her parents. ‘The same was true of combinations such as brown and black. I’m not sure I paid them a lot of attention, however.’

Colour pairings are concepts that move with the times, adds Mrs Morrison. ‘Young designers are putting red and pink or red and orange together with fresh and fun results.’ She is a great fan of green in all its myriad shades. ‘We painted our library in Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic several years ago and I wondered whether it was a mistake, but I needn’t have worried. Edward Bulmer’s Invisible Green, which we have in our London showroom, is another favourite. It’s a fantastic colour that cheers everything up.’

Anyone feeling nervous about pairing the two colours could start safely with decorative details, such as a blue-and-green rug or blue lampshade with a lime-green trim. ‘Another option is simply to use some cushions,’ says Mrs Morrison. ‘Christopher Farr’s Carnival in green is a classic design that fuses chintz with 1960s psychedelia. It would look fabulous on a pale-blue sofa or in a dark-blue painted room. The opportunities are endless. I’d go so far as to say that mixing blue and green is almost a must.’

Credit: Katrin Cargill Interiors

How to create a rustic, East Coast kitchen in an English home

Credit: Andrew D Steel

Susan Deliss's fresh country-house drawing room that shows how to be smart without being stuffy

Susan Deliss used a simple, but uplifting mixture of colours to transform a country-house drawing room.

The future’s bright: New colour palettes bring life to period properties

Period houses are being treated to a jauntier palette of colours, says Giles Kime, as he explores bold beautiful hues

Credit: Neptune

Best lampshades: 12 of the finest lampshades to bring light into your life

Designers are using a variety of patterns to transform lampshades. Amelia Thorpe selects ten of the best lampshades to step

Colourful kitchens: Why even a dash of a bold, vibrant hue goes a long way in a kitchen

A generation or two ago, kitchens were routinely re-done in bright colours — and there's something in colourful kitchen design even

This project began as a blank canvas. ‘Structurally, the house was in perfect condition, but in terms of coming up with a scheme, we were starting from scratch with four white walls,’ explains Susan Deliss, who is known for her skill at bringing rooms to life with striking combinations of colour and pattern.

The brief for this project was to create a room that was fresh and smart without being too formal. The starting point was choosing a limited colour palette of blue and green, with accents of pink to inject some warmth.

The sofa and armchairs were designed by Mrs Deliss. ‘I like to have a mix of furniture with legs and a sofa with a skirt. Too much fabric can end up feeling claustrophobic, but, equally, too much wood can look uncomfortable, so I try to achieve a balance.’

White-painted side tables were sourced through Lorfords in Tetbury. A blue and green floral fabric by Schumacher was used on the sofa; it has been trimmed in green to add a smarter, more tailored finish.

The central ottoman is covered in a pink fabric by Fermoie. ‘Blue and green without another accent colour in the mix can risk looking too cool,’ warns Mrs Deliss.

The armchairs are upholstered in an intense mid-green linen from Pierre Frey, a colour that is carried through to the collection of framed ferns hanging on the far wall.

These are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Lime White, a warm shade with a small amount of green pigment (01202 876141; ). ‘It was perfect for this room, which is surrounded by the garden and lends it a very soft, greenish light.’

Credit: Natalie Dinham

A formal country house library with sympathetic new touches

Interior designer Flora Soames has mixed old and new to revive a historic house in Northumberland.

When it came to designing a new kitchen for her Cotswolds barn, Lisa Mehydene turned to cabinet-makers British Standard for help.

‘I wanted my kitchen to feel lived in and not remotely new,’ explains Lisa, who runs online interiors emporium edit58. Eschewing the fitted look, she chose fabric skirts, antique pieces and cupboards from British Standard by Plain English. ‘Not having wall-mounted cabinetry makes it feel brighter — and helped the budget go further, too.’

‘Lisa wanted the pieces to work with the elements that were already there, such as the fireplace, uneven stone walls and her collection of furniture,’ says Karla Pattison of British Standard. ‘The old elements are complemented by the new cupboards.’

The terracotta floor tiles from Floors of Stone were treated with boiled linseed oil before being laid, then left in the sun. A mix of antique and clear wax took the colour from orange to brown.

Tongue-and-groove panelling is painted in Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball. The existing Aga was exchanged for an electric equivalent in cream, which can be operated on a timer. ‘From a longevity perspective, I knew cream would be a safe bet.’

The wall tiles are Forecast by Fired Earth, a simple design that offers a perfect backdrop to Lisa’s vintage copper utensils. Wall sconces either side are by Pooky, with hand-painted Bloomsbury-inspired shades.

Meals are taken at a late-19th-century ebonised former florist’s table bought from the antiques website www.1stdibs.co.uk, as were the Thonet Bentwood dining chairs. The dresser houses crockery and linen, as well as providing extra worktop space.

For more information, visit British Standard and Edit58

The humble kitchen cabinet, as reinvented by an award-winning architect

When choosing his kitchen, George Gardener felt uninspired by the choice of cabinetry — and took a rather unusual step to doing

Credit: Paul Craig / Humphrey Munson

The next step in kitchens? A kitchen-within-a-kitchen where everything can be swept out of sight

An integral pantry and utility are vital ingredients in this family kitchen by Humphrey Munson. Arabella Youens takes a closer

11 of the best new ideas in kitchens, from 'levitating' kitchen units to the ultimate wine fridge

The world of kitchens seems to produce ceaseless innovation. Amelia Thorpe picks out some of the latest looks and cleverest

This is the library of a country house that designer Flora Soames has brought to life for a new generation. ‘I was asked to open up the rooms, re-arrange the astonishing collection of art and furniture and make it sing again,’ she explains. ‘The aim was to maintain the sense of grandeur, but not make it too precious.’

Her approach was to bridge the gap between the rigid formality of the bookcases and the soft lines of the silk curtains that frame the tall sash windows.

To achieve this, Miss Soames upholstered a Regency-style sofa by Max Rollitt in a rich blue velvet. ‘Blue is not an obvious colour for an English country house, but it lends the room a sense of formality.’

"I had an extraordinary canvas to work with and the job was simply to enhance and embellish it."

Married with the sofa is a pair of Howard armchairs in Shalimar, a faded floral by Bennison. In the centre is an ottoman covered in a geometric print by Guy Goodfellow.

This rich mix of colours are set against a subdued striped wallpaper that was already in situ. ‘My approach to any interior is not about imposing one’s signature stamp, but working with what’s already there. In this case, I had an extraordinary canvas to work with and the job was simply to enhance and embellish it.’

Flora Soames — florasoames.com

Credit: Alexander James

An airy open-plan kitchen featuring reclaimed materials for a timeless look

Jessica Alken worked with Neptune to create this kitchen in a new Cornish house.

After her family sold Grade II*-listed Harlyn House to The Pig hotel group, Jessica Alken and her husband, Ash, set about building themselves a new house near Padstow.

The project involved taking down a red-brick bungalow overlooking the sea and designing a beach house in its place.

‘Ash is a bespoke-home builder and we worked with Totnes-based architects Harrison Sutton Partnership on the designs,’ explains Jess.

As she had grown up in old houses, top priority was re-using materials to avoid it feeling too new, including reclaimed slate for the roof.

The benefit of building from scratch was that it allowed the couple free rein to design the open-plan kitchen.

‘We made a conscious decision to sacrifice the extra bedrooms we could have had upstairs to vault the ceiling—it lends the room so much light and space.’

Working with a neutral palette, the cabinets are from Neptune’s Henley range, painted in Snow.

‘I wanted a large island clear of any sinks or appliances so that it could become a gathering point for family and friends,’ says Jess.

The ceiling is clad in whitewashed boards and the floor is wood reclaimed from an old school, sourced from Bert & May.

Some of the bricks from the old bungalow were used as the splashback behind the Aga.

‘I like it when a home has a connection to its past life, mixing old with new. It’s what The Pig’s designer, Judy Hutson, does so effortlessly. My aim was to design something that wouldn’t date.’

Pinterest was used as a source for many of the details, including the pendant lights, which were shipped from the New Zealand interiors store Copper + Pink.

The bar stools are the Ludlow design, also by Neptune.

Contact Alkenby Bespoke Homes for more details

A double-height library and drawing room that's full of colour and fresh flowers

The library of Bridget Elworthy’s Jacobean manor house in Oxfordshire bursts with vibrant colour.

French style

Silvy’s dressing table in Teal high-gloss vellum, £1,842, is inspired by a 1930s French original. It is shown here with a Luccio single chair in Kiat Rosewood, £1,061, plus fabric, both Julian Chichester. 020–7622 2928; www.julianchichester.com

 Blue note

The Antique Blue-painted finish and reclaimed natural-wood top gives the Rummage chest of drawers, £725, a vintage charm, from Loaf. 020–3141 8300; www.loaf.com

Table manners

Made in the UK from sustainably sourced British seasoned oak, the Freda table is inspired by the joinery of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement. It costs £2,820 from Jamb. 020–7730 2122; www.jamb.co.uk

 Reflective surface

British sculptor David Harber, well known for his outdoor water features, sundials and sculptures, has added an eye-catching interior piece, Turbine, £11,712, to his collection. Taking its inspiration from the blades found in gas-turbine engines, light and shadow play across its mirror-polished stainless-steel surface to dramatic effect. 01235 859300; www.davidharber.co.uk

Beauty sleep

Arthur is a classic Victorian-inspired bed, handmade in Britain with an iron core and plated in polished nickel. It costs £1,995 for a double, from Wrought Iron & Brass Bed Co. 01485 542516; www.wroughtironandbrassbed.co.uk

History in the making

The Uppark sofa by antique dealer and designer Max Rollitt is based on a Gillows design made for 17th-century Uppark on the South Downs. This fully fitted version costs £12,400. 01962 791124; www.maxrollitt.com

 Tree story

Taking its inspiration from the shape of an ash tree, the Dunbridge table lamp, £612, features a textured-bark finish in chalky white, shown here with a 15in Warwick shade, £98.40, from Vaughan. 020–7349 4600; www.vaughandesigns.com

Illuminating idea

The Hexagonal Treaty Port lantern takes its design cue from the 18th-century vogue for chinoiserie. It is shown here finished in Lulworth Blue gloss paint, £7,512, from Charles Edwards. 020–7736 8490; www.charlesedwards.com

Complete collection

Susie Watson offers everything from furniture to lighting, with curtains in Raspberry Red Apple Blossom Toile linen, £58 per m, with Plain Ivory pom poms, £15 per m, Gustavian desk, £1,045, and Weathered Reeded curtain poles, from £178 . 0344 980 8185; www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

 Sitting pretty

Colourful home company Wicklewood is making its first foray into furniture with the launch of the Damask Wave sofa, £3,300, produced in collaboration with furniture designer David Seyfried and upholstered in a signature Peggy Angus linen by Blithfield. 020–7460 6493; www.wicklewood.com

Credit: Hasselblad H3D

The benefits of four-poster beds: 'I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t sleep better in one'

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A windmill with 900 years of history that has become a delightfully quirky Sussex home

If you're looking for a two-bedroom home that offers something a bit out of the ordinary, the Windmill at Barnham

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Bridget and her husband, Forbes, moved to Wardington Manor, a Jacobean house near Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 2008. It has since become the base for The Land Gardeners, the design, cut-flower and compost business that she runs with her business partner Henrietta Courtauld.

The manor house, which has 30 acres of grounds, including a Victorian walled garden, had been given what Bridget describes as an ‘Arts-and-Crafts makeover’ in the early 1920s. The library, which doubles as a drawing room, was designed during this period, a project that involved taking out the ceiling to create the double-height space and adding panelling from another house of a similar age.

Bridget has filled the room with furniture and upholstery that she already owned, recovering a few pieces with the help of her friend Lulu Lytle, co-founder of Soane Britain. ‘Anything that’s really lovely in the house comes from her,’ Bridget adds.

The curtains are made from old French sheets that have been dyed a mustard yellow using natural colours by Polly Lyster. ‘The tone of the wood was tricky to match, so we tried a few different colours in situ before arriving at this one.’

Adding freshness to the room — and complementing the chintz fabrics — are the generous bunches of flowers for which The Land Gardeners have become known. Here there are various types, including Elma E, Otto’s Thrill and Café au Lait, all of which have been grown in the garden.

This image appears in ‘At Home In The English Countryside: Designers And Their Dogs’ (£40; Rizzoli). ‘The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers’ by Bridget Elworthy & Henrietta Courtauld is published by Thames & Hudson (£39.95)

A drawing room that dodges the stuffy, formal feel and doubles-down on blocks of colour

The transformation of a Wiltshire drawing room by Lucy Elworthy demonstrates the rich possibilities of a carefully considered use of

During an extensive transformation of this Regency house in Hampshire, the team at bespoke joinery specialist Artichoke worked closely with interior designer Henriette von Stockhausen to create a series of pleasing, practical spaces that support the clients’ busy lives. One of them was this, a combined boot room and flower room.

‘The project involved a complete reorganisation of the layout to suit the needs of a busy family who planned to host weekend house parties,’ explains Bruce Hodgson, founder of Artichoke.

‘The house required a hard-working — and attractive — boot-and-flower room.'

Key to the success of this design is its practicality. The floor and bench are made from Belgian Fossil (also known as Belgian Blue), a robust limestone with visible fossils and white shells.

A grate and drain allow for easy cleaning. Holes were added to allow warm air from the radiators underneath to dry wet coats and hats hanging above and, at the back of the room, is a full wall of generously sized cupboards to store outdoor clothing and sports gear.

As the new room leads to both the vegetable and flower gardens, there is a large sink with an area for cutting and arranging flowers. The depth of the sink allows for filling large vases and the brass taps by Perrin & Rowe are deliberately elevated for the same reason.

The room also provides an ideal space for the family dog, as all the grooming, feeding and cleaning can take place here. An alcove was created within the joinery for his basket to sit comfortably.

Artichoke — www.artichoke-ltd.com / 01934 745270.

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Credit: Alamy

The best things to add to to your house to increase its value, from party barns to dressing rooms

The story that the Victorians draped chair legs to protect their modesty is thought to have its roots in an anti-American quip in Captain Marryat’s A Diary In America, which he wrote in the 1830s. The anecdote reflected his view that there was a great deal of prudishness over the pond. Although the Victorians did have a curious habit of draping almost anything with fabric or lace, there’s no evidence of the chair-leg practice in either Britain or the US.

In the 20th century, however, hiding the legs of sofas and chairs became a solution to the problem of too much legginess in a scheme. Stylistically, there were two divergent paths: the gathered look that was a key ingredient in English country-house style and the sleeker, more tailored approach employed by designers such as Billy Baldwin and David Hicks.

‘It’s transformative, especially in a room with lots of legs on cabinets, chairs and tables, creating a softer, more relaxed look,’ says Lulu Lytle, co-founder of Soane Britain, which sells the skirted Tuileries sofa.

The aim is not to eradicate every exposed legs (particularly not those that are aesthetically pleasing), but simply to create a sense of balance, as well as to obscure any ungainly pieces. Recently, the sleeker approach has been employed to create simple, tailored designs that, depending on the fabric in which they are covered, can look at home in either a classic or a contemporary context.

Neptune has demonstrated the pared-back possibilities of this approach with its Charlie sofa. More recently, interior designers Bunny Turner and Emma Pocock have created a range of crisply defined upholstery made by the contemporary arm of Lorfords, antique dealers in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Using the principles of good tailoring, the designers have succeeded in simplifying shapes and manipulating proportions with a deep, structured skirt and a single seat cushion, instead of the traditional two. ‘Both the skirt and the seat offered an opportunity to play with proportion and scale,’ says Bunny.

The result is a choice of comfortable designs with a sleek elongated appearance that, depending on the choice of fabric, would sit happily in either a classic or a contemporary setting.

Credit: Turner Pocock

From accountant's office to family kitchen: A social space with warmth and grandeur

Bunny Turner has transformed a former accountant’s office into a family kitchen by removing false ceilings, custom-ordering a table and

Credit: Bunny Turner's bedroom

The designer's bedroom: 'Don’t overthink it – it’s usually much better to trust your first instinct'

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Statement shade

A new take on the vogue for patterned shades, this Pandanus lampshade in Merlot, from £60, is hand woven from palm leaves by artisans in Indonesia, from Birdie Fortescue. www.birdiefortescue.co.uk

Classic charm

The Antiqued Glass panels and Verdigris finish of the Pineapple bracket lantern, medium, £3,840, add extra charm to this classic design, inspired by an English lamp from 1830, from Charles Edwards. www.charlesedwards.com

Bathroom beauties

The shape and reeded glass panels of the Keegan 1 wall lights in Satin Brass, £186 each, echo Art Deco design and, helpfully, their IP44 rating makes them suitable for bathroom use, from Där Lighting. www.darlighting.co.uk

Making the switch

Light-switch specialist Forbes & Lomax has introduced a new range of Momentary Dimmer switches. Unlike standard rotary dimmers, these allow you to dim your lights from multiple locations and are available in a range of classic button and toggle styles, so you can choose a design to match the rest of your home. Simply flick the toggle and the light comes on, then hold it down to brighten or darken the light. 3 gang Momentary Toggle in Brushed Brass, £259.20. www.forbesandlomax.com

Fine flourish

Tapered sides finished with elegant scrolls add a decorative finish to the hexagonal design of the Fulton hanging lantern, £2,640, from Jamb. www.jamb.co.uk

Light elegance

The Walcot pendant light, £189.20, in hand-blown glass with a Heritage Copper fitting and vintage-style braided cable, creates an elegant focal point above a kitchen island or dining table, from Jim Lawrence. www.jim-lawrence.co.uk

Bright idea

Sure to brighten the darkest of corners, the Linus table lamp is finished in faux red gesso. It costs £614 from Julian Chichester. www.julianchichester.com

Slim line

The slender Fairfax lamp bases in Seasoned Oak, £111 each, shown with Henry 15in lampshades in Harry Cloud linen, £40 each, don’t take up too much space, making them a good choice for a console table, from Neptune. www.neptune.com

Delightfully Pooky

Artist Maude Smith has collaborated with Pooky to create a delightful series of children’s lampshades, including this Sunny Street 30cm (12in) Straight Empire cotton design, £45. www.pooky.com

Credit: Designer Susie Atkinson

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As do many period properties, this Victorian house in Wiltshire had a kitchen that was small and had only one modest window, offering a limited view of the garden. Keen to create a new, larger kitchen suited to family life with their three young children, the owners asked John Comparelli to conceive a plan that would open up the house to the beautiful south-facing view.

The solution was to add a former artist’s studio to the new kitchen and to replace the next-door greenhouse with a garden room. Floor-to-ceiling glazing with minimal framing offers far-reaching views and the structure itself maintains the ceiling height of the existing house. In addition, the floor was lowered to the level of the terrace.

‘My approach, and one that garners support from planners more and more, is to create a contemporary extension on a period house,’ he continues.

‘Historically, buildings were added to in a style of the time, so you might find an Elizabethan house with an unashamedly Georgian front. The same applies today — if I can use modern, 6ft-tall panels of glass that offer an unimpeded view, rather than small period window panels, and if it works with the original, I will.’

The garden room is built with a slender, but strong steel frame that allows for the cantilevered corner: sliding doors on two sides can be pushed back to allow uninterrupted access to the terrace. The result is a transformative space that is connected both physically and visually to its surroundings.

Comparelli Architect — www.comparelli.com

Credit: Westbury Garden Rooms

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In the era of Instagram and Pinterest, it might come as a surprise that the chunky interior-design monograph remains such an important resource. Yet well-thumbed books, such as Roger Banks-Pye’s Inspirational Interiors and A Life Of Design by David Hicks, have become an important part of their aesthetic legacies.

Not all interior-design books, however, are aesthetic totems. They also offer a brilliant way to celebrate something that has been overlooked, notably Bevis Hillier’s book, Art Deco, which was published in 1968 and had a transformative effect on the way the style was perceived (as well as coining the term itself — before that, it was known as Art Moderne). This year, the glittering prize in that category undoubtedly goes to Lulu Lytle for Rattan (£50; Rizzoli), which explores the role that this malleable, but robust fibre played in some of the 20th century’s most memorable interiors and images, appearing in everything from depictions of Titanic’s Café Parisien to a portrait of Churchill, Stalin and Truman at Potsdam in 1945.

Another type of interiors book sets out to capture the gently shifting sands of taste. That is the purpose of the second volume of Pippa Paton’s Twenty First Century Cotswolds (£35; www.pippapatondesign.co.uk), which reveals how it is possible to reinvent everything, from barns to listed historic buildings, by combining the spirit of their rustic past with the excitement of contemporary design.

The result is a bold, luxurious and distinctive aesthetic that is an exciting option for those in search of a new type of rural idyll.

The third category comprises books that offer an opportunity to have a sticky beak at other people’s houses. Now that Hello! magazine has exhausted the art of the celebrity snoop, several new books gather together designers happy to open their doors. Creative souls are rarely more eloquent than when talking about their own homes, perhaps because they are examples of their work that are blissfully free of a sometimes vexatious element in any project — a client (closely followed by the electrician).

One excellent new example is British Designers At Home by Jenny Rose-Innes (£30; Hardie Grant), which offers readers an enjoyable tour of the homes of some of interior design’s brightest lights, including Emma Burns and Roger Jones of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Nina Campbell, Veere Grenney and Rita Konig.

In At Home In The English Countryside: Designers And Their Dogs (£40; Rizzoli), the American author Susanna Salk takes the format one step further by adding a four-legged ingredient.

Designers, dogs and interiors... what a heady mix.

Credit: www.100handpicked.co.uk

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Giles Kime asks whether the the ‘digital pop up’ the answer to the homogeneous home.

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‘Drawing rooms can be so formal that they are only used for occasional entertaining,’ says Lucy. ‘Instead, my clients — a creative couple with a great sense of style — wanted a fun, not too stuffy space, which they could use on a regular basis.’

As well as painting the walls in an off-white shade to maximise the feeling of light, she worked with her husband, architect John Comparelli, to transform the space, a project that included lowering the floor.

Tom wall lights from Hector Finch were fitted and a new fireplace carved by a local stonemason. An antique overmantel was added to create an elegant focal point. A backgammon table by the window seat is ready for games or jigsaws and several side chairs can be brought forward to join the central group when more friends are expected.

Curtains are made from antique French linen sheets, hand-dyed to a sunny yellow shade and bordered in Soane Britain Paisley Stripe.

The burnt-orange, pink and teal colours of the latter are echoed in other fabrics in the room, including two striking armchairs in Designers Guild Brera Lino Malachite.

‘Blocks of punchy colour are broken up by patterned cushions, pink velvet piping on the sofa and contrast fabric backs on the armchairs,’ explains Lucy, while vintage Beni Ourain rug completes the scheme.

Lucy Elworthy Interior Design — www.lucyelworthy.co.uk

When Wiltshire-based decorator Emma Sims-Hilditch and her husband, John, were looking for a London base, they found this family house in Fulham, which was in need of a top-to-toe refurbishment. The work allowed Emma to employ her understanding of spatial planning to reconfigure each floor. ‘We wanted the house to work on many different levels: it was to be somewhere for us to stay in London; for our family to congregate; and for the company to meet new clients.’

By re-organising the run of stairs, Emma was able to borrow under-used space from the landing to make the bedroom larger. ‘We gained an extra 5ft. Not only did it mean that we had room for a superking bed, but also that we could have generous bedside tables, something I much prefer.’

She used Carnival by Christopher Farr (www.christopherfarrcloth.com), a lively, large-scale floral wall-paper that makes a strong design statement. ‘Having not had the opportunity to use wall-paper in our home in Wiltshire, I decided to go bold here,’ says Emma. It is balanced with simple off-white linen curtains in Karoo Soft Ivory by de Le Cuona (www.delecuona.com).

In the bay is a mid-century-style desk by Chelsea Textiles (www.chelseatextiles.com). ‘I wanted to ensure there was a little space to do some work.’

The floors are oak planks in weathered grey. The joinery is painted in Neptune’s Mist, a blue-grey colour, and the skirting and woodwork are in the same company’s Shingle (www.neptune.com). The cornicing is the London cornice by Stevensons of Norwich (www.stevensons-of-norwich.co.uk).

Credit: Adam Carter / Sims-Hilditch

Where I work: Emma Sims-Hilditch, interior designer

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Emma Sims Hilditch has injected contemporary touches into the kitchen of this 16th-century manor house while preserving its character.

Credit: Ed Sheperd / Sims Hilditch

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Emma Sims-Hilditch hasn’t always worked in interior design. Her career began in film production, working alongside the director Ridley Scott.

The shift happened when she relocated, with her husband and young children, from London to Wiltshire. Drawing inspiration from her new rural surroundings and an innate creative streak, Emma started making curtains at the kitchen table — where all good businesses are born — initially for herself, and then for friends and neighbours. Shortly after, she recognised a gap in the market for high quality, English country design. Fast-forward a few years: Sims Hilditch formally launched in 2009 and Emma has earned a justifiably glowing reputation for her contemporary approach to English country house style.

The interior designer now spends her days (pre-lockdown) meeting with clients and sourcing high-quality materials and furnishings. ‘Quality,’ she explains, ‘is at the heart of everything we do, so we believe it’s worth the investment.’

Emma is looking forward to welcoming customers back to her Cotswolds studio, The White Hart. It’s a Grade I listed, former pub, that, with her team’s help, she rescued and restored to former glory, in 2014. There’s also a large country estate in the North — which has been in the same family for more than 500 years — and a number of London-based projects to install, before the end of the year.

She spent the duration of lockdown working in Cornwall, moving from room to room depending on her mood. ‘It is a bright, calming space with lovely sea views, which is great for getting the creative juices flowing.’

The summerhouse in the garden proved one of her favourite spots. For those with no return to the office in sight, Emma recommends positioning a home office space away from any central family areas. Invest in good lighting — either a desk lamp or natural light — a supportive and comfortable chair and a solid desk, for optimum health and productivity.

Go to office uniform

I tend to favour a comfortably elegant style when I’m working which wouldn’t necessarily look out of place relaxing in the garden, or dining in a restaurant. I love a loose-fitting flowy blouse and some comfortable jeans, with nice trainers.

Work soundtrack

Classical music can be very calming and uplifting in equal measure, which is why it’s an excellent genre to maximise both productivity and creativity. I also love Jamie Cullum.

Messy desk or tidy desk?

I very much subscribe to the ‘organised desk, organised mind’ school of thought, so I would say tidy.

Best piece of career advice you’ve ever been given

Delegate! It’s so easy to get involved in every last aspect of a business, but it’s a real skill to recognise when you need to pass the buck to another member of your team. We all have different strengths, and it is important to let your team know that you appreciated theirs.

Your Instagram hero

We love Instagram and have two accounts — my personal and our business one. At the moment, I have a real appreciation for American designers. Two of my favourite accounts to follow are Studio McGee and Amber Interiors.

I also love to follow up-and-coming artists on Instagram — my daughters Betty and Daisy both use Instagram to sell their work. It is a very powerful tool.

Rita Konig has an enviable knack of creating rooms that look as if they have evolved effortlessly over time. Having bought a ground-floor flat in west London after returning from New York, she set out to make better sense of the rooms, creating a small kitchen leading through to an open-plan dining and sitting room.

‘It’s an end-of-terrace building and I realised I could re-route the entrance to the flat through a gate in the garden wall,’ she says.

‘That way, you can walk straight into the kitchen — as you often do in New York. It makes so much sense, as you can immediately drop the shopping off.’

The dining area sits a few steps up from the kitchen. Rita lightened the north-facing space by painting the floorboards white.

The peach walls are in Greville Pink by Adam Bray, available from Papers & Paints (www.papersandpaints.co.uk). It forms an unusual, but happy marriage with the punchy, sunshine-yellow leather vinyl chairs from Philippe Hurel (www.philippe-hurel.com).

‘The colour is very chic; it’s like sunflowers on steroids,’ says Rita. At the windows hang soft Roman blinds in Nigel from Raoul Tex-tiles (Turnell & Gigon, www.turnellandgigon.com).

On the right-hand wall is a work by David Ratcliff, a present from Rita’s friend, the LA-based gallerist Honor Fraser (www.honorfraser.com). Next to the antique chest of drawers are lamps by Anna Lari in polished brass, and, on the top, is a trumpet lamp by Marianna Kennedy; both are available through Rita’s online store.

Rita Konig — www.ritakonig.com

A perfect cottage on a farm near Barnard Castle that's a beautiful and comfortable getaway from the hustle and bustle of life

Rita Konig has given a new lease of life to the sitting room of a farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales.

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Credit: Marcus Peel / Artichoke

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Family-run Hám Interiors is a Henley-based interior-design and build practice (hám is old English for ‘house’). It has garnered a reputation for infusing projects with its eclectic and pared-back aesthetic that marries antique pieces with a subtle use of colour and pattern.

Formerly a workman’s cottage, the rear of this house had evolved over the years. ‘It was a lovely looking house, but it suffered at the back from a lack of connectivity,’ says Hám’s co-founder Tom Cox. ‘Fixing this room was key to unlocking the house.’

The structural changes included raising the ceiling to create a gabled roof and the removal of walls to form a large single room. Using different flooring — a practical, hard-wearing blue stone in the kitchen dining area and a warm, wide-plank engineered oak in the sitting room — helped to subtly change the atmosphere within the space.

Much of the interest in the room is derived from its lack of uniformity. ‘We chose furniture and objects made from a variety of natural materials and styles to bring character,’ says Tom, who used Farrow & Ball’s Manor House Gray to act as a contemporary backdrop to furniture with a distinctly rustic feel.

Some items, such as the zinc-topped table, were made specifically for the project. Others, including the dresser, dining chairs, bronze-covered bar and planters were from Studio Hám, a collection of new designs, as well as one-off antiques and ephemera sourced by the team from markets and reclamation yards across the UK and Europe.

Elegant globe pendants by Jamb suspended along the length of the room supplement table lamps and picture lights.

Hám Interiors — www.haminteriors.com

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Yorkshire-based decorator Meg Cunningham, of Meg Treherne Designs, takes pride in refreshing rooms rather than ripping everything out and starting from scratch.

‘I’m not into throwing things away,’ she says. ‘Using local craftsmen and expertise as far as possible, I like to create designs that are timeless. All they might need, a few years down the track, is a simple update,’ she explains.

This entrance hall, of a country house in North Yorkshire, hadn’t been touched for 20 years when Meg was invited to cast her eye over it.

"Together with the busts and plasterworks, the paint wash lends the space an almost museum-like quality"

It’s a formal environment that sets the tone for both the dining room and the drawing room, which lead off from the hall. Although no structural changes were required — the architecture was sound and her first move was to ask an expert in specialist paint finishes, Alex Smith to help.

She felt using a paint wash on the walls would add texture and create an appearance that is softer and has more depth than flat emulsion. ‘We made up the colour together with the clients on site — it’s a sort of plaster pink,’ she says. ‘Together with the busts and plasterworks, it lends the space an almost museum-like quality.’

A pair of large wall mirrors by Rupert Bevan hang either side of the front door; their shape evokes that of the doorway arches. The Bellingham bench was sourced from William Yeoward.

The floor was replaced with a German engineered limestone for a lighter look; it was supplied by Durham-based Marble Arts. The result is an uplifting space that creates a welcoming entrance to the house.

Meg Treherne Designs Ltd — www.megtreherne.co.uk

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Credit: Simon Brown

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The colours in a much-loved painting of Trafalgar Square inspired the scheme for Guy Goodfellow’s living room above his showroom and design studio in Chelsea.

‘Its mix of yellow and mauve colours reminded me that I had a big panel, which I’d bought many years ago when work-ing at Colefax and Fowler,’ explains Guy. ‘The plums, mauves and vermillion in that led me to another oil I owned of a huntsman in his red coat and suddenly I had my sharp colours.’

A few architectural adjustments had already been made to the space. The fireplace was replaced with a 18th-century French design in brown Marquina marble with bespoke brass slips, sourced through Thornhill Galleries. ‘The mitred panels are given a shot of reflectivity at night by a single downlighter overhead,’ says Guy. There’s also lustre in the gilded door mouldings. The door architraves have been raised to a uniform height, lending the room an air of a piano nobile.

As a foil to these glamorous touches, Guy lined the walls in painted hessian. Its rough texture, which absorbs pinholes, means the pictures can be moved regularly. On the floor is a Damascus flatweave rug from Robert Stephenson.

The furniture demonstrates how different styles can sit contentedly side-by-side, notably, the Lucite coffee table by Pierre Vandel and the classical shapes of the sofa and armchair.

The pair of mid-century chairs are a design by Robs John Gibbons, made by Paolo Moschino. They are covered in Guy’s own Indus Weave, a tactile fabric that has the effect of softening the tailored shape of the chairs.

Not wanting to obscure the long views affor-ded from the windows, the curtains are made of three panels of his Roussillon weave in unobtrusive shades, which adds a luxurious, but discreet touch to this beautiful space.

Guy Goodfellow — www.guygoodfellow.com

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Whether it has a simple marble surround or a grand chimneypiece dreamt up by one of Britain’s most celebrated architects, a fireplace plays a pivotal role in a room. Compared with other architectural features, many of which have fallen foul of fad, fashion or demolition, chimneypieces tend to survive in larger numbers because owners have been aware of their significance and value.

Sometimes, they have simply found it impossible to part with them. One of the most memorable discoveries by Owen Pacey, founder of Renaissance London, had belonged to a man who had lost his home and fortune and transferred a George III fireplace to the incongruous surroundings of the basement of a London terrace.

Some fireplaces are one of the few parts of a house’s structure to survive. Paul Chesney, founder of Chesneys, recalls a beautifully executed mid-18th-century chimneypiece that had been removed from Norfolk House, one of the last of the private palaces to be demolished during the great early-20th-century clearance of major aristocratic houses in London’s West End.

The house had witnessed all kinds of fascinating events, including a three-day reception for Cardinal Newman in 1879, and it was the Earl Marshal’s office for the Coronations of Edward VII, George V and George VI. ‘The chimneypiece had been removed from the saloon before its demolition in 1937. I happened to read an article in Country Life about the palace, saw a grainy black-and-white image and realised I had the fireplace in the picture,’ Mr Chesney recalls.Yet not all significant and interesting examples have grand origins. ‘It wasn’t the most important or expensive find,’ he adds, ‘but I will always remember the fireplace reclaimed from a modest house where Capt Cook is believed to have spent his childhood.’

Another story of a fireplace that has survived against the odds is recounted by Laura Dadswell, of Westland London, as she describes the fate of Ayrshire’s Dalquharran Castle, built in 1785–90 and regarded as one of the finest examples of Robert Adam’s castle style.

Auctioned off in the 1930s, it became a youth hostel and a school and, finally, a home again, which proved too expensive to maintain. ‘In 1967, the fate of the building was sealed. To avoid paying rates, the lead roof was removed, leaving water to penetrate the interior, and it now stands as a ruin, with only the shell of the building intact,’ Ms Dadswell explains. Two original fireplaces survived, surprisingly unharmed, as ornate plaster cornice fell around them, and are offered for sale by Westland.

‘Adam designed the fireplaces in a soft-hued Portland stone, and commissioned Dutch stonemason Pieter Mathias Van Gelder to carve them,’ she continues. ‘They are restrained, very much embodying his Classical style, with antique motifs.’

When advising on the choice of a period chimneypiece for a house, Will Fisher, of Jamb, takes a relaxed approach. ‘I’m keen on the “evolved interior” of the country house,’ he explains. ‘It is more important to ensure that the chimneypiece is sympathetic to its environment rather than an example of period accuracy.’ Although he agrees that, if one is found to be missing from an immaculate Queen Anne house, it would make sense to replace it with an historical match, other situations may be different. ‘In a way, there’s nothing nicer than places where you can feel the input of different owners and their tastes,’ he notes.

For Mr Fisher, an antique fireplace can reveal much of the past, as well as imparting a sense of romance and wonder. He cites current pieces for sale that include a Gothic chimneypiece of about 1840, with ‘Waste not, want not’ carved across its frieze, and a neo-Classical example carved by the British sculptor John Bacon, with a pair of Bacchante figures derived from a work Bacon exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777.

It also bears a finely carved central tablet, which commemorates peace between Great Britain and the United States of America after the American War of Independence. According to family tradition of the previous owners, it belonged to Governor Morris, one of the Founding Fathers of the US. ‘So many chimneypieces have wonderful stories to tell,’ adds Mr Fisher.

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This welcoming space was reconfigured as part of the transformation of North Farm, near Barnard Castle. It belongs to the designer Rita Konig and her husband, the author Philip Eade, whose family had previously rented it to tenants for many years. ‘Philip’s aim was to create a holiday let; mine was to make a family home,’ she says.

They agreed on a seamless combination of the two. ‘I worked on the basis that when people rent a house, they want somewhere that is likely to be different from their own home,’ Rita explains.

The result is a pleasing mix of distinctive elements with creature comforts that make the house ideal as a country bolthole for the couple’s family and friends and also for those who come to spend a holiday in the area.

"An eclectic mix that makes visitors feel instantly at home and provides the prefect base for exploring"

This space was created by incorporating a corridor into one of the reception rooms — the transformative element was the colour of the walls, which are painted in Invisible Green from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint (www.edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk) that Rita says ‘set the scene’. Against this vibrant backdrop, she added a mix of graphic patterns, including Pachinko by Nina Campbell at Osborne & Little (www.osborneandlittle.com).

Another striking element is a Ziegler carpet from Robert Kime (www.robertkime.com). The fire surround is made of wood and painted in Bronze from the Paint & Paper Library (www.paintandpaperlibrary.com). The result is an eclectic mix that makes visitors feel instantly at home and provides the prefect base for exploring this fascinating area.

Rita Konig — www.ritakonig.com. You can rent the farmhouse from £2540 a week.

Passers-by would have to have been very deeply immersed in their iPhones to have missed the swathes of faux bourgainvillea tumbling down the front of the Cole & Son pop up on Paris’s Rue de Seine earlier this year. The occasion was Déco Off, one of the most enjoyable interior-design events in the universe, which takes place each January on the city’s Left Bank.

This is the Paris of La Palette, favoured hang-out of Picasso, Cézanne and Braque, of Madeleine Castaing and Serge Gainsbourg, and is a far cry from the aisles of an out-of-town exhibition centre.

Instead, visitors explore the shops dotted throughout the maze of streets around St Germain that managed to avoid Baron Haussmann’s energetic boulevardisation of the city in the 19th century. For a few days, galleries that for the rest of the year sell contemporary art and antiques are transformed into temporary showrooms displaying new collections of fabric, wallpaper and lighting.

The vividly pink blooms demonstrated the capacity of colour to transport you somewhere else, in this case from crisp Paris in January to the sunny streets of Seville in high summer. It was the architecture and horticulture of the Spanish city that inspired Cole & Son’s exciting new collection of wallpapers, a fact that explains its coherence and remarkable sense of place.

The launch is typical of the big, bold and confident approach of the historic brand that has brought us everything from the work of legendary British designer David Hicks to the surrealistic Italian artist Piero Fornasetti. True to form, the new pieces have the potential to be transformative.

The common denominator of so many of Cole & Son’s collections is not only the bold use of glorious colours, but larger-than-life motifs that, in many cases, bear little relation to the scale of a domestic interior. Polite, chintzy florals these most certainly aren’t.

Anyone who has been to Seville will find the designs familiar; they offer a heady mix of orange blossom, geraniums and jasmine, together with patterns inspired by the city’s rich decorative heritage, gardens and architecture. They are exactly the sort of joyous, over-the-top designs that have the capacity to bring even the dullest space to life with and extraordinary richness of detail. Cole & Son — www.cole-and-son.com

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When the owners of this house decided to use it as their main base rather than a weekend home, they asked Charlotte Crosland to devise a ‘root and branch’ renovation. Taking the house back to a shell, she redesigned the layout and set about completely redecorating the building from top to bottom.

Part of this process involved creating a dining area within the kitchen. Archways either side of the chimney breast were opened up and paint stripped from the fire surround to reveal stone beneath. Dressers were sourced from Cheltenham-based antique dealers Anton & K to go either side.

The table, which is topped in slate, was found at the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea and an extra leaf added.

Red is a colour that Charlotte turns to in order to add ‘a bit of oomph’ and it’s particularly effective in this space, which is otherwise neutral. The leather salon chairs are from Howe. ‘Leather is a brilliant material: it’s easy to clean and it also ages beautifully,’ she notes.

The trio of French-grey tin pendants, with scalloped edges, were also found at Battersea and the wall lights are by Hannah Woodhouse. At far end of the table is one of two dog portraits by Jonathan Delafield Cook, commissioned by Charlotte.

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Flower power

Ideal for making a design statement in a roomy space, Tulips features larger-than-life flowers, each one lined up next to another. It costs £420 for a 3m A and B panel repeat.

Andrew Martin — 020–7225 5100; www.andrewmartin.co.uk

National treasure

Little Greene has collaborated with the National Trust to produce a new range of wallpapers, recreated from originals in selected Trust properties. They include Belton Scenic Sunbeam, based on an original in the Chinese bedroom at Belton House in Lincolnshire, which dates from 1785. It costs £209 per roll, with two rolls required for a panel of six drops, totalling just over 3m wide.

Little Greene — 0845 880 5855; www.littlegreene.com

Spring fresh

Solvent-free, water-based and designed to be sustainable and environmentally friendly, M&L Paints offer a full range of colours in Chalky Interior Matt, Interior Eggshell and Full Gloss finishes, as well as Exterior Eggshell and Masonry formulations. This shed is in Passiflora Exterior Eggshell, £62.50 for 2.5 litres.

M&L Paints — 01730 779911; www.mandlpaints.com

Magic moment

Inspired by a trip to Capri, Vanessa Barneby and Alice Gates wanted to re-create some of the magic of dining beneath the many lemon trees at the famous Da Paolino restaurant on the island, where, at certain times of year, the fragrance can be intoxicating. The result is their Capri Lemons wallpaper, £93 per 10m roll.

Barneby Gates — 01672 560240; www.barnebygates.com

Gentle warmth

Susie Watson’s range of softly shaded paint colours blends beautifully with her collection of natural fabrics. The range includes Pale Sienna Matt Emulsion, £45 for 2.5 litres, a delicate earthy tone that creates a warm backdrop to soft furnishings in muted pinks and greens.

Susie Watson Designs — 0344 980 8185; www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

Golden moment

As Bond fever mounts with the launch of No Time to Die later this year, Britain’s oldest family-owned paint manufacturer, Mylands, celebrates its long-standing relationship with the film industry (and appearance in every James Bond film since Dr No) with a Metallics collection of four hues. It includes Gold, £30.90 for one litre of acrylic paint, perfect for adding a glamorous accent to any room.

Mylands — 020–8670 9161; www.mylands.com

Credit: Jan Baldwin / Neptune

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With Christmas around the corner, the minds of the nation are inevitably turning to gifts, an intimidating prospect if you list of nearest and dearest is plentiful.

The main concern is always giving someone something that they can actually use, but still retains a certain specialness about them (for instance, toothbrushes are useful but lack the required panache of a decent Christmas present).

If you have an avid host among your friends who delights in entertaining, the best gift you can hope to give is one that will make their home a little easier, or at least more beautiful, when they come to share it with you. After all, there's very little that brings more joy to those who love an ordered home than a perfectly-laid table, with one or two quirky objects which tell a story – even if that story is 'my friend saw it on the Country Life website and decided it would be a perfect fit for my home'.

To aid you in your quest, Amelia Thorpe has collated a list of beautiful table decorations, all of which can be wrapped up and handed to a special someone. Or, if you're not feeling quite as altruistic as the season may wish you to, self-care is important and you're well within your right to give yourself a present for surviving Christmas right through to New Years beyond.

Happy shopping.

Jute Wave placemat in Indigo, £9.95, Birdie Fortescue, www.birdiefortescue.co.uk

Zsuzsanna Nyul large Florette bowl, £250, Liberty, www.libertylondon.com

Lani table cloth, £70, Molly Mahon, www.mollymahon.com

Red and White Ripples small tumbler, £25, Nina Campbell, www.ninacampbell.com

Marble dinner plate, £24, Designers Guild, www.designersguild.com

Shellfish Lobster large oval platter, £115, Emma Bridgewater, www.emmabridgewater.co.uk

Artichoke serving bowl, £65, OKA, www.oka.com

Hobnail pitcher in Beryl, £85, Pentreath & Hall, www.pentreath-hall.com

Indie Gingko salad server set of two, £38, Liberty, www.libertylondon.com

Poppy tablecloth, £65, The Mews Fabrics & Furnishings, www.themewsfurnishings.com

Compiled by Amelia Thorpe, words by Alexandra Fraser.

Credit: The Fabric Collective

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