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
12 beautiful log baskets to set off your fireplace or stove
Arabella Youens picks out a dozen of the prettiest log baskets for sale today.
Bathtub in the bedroom: Should you try it at home?
Arabella Youens examines the growing trend for baths in bedrooms.
-
Meet the British perfumers squeezing landscapes into scentsThe nuances of modern perfumery now allow a single drop to evoke an entire landscape. Amie Elizabeth White explores the native houses hitting the right notes
-
A Georgian farmhouse that's an 'absolute gem' in an ancient village on Salisbury PlainJulie Harding takes a look at the beautiful West Farm in a gorgeous Wiltshire village.
-
Injecting colour, pattern and character into a once-plain sitting roomBooks, art and textiles transformed a once-characterless space into a warm, inviting sitting room.
-
Say no to boring walls: Six choices of paint and paper which will get people talkingAmelia Thorpe picks out some glorious alternatives to just painting everything white.
-
'Not cheap... but cheaper than a divorce lawyer': Why it pays to hire a consultant to choose the perfect paint colourDriven to distraction by paint charts? A colour consultant could be the answer for anyone befuddled by choosing the right hue, says Giles Kime.
-
Room with a cru — how an 'enduring legacy of lockdown' is the latest must have in interior designLong gone are the dusty cellars of the past. Now is the time to make the place you store your wine as pleasurable as drinking it.
-
The secret to transforming an awkwardly shaped roomCave Interiors turned the awkwardly shaped sitting room of an Edwardian house into a warm and welcoming space.
-
A gloomy kitchen entirely re-created as a cosy living spaceWhen Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham were asked to redecorate a country house in Berkshire, the first task was to turn a dark space into a colourful sitting room.
-
A living room that's a lesson in how to restore lost character in a historic spaceNicola Harding used rich colours and textures to enhance the historic character of a Jacobean house in Berkshire.
-
The slipper chair: How one of America's great designers produced a classic of armless funThe slipper chair might have its roots in the 18th century, but it owes its compact, convivial appeal to Billy Baldwin, a giant of 20th-century American interior design.
