MODERN FARMHOUSE II
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When the team at London’s top interior design studio, first started working with the client on this 16 000 square foot home in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside, the plan was to create schemes for the entire house. This would make sense with any project however, with 4 en suite bedrooms on the first floor more than accommodating our client’s requirements; we agreed to use existing furniture he already had to complete the 3 large bedrooms on top floor. This meant that the budget would go further in the rooms that mattered. Once the project was completed though, he had a change of heart, announcing that the top floor looked like a ‘cheap hotel’ by comparison, so this is how phase II originated. The photo shoot also allowed us the opportunity to photograph areas of the house that had not yet been completed when we did the first shoot including the Lobby wardrobes, Dining room with art and the Snug/Dining space/Kitchen illuminated panel linings.
The house is built in the traditional Georgian farmhouse style and as such had fairly steep sloping roof lines. Interior spaces are then by default more or less dictated by these roof lines, making them complicated to decorate as there is often no clear delineation between the wall and the ceiling. The first task for the three top floor bedrooms was to come up with a scheme for each one, keeping in mind the importance of using colour.
The first guest bedroom became a Moroccan scheme where the team used the steep ceilings to emulate the feeling of a tent. The main colours incorporated within the room were turquoise and grape which were used to maximum effect on the velvet faux tent curtains and the polished plaster effect wall covering. We used the clients existing bed and added voluptuous velvet and patterned cushions with strong ethnic style trims. To the ‘tent’ curtains and Roman blinds we added Arabic style fringing. Accessories included two Moroccan poufs, vintage suit cases, modern Moroccan storm lanterns and distressed Arabic bedside tables. The scheme was pulled together by the Missoni feature wall covering depicting a classic Moroccan zigzag pattern and we hung a Moroccan brass pendant from the ceiling. In keeping with the bedroom, we used the Missoni wall covering again in the en suite and added another Moroccan pouf.
In the second guest suite the team made use of tangerine, red and coral, inspired by a painterly effect vinyl wall covering we had kept in the studio. In this room we used the feature patterned wall covering on the window elevation with the rest of the room receiving a coordinating tangerine faux plaster wall covering. The beauty of this marvellous product is that it did not have an obvious pattern repeat allowing the joints and seams to be almost invisible; this was very helpful in a room where there were so many corners and odd angles. Again we used the clients existing bed and just added wonderfully bold and bright accessory cushions. We matched this up with some contemporary bedside tables in red and the iconic Moroso Bouquet chair. As with the previous en suite, we used the patterned wall covering as a feature in the bathroom and added tangerine towels.
The third and final bedroom suite was the largest on that floor and needed to feel ‘grand’. Using the same technique on the ceiling and walls, this clipped scheme kept strictly to gold and dark navy blue. The sloped ceilings again used the faux plaster wall covering but this time in gold! To this we added a contrasting wall covering with a gold background and dark navy squares pattern, as if the navy squares had been laid onto a ‘gilded’ background. We had a large bespoke bed made combining blue and cream velvet with dark timber. Furniture wise we added two large timber bedside tables, a gold and cream upholstered end of bed ottoman and a gold and navy velvet upholstered arm chair and the client’s existing mirror. The curtains complimented the scheme by using a navy and gold silk and the lighting was all chosen from Heathfield.
Not be left out or outdone, the large staircase landing needed to be dressed in a high end scheme. Here we opted for a loveseat, upholstered in navy and gold leopard velvet and we used a gold cut fringe trim along the outer edge to give the piece a ‘mane’, more of an animal feel! We also added a bronze drum table to match the one on the landing below as well as a few well-placed accessories.
On the ground floor, the formal Dining had been completed already in Phase I, however it took some time to source and agree the artworks. We wanted to embrace some truly classical Georgina artworks which would marry the old and new. With that in mind the client sourced some authentic oil on canvas portraits in heavily ornate gilded frames.
At the rear of the house, the modern extension housed the kitchen, informal dining space and snug. It had always been our intention to delineate these areas by installing over scaled illuminated timber linings which would allow the spaces to be defined and separate yet keeping the open plan feel. The linings were manufactured in fiddle-back sycamore which we also used in the Study panelling as well as the kitchen door design. We also had some left over linen wall covering left over from the hall which we applied to the ceiling in the dining space, allowing us to pull the ground floor schemes together just a little more.
Finally on the first floor in the Master suite, the dressing room joinery was also installed. Here our designs called for mostly glass doors combined with a specialist lacquer carcass. We included drawers for ties and belts, a dressing table with integrated pop up mirror, integrated washing baskets and displays for watch winders.
In the Comfort of Flying Colours
This playful dining space with specially upholstered chairs imported from Portugal is a fun way to integrate all the colours in the rest of the room scheme!
Tangerine Dream
A strong mix of orange, pink and red adds zest to this dream space.
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