Country House
Berkshire
This generous Georgian country house had been bought for a young family with mixed feelings about leaving London behind and they called on us to put a new spin on the idea of escaping to the country. Although in reasonably good condition, the house didn’t flow easily and felt a little stuffy and old-fashioned. We reimagined unloved rooms and forgotten corners to ensure each part of the house had resonance. A bar table was added to the corner of the living room to add a sense of theatre and accommodate the husband’s passion for mixing cocktails. A difficult corridor was transformed into a library and glamorous dining space with a brass table. We created a study for the husband at the top of the house, while her study is downstairs closer to the heart of the home, with a large refectory-style table to spread out paperwork, wrap presents and help with homework. To knock any stuffiness out of the house, we introduced a strong palette of colours, which give the house a real energy – zingy green in the entrance hall, with woodwork in aqua blue, a dining room wrapped in a warm blue and a garden room in a restful green.
"It does not take long to work out that this is not the home of someone for whom a move to the country meant abandoning any sense of metropolitan edge. It did not involve buying a job lot of half testers and acres of chintz, or a deep scrutiny of historic paint charts. It is, without being self-conscious, far cooler than that."
- David Nicholls, House & Garden
