Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i The English Home

Decorating a house to create your dream home can be such a wonderful journey. Collecting fabric swatches and images of beautiful rooms to pin up on a moodboard by your writing desk at home is hugely enjoyable, as is visiting shops to choose furniture and accessories. But it can also be fraught with challenge. Choosing new paints hues can cause paralysis for even those who are usually decisive. And deciding upon an entire new colour scheme can leave you floundering in an overload of possible options. This, of course, is where The English Home team loves to leap in to help. Inside this edition we offer guidance on how to achieve colour confidence as well as how to whittle down the selection of those perfect paint hues more quickly and…

PURSUITS Make morning zing The taste of ‘sunshine on toast’ makes marmalade a must for winter mornings. That bittersweet citrus rush is more intense in homemade than shop-bought, and now is the perfect time to make your own. Seville oranges make the best marmalade, but opinion is divided on the best method. Some cook the oranges whole for an hour or two and then chop them, whilst others peel them first. Boil until the peel is really soft, don’t make your shreds too fine or uneven, and while testing for set, take the pan off the boil to avoid overcooking. Why not enter your pot in the amateur category of The World’s Original Marmalade Awards, held annually in Cumbria? Each jar is tasted and marked by a team of judges…

Pam Cowie bought this Norfolk cottage with her husband, Ian, 30 years ago, “It’s a place where, with every exhalation, shoulders relax, cares slip away and the North Sea air makes everyone sleep well,” says Pam. There might, perhaps, have been a little too much fresh air in the equation when Pam and Ian first viewed a forlorn outbuilding where the Norfolk breeze blew through a large hole in the walls. The former cowshed formed part of a complex on a historic site, where the largest malt house in Britain once stood and which was itself partly constructed from the walls and foundation stones of a Roman fort. With its idyllic coastal setting, located in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Pam and Ian could immediately see the potential…

The term damask has become synonymous with a specific style of pattern used on wallpapers and printed fabrics, commonly featuring florals or baroque motifs in a bold, mid-large scale repeat, but a true damask, named after Damascus, a city that manufactured and traded the fabric back in the Middle Ages, is a woven fabric. Alberto Pezzato, design director of Rubelli, explains that the traditional fabric is “one of the simplest constructions, using just one warp and one weft to create a pattern.” As John Kitching, managing director of Northcroft Fabrics elaborates, “damask is a particular construction where the background is a smooth satin weave – the warp, and the design is a more textured weave – the weft.” Pezzato adds that it is “the contrast between the shiny warp and…

The chilly winter months are all about hunkering down and making the home as warm and inviting as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to transform the bathroom into a luxurious sanctuary which can be enjoyed all year round. The latest in bathroom design brings us steam-shower cabins, digital showers, soothing textures and a few carefully selected accessories to promote a feeling of peace and tranquillity within this soothing space. PEACEFUL BATHING Bathtubs are a fundamental aspect of any bathroom and the ultimate source of true relaxation. Consider the allure of a deep bath lit by candlelight and it is difficult to resist. Traditional roll-top, cast iron designs create a free-standing focal point and can be paired with a classic H-stand bath/ shower mixer – plumbing…

FABRIC TESTING There are three elements that upholstery fabric should be tested for: colourfastness, durability and flammability. The test for colourfastness to light measures the permanence of a colour on fabric after exposure to both UV rays (sunlight) and fluorescent light. Fabrics are judged on a scale of one to five with five being the most resistant to change; for upholstery a minimum of level four is recommended. Colourfastness to rubbing assesses the amount of colour transferred from the fabric onto a white cloth in both its wet and dry state. Level four is recommended for the dry test and level three for the wet. Durability is measured through abrasion rub-tests. Broadly, there are two types of machine rub-tests: the Wyzenbeek test involves rubbing along the warp and weft of…

NEEDLEPOINT & EMBROIDERY Dr Susan Kay-Williams, chief executive of the Royal School of Needlework, believes creating a piece of needlework is a gratifying process. “Seeing the work develop in front of you, that in itself is a pleasure,” she says, “it can really be a stress buster. When you focus on doing embroidery, you sit down and concentrate, and as a result people do find it therapeutic.” For beginners, Kay-Williams suggests a good way to get started is by trying easy techniques such as canvas work or creating a decorative piece of embroidery using a simple Jacobean stitch. “Jacobean crewel work has a wide range of stitches that can also be used to make fire screens, stool covers, chair backs and even curtain borders,” she says. For details of introductory…

Living in close proximity with anyone can, at times, be a little trying. Mr M wholeheartedly agrees and, as I began typing this, he was itching to give advice on how to handle a tricky spouse. I have no idea why he thought such a notion was the thrust of this column – or indeed why he feels qualified to talk on such matters – but I am far too busy to discuss it with him. Instead, I will focus on the topic of getting along with one’s neighbours. We are rather fortunate here, in that we have no neighbours who live particularly close. This has not always been the case, however. When we first lived together it was in a tiny London flat where we were awash with neighbours…

Purity of line, simplicity of material and elegance of design are all desirable qualites in the most alluring interior buys – but this need not lead to a minimal interior devoid of personality. These beautiful buys offer tactile allure, blending to create a gentle palette of white, old golds, delicate greens and sophisticated greys to imbue rooms with an soothing air of understated luxury.…

Working in the glamorous worlds of fashion and entertainment, Tina and Ben Minall travelled the world before the arrival of their children. Home moved between Los Angeles, Sydney and London, however, once Madeleine, now 14, and Lexi, aged 9, arrived, Tina found herself hankering after a period property with more space and a garden for the girls. It was one weekend, whilst the couple were staying as houseguests at Ben’s boss’s country retreat that the couple discovered the unspoilt, unique qualities of rural Cambridgeshire. Very quickly, their dream of a family home in the country began to take shape and a house-hunt began. One of the first houses on the list to view was a Victorian farmhouse just on the county border with Lincolnshire. “The estate agent was late, so…

Choosing a colour palette and combining, contrasting and complementing different shades is a tricky business. Sometimes the hard work has already been performed by the fabric houses and wallpaper designers, who create a rainbow of colourways to appeal to a wide customer base, from safe and cautious through to the adventurous and daring. However, it can still take a leap of faith to add another colour to the mix with an accessory or piece of furniture. Most experts will say to trust our instincts and put colours together that ‘feel’ right, but having the confidence to do so and to trust one’s own eye can be difficult, especially when faced with an entire spectrum of colours in varying nuanced tones. Mother nature, however, has a strong eye for colour and…

· Chadder & Co. For classical style, the collection of roll-top baths, console washstands, period-style towel rails and even its new luxurious wall-mounted Lion bath taps, allow you to create a sanctuary with an inviting period charm. chadder.com · Crosswater This bathroom brassware manufacturer has launched its popular Belgravia range in a new nickel finish; the silver tone will blend easily with soft colour schemes. crosswater.co.uk · Duravit Experience massages at home with the P3 Comforts acrylic bathtub (above). It can be equipped with a Combi-System L-whirl system with foot- and back-massage jets, UV Hygiene Management, LED coloured light and even heating. duravit.co.uk · Hansgrohe Technology designed in a streamline manner enhances a feeling of calm and serenity. Keep shower controls to a minimum with Axor One interactive shower control…

“The winter garden can be as much a feast of colour and scent as the summer plot.” Winter flowers are all the more precious for their scarcity, a heartwarming sight that neither wind, frost nor even a blanket of snow can suppress. For, even though the garden appears to sleep, nature is very much awake as a select cast of remarkable flowers take centre stage. Small in stature, these dainty blooms have great presence, projecting subtle colour, fragrance and sensuality onto a stark, wintry stage. Most surprising of all is what a wide range there is to choose from and, whether a tiny, ground-hugging bulb, or an elegant flower held aloft on a branch, all are welcome at a time when so much of the garden is dormant. Amongst the…

History radiates through every pore and, indeed, every fibre at John Boyd Textiles, which has been making horsehair fabric since 1837. The looms used and patented by the business have outlasted generations of employees, having been in service for almost 150 years. Whilst traditional methods are still used to this day, the company has had to adapt to a changing world beyond its four walls. After the invention of the motorcar, the numbers of local working horses from which to source the raw material dwindled to virtually nothing, leading to the company importing the cropped tail hair of working horses from overseas – primarily Mongolia and Siberia. “We use some of the hair in its natural form, with the lovely strié effects,” says managing director Anna Smith. “Some of it…

A vogue for chevron prints and weaves has swept across from America on a transatlantic breeze. Yet when one considers classic parquet flooring at the elegant end of the style spectrum, and the cutest of ric-rac trimmings from the domain of a ‘make-do-and-mend’ aesthetic, this seems to be a remarkably comfortable choice which will segue effortlessly into English homes in stylishly subdued quantities.…

She made a lifelong friend – and met her forever employer – when, at 19 years old, Lucy Young went and assisted the then cookery writer Mary Berry (currently a judge on The Great British Bake Off and OBE). Now, 26 years later, the two have launched an Aga cookery school and have co-authored over 20 books together. Today, 45-year-old Lucy lives in Berkshire with her husband of five years, Pedro, their tabby cat, Ariel, and two ducks, Frank and Matilda. Where do you live and why? We live in Berkshire near the river. I grew up around here so my parents and siblings live close by, which is lovely. Can you describe your home for us? We live in a red-brick, semi-detached Victorian cottage. They were the old farm…

Given the incredible range of paint shades and hues there are to choose from, finding the perfect colour should be a breeze. Yet, as most of us know only too well, the reality of whittling down the choice to ‘the one’ can be a lengthy, even frustrating process. Gathering paint charts and accumulating a teetering tower of tester pots seems to be the decorator’s hazard (unless employing the experienced eye of an interior designer), but why is this the case? Are homeowners simply frozen with indecision? Or is paint colour selection just more complicated than it first appears? The truth, in fact, incorporates a little of both. We homeowners can be remarkably loath to commit to colour (hence the perennial popularity of neutrals) but, in addition, all paint is not…

From the most functional of beginnings, tiles have become a desirably decorative finish for walls and floors. From classically beautiful stone to artisan hand-painted designs and laser-cut tiles inlaid with metallic ‘marquetry’, or innovative raised motifs for elegantly textural appeal, the choice has never been wider. NATURAL APPEAL Natural stone like slate, marble and limestone guarantees the beauty of natural shading as well as versatility and durability. Stone tiles for floors are timeless. A honed (matt) marble on a bathroom wall in a Regency or Victorian town house can look striking – although one single large panel is more in vogue than smaller tiles. Porcelain tiles can mimic stone effects and are a hardwearing and low-maintenance option, especially for kitchens and bathrooms where splashes and spills are inevitable. Fired Earth’s…

BAKED WITH LOVE One recipe for happiness might well be said to be cake – at least, momentarily speaking. Around Valentine’s Day, such indulgences are all the sweeter when shared with a loved one, or dished out at an afternoon gathering of family or close friends. For a less overtly romantic message, a round Bundt cake is an ideal choice. Keep to a sophisticated theme by steering away from chocolate flavours, opting instead for a light strawberry recipe or moist fruitcake. Snuggled together by the fireside with a warming drink and a slice of cake, one would be hard pressed to find fault with such a slice of happiness. For Bundt tins and recipes, try the ‘Best of the Bundt’ cook book, available from divertimenti.co.uk…

There’s something appealing about a pretty posy, freshly picked from the garden and airily arranged. Even in winter, with a carefully planted garden, one can enjoy arranging homegrown seasonal blooms indoors. At this time of year, there is a certain satisfaction in the notion of ‘less is more’, and of leaving the sofa to stroll round the garden, randomly plucking a handful of blooms. Curiously, the flowers almost seem to arrange themselves in the hand, requiring little more than a passing tweak once placed in a little vase or jug. There are a wide variety of undemanding evergreen shrubs and climbers that are not only worth growing to provide year-round structure in the garden and shelter for wildlife, but also for a homegrown supply of both winter foliage and beautiful,…