Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i The English Home

February is a time for looking ahead to brighter days and taking opportunity of these still dark evenings to think about future projects for the home and garden in the year to come. Maybe you are planning to move and need to give rooms a little refreshment to make them more enticing, or perhaps you are considering a more significant redecoration to enhance your own enjoyment of your home? When considering where to start, it makes sense to follow the sage advice of the professionals, who, rather than beginning with a particular fabric swatch or paint hue, will first define the desired mood and any practical problems that need overcoming. They also focus on drawing out a client’s particular design aesthetic. I find it can be incredibly useful to think…

THE ODD CHAIR COMPANY It has always been a family affair at the brilliantly named The Odd Chair Company, where brother and sister duo James and Victoria Cook continue to head up the family-run business, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. Specialising in creating beautiful handmade furniture, the company now boasts over 300 designs, all made on the family farm in Lancashire by a team of dedicated craftsmen and women with more than 100 years’ experience between them. Though the farm feels worlds apart from the company’s glamorous Pimlico Road showroom, which opened in 2006, the brand’s ethos runs to its core. James and Victoria are all about bringing ‘true comfort’ and beautiful finishes to their furniture, from sofas and chairs to benches, stools and beds. And for 2020,…

Tucked away behind a high hedge, in a historic Sussex village, Francesca Fudge’s eighteenth-century Grade II listed house, dating back to 1704, is easy to miss. “The house looks small from the outside, but inside it is deceptively spacious,” she says, “With three teenage children, we needed at least four bedrooms and plenty of space inside and out.” When Francesca and her Canadian husband Brian moved into the house three years ago with children, Megan, 21, Amy, 17 and Alex, 16, they set about planning how to adapt it to twentieth-century family life without destroying its character. Back in the 1960s, previous owners had constructed a two-storey extension at the back which added an extra bedroom and bathroom on the first floor plus a kitchen and dining area downstairs. “Although…

TROPICAL BEAUTY Designs inspired by rainforests usually feature daring colours and bold tropical patterns. Desirable for some, but for those with a classic taste, the soft palette of the Daintree Collection from Ailanto will appeal. Featuring birds and plants native to the Australian rainforest, the exotic allure combines with timeless elegance to suit a fine English home. Daintree wallpaper, £208.60 a roll, Ailanto, available at George Spencer Designs…

Creative minds The month of February is a natural pre-cursor to spring, inviting the chance to refresh the home. Despite days still being short, the urge to look ahead to sunnier times prevails, with attention turning towards undertaking creative endeavours and ways to revitalise interiors. Small-scale projects – whether creating a home-crafted object, learning a new design skill, or simply adding a lick of paint – benefit both home and mind, offering personal and aesthetic rewards. Splash of colour Picking up a paintbrush is an easy and satisfying way to make changes – there is a certain soothing quality to applying a new colour in rhythmic brushstrokes. Beginning with surface areas such as shelving or kitchen units can reap dividends, says Neil Stafferton, design manager at British Standard Cupboards: “There…

“I met John Fowler when I was 19, after I joined Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in the 1960s. He was Head Decorator: I’d take notes and act as his bag carrier. During those formative three years, I accompanied him to grand locations, including the Italian Embassy, Grosvenor Square. He always insisted a room should speak to you rather than look too ‘done’. He taught me to leave space for later decorative elements – for example, a cushion in a wonderful colour, to give the sense a room had evolved. He was very generous with his knowledge. He’d lived through the Second World War and he taught me not to waste fabric. Recently, I redesigned a house in the USA: instead of throwing out the client’s old Fortuny silk curtains,…

At The English Home, we love nothing more than meeting and speaking to talented specialists about their work in their particular fields. This issue, I had the pleasure of visiting interior designer Emma Sims-Hilditch at her Wiltshire-based studio to talk about conceiving room schemes for clients, and this resulted in the feature on sitting room design on page 92. Meanwhile, Samantha, our Executive Editor, visited the esteemed and charming food writer Matthew Fort in his own Cotswolds kitchen to talk about his home passions and his gourmet inspirations, leading to the Q&A on page 72. Kate Freud, our Editor-at-Large, met interior designer Janie Money of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler to glean insights into the story of the redecoration of key rooms at important historic house Weston Park on page…

When planning a new bathroom, combining some of the latest innovations with a timeless look can be an exciting challenge. The key to success lies in balancing elements such as new materials, developments in design and advances in technology with a classic, enduring finish that leaves the bathroom feeling warm and welcoming. MATERIAL MATTERS Shower trays in materials such as resin, quartz and solid surfaces are sturdy, durable and warm to the touch, are available in a wide choice of colours and finishes – many of which are also recyclable, making them an environmentally friendly option. Look for names such as Durat, which is made of recycled post-industrial plastics, as well as Corian, HI-MACS (a composition of acrylic, minerals and natural pigments) and Silestone. All these materials can be used…

Midlands Art Centre Arts complex in Birmingham covering numerous creative areas. macbirmingham.co.uk New Brewery Arts Cirencester centre encompassing year-round courses and workshops. newbreweryarts.org.uk Flora Arbuthnott Workshops in Devon on natural dyeing, growing and foraging for colour, weaving and more. floraarbuthnott.com Rapture & Wright Screen-print workshops from Cotswolds-based hand-printed fabric and wallpaper specialist. raptureandwright.co.uk…

Matthew Fort is perhaps best known as a judge on BBC2’s The Great British Menu, which launched in 2006. An award-winning food writer and critic who was Food & Drink Editor of The Guardian newspaper for 15 years, he has written about food and travel for several titles including The Financial Times Saturday Review, Waitrose Food Illustrated (now Waitrose & Partners Food) and Esquire magazine. He is also the author of four books, the most recent of which, Summer In The Islands: An Italian Odyssey, is his third exploring the gastronomy, culture and history of Italy on a Vespa. Having fallen in love with Italy aged just 11, “because of the importance they attributed to ice cream”, he has nurtured a lifelong passion for the country, yet his home remains…

SMART SOLUTIONS Ease the passage into spring by creating an organised home. Finding a rightful and proper place to keep oft-used objects within easy reach – be they feather dusters for spring cleaning, hand-woven wicker baskets bearing neatly folded blankets or freshly chopped kindling – makes the most prosaic of functions more of a pleasure. To further the enjoyment of using the space, laying a hard-wearing, attractive new floor is an effective way to refresh a utility room. Parquet in Stone, £46.80 a square metre, Neisha Crosland at Harvey Maria…

Many art institutions and individual makers offer courses ranging from an afternoon in a workshop to week-long residential getaways. A chance to learn skills direct from the maker and to put creative ideas into action, they also enable would-be creators to try their hand before investing in any costly equipment and materials. Local art colleges offer advice on a wide variety of short- and long-term learning opportunities, and many public gardens offer courses too. • Craft Courses is a comprehensive online resource listing courses across the country in a wide variety of skills. craftcourses.com • West Dean College of Arts & Conservation in West Sussex holds around 800 short courses hosted in its beautiful nineteenth-century flint mansion in the South Downs. Tel 01243 818210; westdean.org.uk • The Craft Revolution at…