Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i The English Home

Welcome to the July edition of The English Home where the mood is light and relaxed. We’re craving an easy elegance and interiors layered with global touches that remind us of endless sunny days and exotic destinations. In short, holiday style at home. Adopting global influences as part of our wider aesthetic is an established element of what makes an English home. The decorating feature on page 72 explores the latest fabric and wallpaper designs adding a touch of escapism in grand safari style with African and tribal prints and unexpected combinations. Elsewhere this issue, you’ll find inspiration for eclectic buys and seasonal discoveries to add a touch of summer style to interiors. Decorating in shades of blue can evoke a sense of calm due to its associations with the…

SLEEK KITCHENS After almost a decade making residential and commercial furniture for clients across London, the team behind British brand Pluck decided to launch their own contemporary kitchen company in 2016. Today the fruits of their labours are clear to see, with the company having garnered a reputation for its collection of cabinetry and freestanding pieces made using FSC-certified wood veneers on plywood, durable high-pressure laminate, and solid wood. Each design is available in a carefully curated palette of colours, which can also be applied to the latest additions to the range, a prep table and step ladder. pluck.co.uk RITUAL TIME For those looking to relax, unwind and radiate positivity, the new Ritual of Karma collection from Rituals is designed to help do just that. Not only is there a…

The English are no strangers to adopting styles seen around the world. Often our homes have a comfortable synergy with anglicised Asian motifs – from delicate chinoiserie to decorative paisleys and charming hand-blocked prints. African-inspired designs, however, are seeing a surge in popularity too, with several designers turning to the continent for inspiration. At Design Centre Chelsea Harbour’s Wow!House, interior designer Christian Bense has collaborated with de Le Cuona to create a bedroom which has the concept of “grand safari meets London town, with touches of Africa in a traditional English backdrop”. Kate Guinness has collaborated with The Safari Canvas Company to create a chic take on safari-style-under-canvas to be used as alternative luxury accommodation at smart country hotels. Alice Temperly’s new designs for Romo combine playful leopard prints with…

SPOTLIGHT ON… Exotic Escapism At Home Born in the Netherlands and now based in India after living all over the world, Marie-Anne Oudejans brings her infectious wanderlust to her interior design, most famously for Jaipur’s Bar Palladio and new Villa Palladio hotel (pictured) which inspired her Poppy designs for Schumacher (seen in our last issue). This textile and wallpaper collaboration also includes exotic yet soothing Bamboo Trellis, Himalaya, Mughal Garden and Delft motifs to bring home a sense of elevated escapism. She will launch a new home collection in the autumn. schumacher.co.uk Global Inspiration Sophie Ashby’s first fabric collection For her debut fabric range, The Jocasta collection, interior designer Sophie Ashby drew inspiration from both near and far. Her travels across Africa, Asia and Europe, and global craft, foliage and…

BUYER’S GUIDE DESIGN INGREDIENTS “Kitchen design is about knowing your kitchen and how you use it,” says Kim Whinnett of Barnes of Ashburton. “It’s always a case of making the ‘triangle’ between the cooker, sink and fridge work efficiently, with everything important within arm’s reach. Creating plenty of worktop space is also a priority. I like to mix materials to make the kitchen more inviting, but always include granite, as it’s perfect for making pastry.” Serious chefs will want to think carefully about their cooker type, size and style: anything from an eye-level electric oven (with a nearby set-down space) stacked with a steam oven and warming drawer, to a Lacanche ‘build your own’ cooker, to a traditional range with a companion cooker and separate induction hob. Whinnett points out,…

Can you tell us about your home? We are in the Evenlode valley in the heart of the Cotswolds. Our home is an old farmhouse built of honey-coloured stone, with a split-stone roof covered in moss and rambling clematis. The original farm buildings, now converted into neighbours’ homes, surround our own, which feels very cosy and comforting. It’s a very quiet village, where church bells and horses’ hooves are daily sounds I really enjoy. What first attracted you to it? It was love at first sight! It was the garden for me and the fireplaces for my husband. It has a quintessentially cottage-style garden with old-fashioned planting that surrounds the house. My father’s family go a long way back in gardening, running Chilvers lavender farms in Norfolk, and my grandparents…

CRYSTAL CLEAR Diversifying from its usual porcelain designs, London Basin Company has added the first crystal basin to its range. Available in jewel-toned blue or green or an elegant clear crystal, it adds a decorative element to bathrooms, capturing and reflecting light around the room. (For more inspiration on how to elevate en-suites, shower rooms and family bathrooms, turn to page 98). The Lucia Crystal basin, Blue, £1,295, London Basin Company A TASTE OF ITALY Taken from the Italian word for pomegranate, a symbol of abundance, the Melograno collection imbues tablescapes with the joy of summer, mixing sunshine yellows and sky blues with seashell motifs and coral details. Blue Melograno tablecloth, from £112; Fleur yellow placemats, and napkins, each £64 for a set of four; Blue Coral dinner plate, £68;…

‘We found ourselves passing into the valley where the house stood. The whole setting just blew us away’ It was on a warm night during Easter two years ago that Monica Simpson first broached the idea of a relocation. “Why don’t we move here permanently?” she asked her husband James. Looking at the flickering fire pit, the surrounding valley and the house of Cotswold stone above, James found himself succumbing to the idea. A few minutes later Monica had emailed the school in Kensington their children attended to say they would not be returning for the next term. “It was a shoot-from-the-hip kind of decision, but it’s definitely worked out,” James says of the family’s move to the country. The family, like many others, had been moving in and out…

Zoffany’s new collection, Arcadian Thames, celebrates this idyllic stretch of the river famed for ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows and grand historic houses. There are archival pieces from over 300 years inspiring the fabrics and papers. Lead designer, Peter Gomez explains this delicate chinoiserie “is based on an 18th-century block-printed wallpaper. After rediscovering the original document, we’ve retraced its origins, faithfully interpreting The Emperor’s Musician into this beautiful 100% linen.” Emperor’s Musician, Charcoal, £169 a metre, Zoffany…

Cut flowers bring a fresh sense of seasonality and enhance a collection of vintage tableware. To attract the eye, opt for tall flowers in a single colour, such as these summer gladioli – try the Sweet Blue variety – and contrast with a vessel of smaller, more blowsy blooms, which could be peonies (late peonies are out at the beginning of July). To have seasonal flowers on rotation, plant a small patch or pots (to avoid depleting flowers in garden borders) with cut-and-come-again blooms. See Sarah Raven’s selection of cutting-garden seeds for an easy starting point. sarahraven.com…