A Welsh Farmhouse

This interior was designed for a development project at the Coed Darcy regeneration scheme in South Wales. The architectural practice designed a cluster of simple, elegant vernacular houses, which you can view here. We were subsequently commissioned to decorate one building with a brief to create a warm, lived in, show home.

These interiors, therefore, have no specific owner or client, but have a real personality and a sense of timelessness that perhaps belies the fact that these rooms were assembled and put together just days before they were photographed here. We loved working with this project, one of our very first decoration adventures.

A Suffolk Farmhouse

This is an ancient, timber framed farmhouse in Suffolk, which in the early 18th century had been given a ravishing new ‘polite’ front of soft red brick and sash windows (with deliciously thick glazing bars).  The house had been taken over by new owners, who were carrying out a sympathetic and sensible restoration.

We were engaged in a consultancy role to assist with the decoration of key rooms and to advise generally on building works, as well as to engage Historic England on the aspects of the renovation which required listed building consent (the house is Grade II*).  Over a period of some years we worked slowly through the rooms to create a house that has a gentle, quiet and untroubled atmosphere, all brought together by the owners’ lovely collection of paintings and antique furniture.

Tucked away in a hidden valley, it is a house that time has forgotten – a wonderful place and the happiest people to work with.

A Scottish Hideaway

This is Ben and Charlie’s own house, tucked away on an estuary in the far west coast of Scotland.

Ben and Charlie found the tiny pair of buildings – a Victorian two-roomed cottage and a much early stone bothy – in derelict and unloved condition – in 2018, after a long search for something untouched and unspoiled. Their initial restoration has been incredibly light-touch, replacing roofs and windows where necessary, but otherwise living with the buildings as they are in order to understand them well before embarking on further works.

The Victorian cottage had intact match boarding to the interiors, and we took the decision to keep this completely intact – re-wiring the two rooms with simple galvanised surface mounted conduit in order not to damage the historic interior.  The stone bothy was stripped back to rough stone walls.

Both buildings have been furnished with a different atmosphere to suit their age and character. The bothy forms a simple, basic kitchen, and the cottage contains a tiny sitting room and bedroom. There is as yet no running water or heating, but in 2023 Ben and Charlie are building a third new bothy to the west of the two original houses to provide a little more creature comfort.