A very English country house

This week we’re down in North Yorkshire looking after Patrick’s family home – a Georgian farmhouse filled with antiques, curiosa and mixed patterns and colours. What I specifically love about the house is that it neither eschew nor fully embraces any single period; the interior is a mélange of Classical allusion, Napoleon III inspiration and odd pieces passed down in the family for generations. Some rooms are painted in lime green, another pink contrasted with bold stripes and feverish wall paintings. It is a style as inimitable as it is instantly, recognisably English.

Patrick and I lived here for six months a couple of years ago when we were in between houses and every afternoon I found myself having a cup of coffee in the drawing-room – a somewhat neglected room in the house, rarely used by the family, but nonetheless so beautiful. So this week we decided to give the drawing-room a much needed revamp! The goal was to use existing furniture and items from the house. It seems simple, but the reality is that I find it sometimes harder to give a room a new look solely using items from the house, rather than buying new ones. But as the house is so beautiful in its own right and filled with so much character, I wanted to use the pieces that the family are attached to, despite their oddness or age.

The brief was refined maximalism. The first task was to find a sofa and a rug (to lay on top of the rug)! Underneath a layer of old throws, we found a beautifully patterned sofa that made a great centrepiece for the room. I styled it with a patterned rug that I found up in the attic and a round antique wooden table serving as a coffee table. Books, flowers, a wooden chair and a side table for that morning coffee brought the room together. And not to forget a selection of different pictures to decorate the walls. Et voila, the result!

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Jag blir så otroligt glad om ni klickar på det lilla hjärtat så jag vet ifall ni gillar det jag gör.