London interior designer Nicola Harding was the right person to turn to. Equally importantly, Harding happens to be a master colorist: She is both deft and bold in her selections not only of paint but artwork and the many seating and lighting choices a dwelling this size requires.
Photography by Paul Massey, courtesy of Nicola Harding & Co.
The family longtime Londoners weren t sure rural living would be right for them Harding explains: "The wife worried she was stepping into someone else s life someone older and more sensible. So it was crucial to her...
...that the house feel true to her. It needed to make sense as a country house but also to feel exciting It needed to be user friendly meeting their practical needs but also to be fun and sexy"
The trio of prints are by Hormazd Narielwalla via UK art site C&B Curates.
Harding balanced the upright and formal with the down-home: A set of found metal work stools surround the sitting room bar table next to floor-length linen curtains edged with antique lace dyed a deep blue.
The kitchen was opened up by removing what Harding describes as “an awkward wall that bit into the middle of the room.” The built-in cabinets and large island with Silestone counters are by Remodelista favorite deVol.
Rather than fill the space with a large table, the family opted for an intimate setup: an OKA garden table and Rocket St. George chairs.
The adjacent garden room serves as a less formal living and dining area. The botanical prints are vintage; the sofa is from UK handmade-to-order source Sofa.com.
Harding chose shades of green, both subtle and bold “as a color thread linking the different spaces. Green is a brilliant color to live with, working well at all times of day and times of year.”
“One’s eye stops at the lightest thing we see, so if you paint a window frame in a darker color, your eye is drawn beyond it to the view.” The rattan Wengler chairs are from Sika-Design.
“Color really is a very cost-effective magic spell that transforms the atmosphere of a space,” says Harding.
“This had been a dark intersection between hallways, with no natural light,” says Harding of the former library that’s now the dining/reading room.
The entry hall now has an Art Deco table, vintage Tuareg mat of woven straw detailed in leather, and a blue velvet sofa.
“When Nicola suggested that green, all I could think of was Kermit the Frog,” the wife told UK House & Garden.
To create a flow between spaces, the adjacent home office is painted the same color as the entry hall woodwork: It’s the aforementioned Salvia from Paint & Paper Library, which Harding describes as “an off-beat aqua green.” She notes that what looks like blue velvet on the sofa is a corduroy from Brisbane Moss.
The wife’s office doubles as the homework room: “Rather than just putting a desk in her study, we found a large kitchen-style table that we placed in the middle of the room, creating lots of space for her to sit with the children, spread out her own work, or wrap presents.”
The parents’ room has a custom upholstered headboard made by Naturalmat and walls painted Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster. Harding reconfigured the setup to include his and hers dressing areas—the husband’s room is visible on the right.
An antique chest of drawers introduces a patinated blue to the space.
The blue theme extends to the main bath: the walls are Sobek and the tub Samphire, both from Paint & Paper Library.