Modern Country Living

A house formed from old farm buildings in the Oxfordshire countryside. By the front door is my Mask console, inspired by an African mask. In patinated steel, with a gritstone top, on it sit children's drawings and an orange pottery Ganesh from a Jaipur market. The living room's green walls give this room a warm, cosy feeling, painted to resemble stitched squares of leather. I made both the 'Brothers' chimneypiece in painted plaster and the convex mirror above it, a playful version of the elegant Regency ones with gilded eagles; on mine, a trio of cheeky monkeys play with architect's tools on the frame of bleached sticks. To add visual height to the long, low dining room, I devised a grisaille painted scheme of stylised Frangipani trees arching up over the ceiling, growing among boulders. The floor is in my Hicksonian cement tiles, with my Atlas dining table and Beads chairs covered in John Boyd horsehair. Fabric screens support serving tables while helping acoustically.