A Georgian house in the country with quiet, elegant interiors by Joanna Plant
Interior designer Joanna Plant’s conundrum was this: how to make a grand Georgian house in the Cotswolds – one of the prettiest in the area – into a comfortable home for a family of five, including three sporty boys, a dog, a cat and up to 20 friends for a weekend party.
Luckily, she had worked with the family on previous projects: a London house and a farmhouse in Gloucestershire. ‘This gave us a useful shorthand,’ she explains. Joanna is also a mother of boys and as hers are slightly older, ‘I know what the owners are going to need before they do.’
When the family bought the house six years ago, it was like an autumn rose. ‘It was charming, but just about to go over,’ Joanna recalls. ‘It needed a lot of TLC and gentle reconfiguration.’ The tender, loving care was quite extreme: at one point, the house was stripped, with no roof or floor. The original windows were restored, while the basement plant room, where boilers control the underfloor heating and piping-hot water, is a thing of beauty in itself.
The prime concern with reconfiguring was to make the spaces feel more contemporary and inviting, but without disrupting the romance and proportions of the early nineteenth-century architecture. So the ceiling in the boys’ aubergine-painted snug was lowered, and the austere back staircase from the main bedroom replaced with a smaller set of stairs with a striped runner – ‘so you can run down straight to the kitchen to make a cup of tea’.
As is often the case nowadays, the kitchen was moved. Since the house was built, it has occupied three different positions, architecturally marking the social changes in how we live. It started out in the depths of one wing, with a cook and an army of staff. After the Second World War and with less money available for salaries, the lady of the house took control of the kitchen, which was upgraded to the main house – but on the gloomy north-facing side so that food had to be shuttled into the south-facing dining room.
Today, the kitchen is in prime position, in the space once occupied by the dining room. There is a large Aga, and a simple fruitwood table and bench are enfolded within elegant bay windows. These look out over the garden and across the ha-ha to the park, where sheep shelter under a 500-year-old oak, with farmland beyond. The poor old dining room didn’t stand a chance; it was booted to the left and is now used only for shoot lunches and at Christmas.
Joanna clearly had fun with the project, finding ways to adapt the modern need for a bathroom with every bedroom by placing a freestanding tub under the triptych bay window in the best spare room, and sneaking a tiny basin and lavatory behind a jib door. She even created a Narnia-esque secret door at the back of a cupboard between two of the boys’ rooms. She sated her fabric crushes with plenty of Robert Kime, Claremont, Soane and Michael S Smith but, as the owners were keen the interior should not feel too showy, many of the larger windows were dressed in washed linen from The Cloth Shop and edged with just a sliver of the fancier stuff.
In keeping with this ethos, most of the furniture came from the family’s previous country house, including pieces from Maison Artefact in Lillie Road, SW6. These work well with new elements, such as globe lanterns and marble chimneypieces from Jamb.
Joanna’s future-proofing for the owners’ sporty, musical sons meant creating a schoolroom beyond the boot room. ‘They can make a din on an instrument or swot for an exam away from the rest of the house,’ she says. ‘While the aesthetic is a cleaned-up approach to classical decorating, robustness was critical. This is an unostentatious house, so there’s no need to feel nervous about wellies or dogs.’
Despite its enfilade of rooms and elegant proportions, Joanna’s work exemplifies how a grand house need not feel formal and uninviting. ‘It’s about walking in and having a nice time,’ she says. And, unsurprisingly, with this family, the door you walk through is the humble side entrance rather than the imposing front door.
Joanna Plant is a member of The List by House & Garden, our essential directory of design professionals. See her profile here: thelist.houseandgarden.com/profile/joanna-plant-interiors
Joanna Plant Interiors: joannaplantinteriors.com
Paul Massey1/10A fern cyanotype print by Henrietta Molinaro picks up on the mohair velvet upholstery of a Beaumont & Fletcher sofa, with cushions by Katharine Pole.
Paul Massey2/10Robert Kime’s ‘Red Carnation’ ikat edges curtains in Claremont carriage cloth. A taxidermy goldfinch by Jazmine Miles-Long hangs above the console table from Soane.
Paul Massey3/10A rug by Luke Irwin and John Rocque’s 1746 map of London provide a richly detailed backdrop for generous furniture, including armchairs by Joanna Plant Interiors in Guy Goodfellow’s ‘Roussillon’ in sea foam. An ancient Ottoman textile fragment from Esther Fitzgerald hangs above the chimneypiece.
Paul Massey4/10Antique Windsor chairs and a simple French fruitwood table sit in the window of the kitchen.
Paul Massey5/10The plain Shaker-style kitchen was made by a local joiner.
Paul Massey6/10A bold border in a colourful Robert Kime ikat enlivens the plain linen curtains, which pick up on the moss green of the dining chairs reupholstered in goatskin from Howe. Rustic glazed French confit jars, an antique rug from Clive Rogers and linen napkins from Guinevere in vibrant hues add visual warmth as well as texture. The large brass ‘Galley Lantern’ by Matthew Cox makes a simple, elegant statement above the table.
Paul Massey7/10Walls in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Plum Brandy’ set off curtains in ‘Indian Pear’ by Robert Kime in the snug.
Paul Massey8/10Robert Kime's floral linen ‘Rocca’ frames a bath from Drummonds.
Paul Massey9/10Dark blue accents, including curtains in inky velvet from The Cloth Shop add depth to the pale scheme in the main bedroom. ‘Silvergate’ wallpaper by Farrow & Ball has an airy elegance that is anchored by a weathered antique mirror and wooden chest of drawers from Maison Artefact, and an artisan-made textured wool Moroccan Berber rug from The Rug Company.
Paul Massey10/10The pretty west-facing stone façade of the early nineteenth-century house.
