The perfect ENGLISH STYLE

Whilst the interpretation of beauty in the home is individual and unique to the person and I work with my clients to interpret this in to the design, I specialise in the perfectly imperfect English style for the reasons I share below.  It is this design style that runs throughout my own home, a style that captures my own heart and soul and I know that it can capture yours too. 

For it enables the freedom of your own interpretation, it encompasses the personal, and what is any appealing interior if not an expression of the way of life, the ideas and the creativity of the people who inhabit it? 

I'll start by explaining what I mean by the word 'imperfect' for I do not want to concern you that this word implies that my work is not considered and curated, my aim is to delight you.  

Some styles of decorating have a longer shelf life than others. One of the more durable has come to be known as English Country style, which works just as well in a city apartment, a suburban modern home  as it does in a cottage, a farmhouse, a barn conversion, a rectory, a manor house or indeed one of England's finest stately homes. 

This style is perhaps easier to recognise that describe, putting a finger on exactly what makes it so can be tricky.  One of the strengths of English style is that, unlike modernism or minimalism, it isn't a prescriptive approach to create perfectionism, it is more a descriptive approach that enables expressionism. 

It is quite the opposite to prescriptive, It is relaxed, laissez-faire and adaptable - all reasons no doubt why it has endured such longevity. This is why I love it and specialise in it, for interior design to really feel, as well as look aesthetically pleasing on the eye, must be adaptable to the unique person.  You home isn't about me, and my vision,  its about you and yours,  I help you find it and I curate that. 

The perfect English style provides a recipe for rooms that are comfortable, pleasing and timeless and some of the key ingredients to consider are:

ECLECTIC 

A liquorice allsorts selection of things that you consider to be beautiful in style - be that in shape, texture, colour, or because of an associated memory; the beauty of sentiment, is always more interesting than wall to wall mid century modern. If you can put them together - a Georgian mirror, over a 1950s sideboard, with a modern vase and chintzy china candlesticks you've spotted in a charity shop. Perhaps a piece of art spotted at a car boot that you can enhance by changing the frame, finding echoes in their colours, line of proportions, you can create the delightful surprise of unexpected contrasts. Many people come into my home and declare that they would never have though that this would go with that! I think that the thinking is the problem, this style is all about feeling and playing. Granted it does require a good eye and a certain aesthetic courage, for when you get it right it should seem effortless. 

COMFORT

A room must appear well used and lived in, appearing to have tried too hard - a 'show room' appeal is not what I work to achieve. And whilst I do admire many a perfect Instagram grid of neutral palette perfection, and heightened interior perfection can be soothing to the eye, contemplative and ravishingly beautiful,  this is not what most of us would call comfortable, you do not want to feel concerned about making a dirty footprint on a perfect white floor.  And it certainly doesn't work when you share your home with the English most favourite four legged companion,  an often wet and muddy Labrador will ensure that any perfection does not last long! the mess will create stress and that will not do! 

Home comfort requires harmony, balance, pleasing arrangements, pattern and colour. I work with my clients to understand what these attributes mean to them and through colour personality profiling we find patterns and colour preference, if they are unsure.  I encourage clients to ensure that any objects -  their liquorice allsorts selection of things, are shared and incorporated into the design for what is a home without the things that represent beauty to you?  Who cares if its chipped vase, if it reminds you of a dearly departed relative, as I have shared beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

Comfort also means that furnishings are arranged in the way that you like to live - supportive chairs around a large table for dining, living room sofas and armchairs placed to encourage conversation and to benefit the warmth of a fire. a side table to rest a drink.  Fabrics play a vital role in this style, with curtains, cushions and rugs all contributing to that feeling to being cocooned.  A generous use of fabrics ensures that acoustics are not to harsh. Lighting is also an important consideration, bright where needed, but otherwise soft enough to flatter a room and its occupants. 

NOSTALGIA

This way of decorating favours period architecture and choosing antique and vintage furniture over new.  These are interiors where tradition is valued, where inherited pieces are kept for sentimental reason often prompted by childhood memories. This is how you curate your story and your memories into your home. 

CONNECTION TO NATURE - A GREEN APPROACH

As the hymn declares England is a green and pleasant land. And even if this is sadly becoming more of a nostalgic view, there still remains a very English love of gardens and the countryside, to which English interiors make constant reference to. Whether with floral chintz, jugs of cut flowers and potted geraniums on windowsills but it is also green in its use of antique preloved furniture.  As it is a style that is not obsessed with looking like a hotel suite, a show room and it does not  demand impeccable straight lines, immaculate surfaces and faultless fabric, there is space for things that have been mended and restored, upcycled, and repainted so it is a green earth friendly approach, which is very appealing in these times of scarce resources and mountains of waste. And because it is not predefined to any fashion style nor following any trend, it a style that you do not need to be continually updating. It is timeless and pleasing in its ageless style and can be left to quietly settle in to the passing of time, to gracefully mellow, to acquire a slightly faded grandeur but still look just grand. 

I hope this has been a helpful insight into the interior style that I work with. Rather like Mary Poppins I think it is perfect in everyway, for there are so many ways. That is its appeal. It is not prescriptive,  it doesn't insist on everything matching, allowing you freedom to play, to have fun and isn't that the heart of creativity? You can mix things up, play and create seasonal changes like I do with a collection of objects you love if you choose to; to create a sense of movement, of change, aligned with the rhythm and flow of the seasons or the ebb and flow of the moon to reflect your mood. This style allows you to curate your own home and from time to time you may even get things a bit wrong, but it doesn’t matter and how will you know unless you take time to play?