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February 2018

creative kitchens Plus LOOKS TO TRY

ALL THE LATEST DESIGN & DECORATION IDEAS

From industrial warmth to modern country

DINING CHAIRS FOR UNDER £200

ECLECTIC PERFECTION FROM A CHARACTERFUL RENOVATION IN BERKSHIRE TO THE QUIET ELEGANCE OF A LONDON FAMILY HOUSE

SALE

Luxury Bathrooms Nationwide

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C ON T E N T S February 2018 ON THE COVER A kitchen in a London flat, featured in this month’s ‘Design ideas’ (pages 5560), photographed by Paul Massey Cover stories are in colour

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In crowd Reader events and the launch party of The List Directory 2018

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Art scene Featuring two new series: the untold story behind famous works and a brief history of an art-world institution

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Books A selection of literary offerings

I NSI DE R

49

Shopping Charlie Porter curates a characterful selection of ornaments

Swatch Charlie Porter creates two harmonious bedroom schemes

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Notebook What’s new in fabrics, wallpaper and home accessories

Imitation game David Nicholls looks at cultural appropriation in interiors

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27

Wise buys Rémy Mishon finds kitchen chairs for under £200

Design ideas The second of a two-part special on kitchens, by Elizabeth Metcalfe

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News and views A collaboration between interiors company Lane and the London Cloth Company; and diary dates

Rita notes Rita Konig discusses fireplaces and their accessories

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Profile Emily Tobin meets Lucy Bathurst of vintage curtain company Nest Design

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Founding father Artist Gerald Laing’s son Farquhar Ogilvie-Laing is ensuring his family’s legacy lives on in his work and home life. By Charlotte Fairbairn

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From the editor DE COR AT I NG

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131 VOLUME 73 NUMBER 2

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Outside interests Clare Foster focuses on snowdrop events; plus gardening courses and a selection of eco-friendly products Out and about Laura Houldsworth reveals her best buys

LIFESTYLE

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

Contents continued

Wigmore Street W1 · Harrods SW1 · Chelsea Harbour SW10

+44 (0)20 7493 4444

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EDIT: INTERIORS, GARDENS, STORIES 76

Back to basics When antique dealer Christopher Howe was asked to decorate this house in Bray, he set about uncovering original features and adding eclectic furniture and fabrics. By Emily Tobin

86

Meeting of minds Architect William Smalley has transformed this Edwardian villa into a modern family house by opening up spaces and using natural colours and materials. By Christopher Stocks

96

Change of pace Having sold their house in Wiltshire, Charlie and Tweenie Wrey decided on a whim to move to southern Sri Lanka, where they have built a calm, comfortable home. By Emily Tobin

102 Guiding light In this elegant London apartment, interior designer Hugh Henry has worked closely with the owner to bring harmony to her collection of art, ceramics and furniture. By Elfreda Pownall

SHIFT 01

From £7,500 to £125,000

108 The knowledge Inspired by the houses in this issue, Bethan Hyatt gives directions on how to achieve similar style 110

Recipes for success Ruth Sleightholme cooks up three distinctive decorative looks for kitchens

116

Floral formula In the second part of this garden series, Sarah Raven discusses her fail-safe recipe for springtime pots and window boxes

118

Cultivating the castle New life has been brought to the ruins of Lowther Castle in Cumbria, thanks to an ambitious planting project and a formidable team of garden restoration specialists. By Caroline Beck

F O O D & T R AV E L 127

California dreaming London-based food writer Claire Ptak revisits the recipes of her childhood on the west coast of America

133 Taste notes Blanche Vaughan’s news, reviews and tips for cooks and food lovers 137

Inside track Emma Love recommends where to stay, eat and shop in Chicago, plus ways to explore the city

138 Rwanda reborn Pamela Goodman finds the much recovered country is one of the best places to see gorillas in the wild

Savoir Shift 01 by Arik Levy, hand made in London

140 Specialist holidays: wine course At a Provençal wine estate, Stephanie Drax learns how to get the most from fine wine 141

Travel compass Laura Houldsworth discovers a different side to Dubai

E V E RY I S S U E 136 Subscriptions How to subscribe to House & Garden in the UK and US 142 Stockists 156 Self portrait Trend forecaster and academic Lidewij Edelkoort paints a picture of her life, work and inspirations

London

New York

Paris

Hong Kong

Shanghai

CON T R I BU TOR S DOMINIC COLE Landscape architect

STEPHANIE DRAX Travel writer Stephanie Drax’s first travel writing opportunity took her on a luxury safari to South Africa – so it is hardly surprising that she was instantly hooked. Firmly ‘nestled into the niche of luxury travel’, Stephanie writes and edits for various publications, as well as running VisionAir Films, a production company that creates city guides. Watching the sun set over Mount Fuji has cemented Japan as a firm favourite with Stephanie, who says she was ‘bowled over by the customs, courtesies and deeply dignified characters’. Currently top of her travel wish list is trekking in Bhutan; in the meantime, read about her experience of a specialist wine holiday on page 140. When not travelling, Stephanie likes her London home ‘minimalist and calm, but with a splash of colour’.

If you do not recognise the name Dominic Cole, you will certainly recognise some of the gardens that he has designed – the Eden Project is perhaps the most famous one. As for his favourite historic project, the choice is clear: ‘Lowther Castle (on pages 118-125) as we got to reveal the remarkable seventeenth-century garden.’ Dominic, who is also president of The Gardens Trust, draws inspiration from far and wide, citing Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s historic Italian gardens and the artworks of Eric Ravilious as influences. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is the flower that has caught his attention most recently, though he hastens to add, ‘Choosing a favourite plant is like choosing a favourite child.’

Your favourite historic era?

‘The late 1600s or the early 1700s – I love the style, innovation and intricacy.

Though it must have been fairly ghastly when you think in practical terms.’

Three things you never travel without? ‘Mineral sunscreen, a baseball cap and a widebrimmed hat – I’m mildly obsessed with sun damage!’

WORDS: LEANNE WALSTOW. PHOTOGRAPH: KRISTIN PERERS (PTAK)

CLAIRE PTAK Baker and food writer Californian Claire had her first job in food at the tender age of just 12, after placing an advertisement in the local paper looking for opportunities to help with catering work. Since then, she has opened Violet bakery in east London, written numerous cookbooks and made a name for herself as a food writer and stylist. American chef Alice Waters, pioneer of the Seventies organic food movement in California, is both a friend of and mentor to Claire, who worked as a pastry chef at Alice’s restaurant Chez Panisse. The West Coast lifestyle has influenced Claire’s take on classic American recipes (from page 127).

Your favourite treat from Violet? ‘The coconut cream cake’

SALE N OW ON FOR SOME, SLEEP IS SOMETHING T H AT J U S T H A P P E N S . AT S O M N U S IT HAPPENS BY DESIGN. Our handmade craftsmanship, combined with innovative Sensa Intelligent pocket springs and home-grown natural fillings, from our farm in North Yorkshire, makes every bed unique.

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H A N D M A D E I N YO R K S H I R E S I N C E 1 840

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From the editor ‘We’ve got to be able to make mistakes. If we don’t, we haven’t pushed ourselves.’ It is a generally accepted truth (if not a much publicised one) that commissioning an interior designer or architect will not make your project immune to error – and amen to that! How can one possibly be original without making the odd blunder? Tempting as it may be to fall back on tried and tested formulas, they will never result in a house that has pushed any boundaries.

The opening quote was a comment made to the architect William Smalley by his client. He had just taken on the remodelling and design of what is now a restrained and quietly beautiful family house in London (pages 86–95). William found her attitude reassuringly enlightened and it formed the foundation for a brilliant creative collaboration. Also in this issue, and in total contrast to the above, we have an unusual textured house, stamped with the unmistakable style of antique dealer and designer Christopher Howe (pages 76–85). Christopher originally advised his client against using a decorator: ‘He has a great eye and might as well make his own mistakes rather than pay someone else to make them for him.’ On the sliding scale of errors, there is without doubt a qualitative difference between those made by a skilled decorator and the ones generated by a floundering homeowner; when you pay for a designer’s vision, you are also gaining a wealth of practical experience. Costly errors, whether creative or the result of bad planning, are a luxury not all of us can afford.

The kitchen is a room that benefits from a clear vision, and we have plenty on this subject in this issue. In part two of our ‘Design ideas’ kitchen special (from page 55), Elizabeth Metcalfe has filled the pages with inspiration and practical advice to help you make informed decisions that you won’t regret. Elsewhere, Rémy Mishon has stacked up good-looking kitchen chairs for under £200 (page 27) and Ruth Sleightholme has created three striking kitchen schemes (from page 110).

We don’t always know what went on in the run-up to the completion of projects we feature – the sofa that went back, the yellow room with a rainbow of other colours concealed beneath or the happy mistake that stayed – but whatever the journey, I’m sure you will agree the end results are a great success.

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We featured the house of Belgian artist ISABELLE DE BORCHGRAVE in our April 2015 issue, and I was reminded again recently of her brilliant work with paper, such as this elaborate light. isabelledeborchgrave.com

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ALIDAD’s apartment in Mayfair is a warm and wonderful testimony to his skill as a decorator, so what could be nicer than to spend a day with the man himself in his home, learning his design secrets? The good news is you can. Visit athomewithalidad.com to find out how.

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

We are all in love with the eighteenthcentury cotton prints from French fabric house LE MANACH and now you can go the whole hog with its wallpaper, too – launching in January. pierrefrey.com

Good STRIPES should be everywhere, but for some reason, as soon as you want one, they’re impossible to find. I love the breadth of this thick sateen ‘Pringle Stripe’ cotton, £162 a metre, from Ralph Lauren Home – it would look great on a long sofa. ralphlaurenhome.com

MICHAEL SINCLAIR; PIXELATE IMAGING

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NEW BROCHURE OUT NOW

INSIDER SHOPPI NG | N EWS | A RT | BOOK S

Fine f igures CHARLIE PORTER curates a characterful selection of decorative ornaments PHOTOGRAPHS MICHAEL SINCLAIR

FROM LEFT Ceramic ‘Abanico’, 22.5cm, £60, from Saudade. Beadwork and wood fertility doll, 44cm, £150, from Raj Tent Club. Ceramic ‘Yellow Elephant Sculpture’, by Claudia Rankin, 25cm, £590, from Wilson Stephens & Jones. Ceramic ‘Horse Candlestick’, 16cm, £295 a pair, from The Shop Floor Project; with ‘Jubla’ candle, £5.50 for 8, from Ikea. Glazed-clay ‘Han Working Horse’, 27cm, £145, from Oka. ‘Ceramic Sardine’, 3.5cm, £25, from Saudade. Ceramic ‘Pende Mask & Red Bird Caddy’, by Claudia Rankin, 20cm, £550, from Wilson Stephens & Jones HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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FROM LEFT Hand-painted ceramic ‘Bull Fighter Toothpick Holder’, by Bordallo Pinheiro, 7.5cm, £75, from Saudade. Red terracotta and porcelain slip ‘Victoria and Albert’, by David Cleverly, 26cm, £1,000, from V&A Shop. ‘Indian Clay Miniatures’, maximum 10cm, £15 each, from Raj Tent Club. Plaster and metal-etching ‘Century Hotel’, 17cm, £195, from Chisel & Mouse FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

plainenglishdesign.co.uk

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FROM LEFT White slip-cast earthenware ‘Speckled Staffordshire Dog’, by Alex Sickling, 20cm, £175 a pair, from The New Craftsmen.

Ceramic ‘C1980 Staffordshire Pottery Fisherman’, 27cm, £175, from Pentreath & Hall. Ceramic tiger, 6cm, £120, from Lucy Kirk FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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FROM LEFT Porcelain and lava glaze ‘Vulcanico’, 20cm, £350, from Mint. Glass-beaded ‘Animal No11: Pig Medium’, by Ntombomzi Mzamo, 25cm, £225, from The Shop Floor Project. ‘Porcelain Geisha’, 39.37cm, £198, from Jonathan Adler. Ceramic ‘Caddy with Bird, Pig & Dog’, by Claudia Rankin, 19cm, £490 a pair, from Wilson Stephens & Jones. White earthenware ‘Boy Scouts in Canoe’, by Alex Sickling, 8cm, £335, from The New Craftsmen. Earthenware candlestick, by Paul Young, 31cm, £300, from Tinsmiths; with ‘Ribbed Beeswax Candle’ (dusty blue), £35 for 6, from Matilda Goad. Porcelain ‘Long Haired Alpaca’, 8cm, £40; and ‘Polar Bear’ 6cm, £85; both from Eleanor Meredith.

Backgrounds throughout painted by Annie Millar; paint (yellow and green scheme): ‘Elephant’s Breath’, ‘Pointing’, ‘Studio Green’, ‘Babouche’, ‘India Yellow’, ‘Green Smoke’; (red and pink scheme): ‘Calamine’, ‘Rectory Red’, ‘Nancy’s Blushes’, ‘Dimity’, ‘Brinjal’, ‘Wimborne White’; all £43.50 for 2.5 litres estate emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. For a similar wallpaper design, try Fromental. For suppliers’ details, see Stockists page FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Prism

by Christopher Farr

Christopher Farr Cloth www.christopherfarrcloth.com

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Rattan, seagrass and lampakanai ‘Capitola Armchair’, 87.5 x 60.5 x 64.5cm, £2,090, from Paolo Moschino for Nicholas Haslam

Wallpaper from top: ‘Dotted Palm’ (ivory/ black) and ‘Cat Cow’ (navy), both by Rebecca Atwood, £228 a 4.6-metre roll, from George Spencer Designs

RUTH SLEIGHTHOLME shows us what has caught her eye this month

TORY WILLIAMS; PIXELATE IMAGING

‘Feathers’ ceramic plate (blue), 26cm diameter, £15, from Wattle & Pot

‘Amapola Poppy’ (grey), by Brigitte Singh, cotton, £67 a metre, from Aleta

Jesmonite and brass lanterns (from top: dove grey, navy blue), 42 x 15cm diameter, £280 each, from Ornamental Grace

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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‘Mexican Star’ hand-tufted wool rug, by Zandra Rhodes, 80cm diameter, £350, from Floor Story

‘Kronam’ brass and opal glass lantern,

by Steven Gambrel, 82 x 47.5cm diameter, from $18,551, from The Urban Electric Co

‘Wiggle’ handtufted wool rug,

by Zandra Rhodes, 230 x 150cm, £1,500, from Floor Story

Plaster and brass ‘Tree Candelabra’, double, 100 x 38cm, £975; and single, 68 x 42cm, £575; from Giovanna Ticciati

Walnut ‘Edmund Sofa’, 71 x 182 x 91cm, covered in ‘Fabric 134’, cotton/linen, $22,000 as seen, from BDDW

Carrara marble ‘Soya Tray Table’, by Claesson Koivisto Rune, 17 x 56cm diameter, €3,390, from Marsotto Edizioni FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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‘The Socialite Family + Haos’ ceramic and brass wall lights, (from left: white, black), both 18cm diameter, €450 each, from The Socialite Family

Brass and cotton ‘Ochi Swivel Chair’, by Vivian Coser, 70 x 52 x 54cm, £6,500, from Mint

‘Big Plaid’ silk and wool rug,

by Commune, 366 x 274cm, £13,000, from Christopher Farr

‘Elementa’ brass and iron kitchen accessories: fruit bowl, 8 x 33cm diameter, €490; paper roll holder, 28 x 15.6cm diameter, €250; trivet, 2.5 x 18cm diameter, €250; all by Antigone Acconci and Riccardo Bastiani, from Mingardo. For suppliers’ details, see Stockists page

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

PIXELATE IMAGING; DARIO BREGGIE

‘Hegemone’ wallpaper (BP5707), £97 a 10-metre roll, from Farrow & Ball

We believe in a different perspective.

We don’t inflate prices just to reduce them later on. We never have, and we never will. Instead, we’d love to help make your dream kitchen a reality, by giving you an important part for free.

So in January, the sink cabinet is on us.

neptune.com For full terms, visit neptune.com/kitchenoffer

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STAIRCASES

INSIDER | SHOPPING WISE BUYS

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Chairs RÉMY MISHON selects neat kitchen seats for under £200

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1 ‘Daven’ acacia chair, 81 x 45cm square, £199 for two, from Swoon Editions. 2 Steel ‘String Dining Chair’, by Studio W M, 80 x 53 x 50cm, £189, from Pad Lifestyle. 3 Elm and rattan ‘Dark Weave Dining Chair’, 87 x 49 x 56cm, £175, from Graham & Green.

4 ‘Oregan’ oak and cord chair, 76 x 48 x 40cm, £160, from Habitat. 5 Polypropylene ‘Qeeboo Ribbon Chair’, by Nika Zupanc, 83.5 x 45.5 x 49.5cm, £159, from Amara. 6 Polypropylene ‘Ypperlig Chair With Armrests’, by Hay, 83 x 55 x 51cm, £40, from Ikea.

7 ‘Parisienne’ polycarbonate chair, 86.5 x 46.5 x 53.5cm, £164, from Calligaris. 8 Beech ‘J77 Chair’,

by Hay, 79 x 43cm square, £135, from Made in Design

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FOR SUPPLIERS’ DETAILS, SEE STOCKISTS PAGE. TO SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK/KITCHENCHAIRS

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HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

news and views

INSIDER | NEWS

By ELIZABETH METCALFE

A Lane x London Cloth throw and cushion, made from indigo-dyed woven cotton cloth

Common thread Interiors company Lane’s latest collaboration sees it teaming up with the London Cloth Company on textiles created on traditional looms

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n 2012, graphic designers Joff Casciani and Ollie Wood set up Lane, an interiors brand with a mission to provide people with British-made, sustainably produced pieces. Collaborating with craftspeople dotted round Britain, the company sells everything from lighting to ceramics – all of which are made using natural materials.

With a handful of collaborations under its belt – including a ceramics range with Parkwood Pottery in Derbyshire and a cushion collection with Bute

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

INSIDER | NEWS

Diary dates

Designs on Britain Until April 15 This exhibition at the Jewish Museum in north London looks at how Jewish émigrés shaped British design in the twentieth century.

Pictured is a poster by Jan Le Witt and George Him. Admission, £8.50. jewishmuseum.org.uk

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

LARTA January 23–28 Visit the mezzanine level at The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair for LARTA (The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair) to pick up pieces from a range of specialists, such as the nineteenth-century Greek embroidery above.

Downstairs, 150 dealers will offer furniture, fabrics and more.

Admission, £10. larta.net

Midcentury Modern February 3–4 The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire will be hosting a smaller edition of Midcentury Modern, the show traditionally held in November at Dulwich College. Over 30 dealers will be selling pieces, including these Fifties Danish tribal sculptures.

Admission, £5. modernshows.com

LIONEL ROY

Fabrics – Lane has now joined forces with London’s only weaving mill, the London Cloth Company, to create a new line of cushions, throws and placemats.

The east London-based business was set up in 2011 after its founder Daniel Harris, a self-taught weaver, renovated a rusty old loom he found in a derelict barn in Wales. Daniel has since acquired and restored more than 20 looms (the oldest ones date back to the 1880s, with the heaviest weighing in at four-and-ahalf tonnes) and has worked with fashion brands, such as Nike, Ralph Lauren and Hardy Amies. ‘I love the older looms, as they are more versatile: you can figure them out and fix them,’ he says. ‘It is impossible to do that with today’s digital looms.’ Joff heard about the London Cloth Company from a friend. ‘Daniel invited me to visit the mill (pictured on this page) and I realised that his values and interests were aligned with ours,’ he says.

For this range, a bold indigo cotton cloth was chosen. The threads are twisted into a rope and dipped into the indigo. ‘This gives the cloth a lustre, which you don’t get when you dye a whole piece,’ explains Joff. The threads have then been woven with an unbleached cotton on a Somet AC2 loom from the Seventies. ‘This was a really important piece of industrial equipment to come out in England, as it completely finished off the tradition of shuttle weaving,’ says Daniel.

The Lane x London Cloth collection is available from lanebypost.com. Prices start at £12 for a placemat. For more information about the London Cloth Company, visit londoncloth.com. Daniel hosts scarf-making workshops at the mill; book at airbnb.co.uk/experiences/807

DUDGEON London Sofamakers for 70 years

Luxury Comfort with every design

Our Beaufort sofa perfectly encompasses everything that DUDGEON values in sofa design - comfort and style - thanks to its hand-tied springs, bamboo cane, 100% pure down cushions and designer fabrics.

At DUDGEON we pride ourselves in being British made, and all our sofas are handmade by a team of highly skilled artisan upholsterers using the same methods as when we started in 1947.

Bartolozzi Mews 100 Lillie Road Fulham SW6 7SR 020 7589 0322 dudgeonsofas.com

INSIDER | NEWS

TOP OF THE SHOPS

Britain Can Make It is a new furniture and lighting shop in south London that takes its name from a 1946 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which championed British design and manufacture. ‘I realised Britain’s modernist design heritage wasn’t anywhere near as well known as that of the Nordic countries,’ explains founder Charlie Perry, who also stocks contemporary British designs. ‘I wanted to give people the opportunity to bring it into their homes.’ Some upholstered pieces by designers such as Race Furniture are made to order, meaning you can choose from a range of fabrics and woods.

Pictured right are: a sofa by Hemingway Design, based on a Sixties G Plan piece; a cushion by Robert Stewart; and an Anglepoise desk lamp. britaincanmakeit.com

MAGICAL MENAGERIE

On the move

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE ‘Records of Time’ gessoed and gilded cherrywood mirror; and cast resin ‘Cawdor Lamp’, both by Marianna Kennedy, shown by McClelland + Rachen. A Louis XVI chair from David Gill Gallery

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Having launched in Monaco in April 2017, Nomad, an annual show for collectable design and contemporary art, will be moving to colder climes for this year’s edition.

The four-day event will take place in St Moritz’s Chesa Planta (pictured above), a mansion built in the late sixteenth century. With its richly decorated rooms – the dining room, for example, is adorned with scenic murals and wood panelling – the house is an impressive backdrop for the 19 participating galleries from across the world. Each gallery will take over a room to display its pieces. Look out for Sarah Myerscough’s art and design gallery, which is new to the line-up this year, as well as Gallery Fumi, David Gill Gallery and Skarstedt Gallery.

Nomad is on February 8–11. nomadstmoritz.com

ANDREA BADRUTT; OWEN GALE

Northumberland-based ceramicist and artist Claudia Rankin, known for her jolly, brightly coloured pottery, has recently teamed up with The Shop Floor Project on a collection of ceramics and one-off collages.

Ranging from large caddies, pots and plates to 10cm square tiles (pictured from top are ‘The Blue Horse’, ‘Tile Bull’ and ‘The Yellow Lion’), her ceramics feature animals, vegetables and foliage. ‘My mother was a dealer in antique Oriental porcelain and the rare, decorative pots in our house have definitely influenced the colours and forms that I am drawn to,’ says Claudia. ‘I find modelling and painting animal forms endlessly satisfying. Certain animals have an established identity and I like to play with that – for example, a bull that’s not totally sure of itself or a pigeon that looks very classy.’ Her collages evoke a similar sort of whimsy – screen-printed fabric scraps, buttons, feathers and other found objects are arranged to create surreal scenes featuring animals, birds and insects. The collection is available now, with prices starting at £45 for a tile. claudiarankin.co.uk theshopfloorproject.com

KETTLE HOT WATER STRAIGHT FROM THE TAP INTRODUCING NEW GROHE RED It’s time to say goodbye to the kettle. Introducing new GROHE Red - a beautiful and convenient system that delivers kettle hot water straight from the tap - with childlock and automatic stop for guaranteed GROHE safety. grohe.co.uk

© Gaï Tordjman

© Annica-Eklund

© Andrea Olivo

© Tommaso Balasso

© Jeremias Morandell

© Giovanni Gastel

INSIDER | NEWS

Outside Interests CLARE FOSTER finds fresh gardening inspiration

M AT T E R S O F C O U R S E

ANDREW MONTGOMERY

Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld, who are also known as The Land Gardeners, are running several courses this spring in the bucolic setting of Wardington Manor, Oxfordshire. Day courses, which include lunch and tea, include Grow Your Own Cut Flowers (April 26, £245) and How to Make Compost (May 10, £125). A return of their popular two-day How to Redesign Your Garden course is also on the cards. thelandgardeners.com

HIGH AND DRY Dried flowers are back in fashion, and The Great British Florist’s pretty wreaths can be used as decorative objects all year round.

Packed with a variety of dried f lowers, foliage, seed heads, corn and barley, the wreaths make great rustic centrepieces. They are available in three diameters: £35 for a 40cm diameter wreath, £45 for 50cm and £55 for 70cm. greatbritishflorist.co.uk HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

INSIDER | NEWS

ANTICLOCKWISE FROM BELOW ‘Rosemary Burnham’. ‘Flore Plena’ in woodland. ‘Trumps’.

‘Spindlestone Surprise’

LEADING LIGHTS

Focus on... the best snowdrop events

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nowdrop time brings out the galanthophiles in force, and there are hundreds of events to choose from up and down the country. One of the best snowdrop days is at Harveys Garden Plants in Suffolk (January 20) where, in addition to the nursery’s own significant collection, there will be half a dozen other specialists selling rare snowdrops. The event is open 10.30am–2pm. harveysgardenplants.co.uk The annual Ultimate Snowdrop Sale at Myddelton House in Enfield takes place on January 27, 10.30am– 12am. With only an hour and a half allowed to browse and buy, this ‘fast and furious’ sale attracts serious snowdrop fanatics, but once the sale is over you can wander round the gardens to see the extensive collection of snowdrops. These were planted by horticulturist E A Bowles, who lived at Myddelton House in the early twentieth century. visitleevalley.org.uk For the third year, the National Garden Scheme is running its annual Snowdrop Festival throughout February. More than 80 gardens will open, from diminutive cottage gardens to large country estates, such as Welford Park in Berkshire. This garden always pulls in the crowds. Highlights include five acres of woodland thickly carpeted with snowdrops, as well as rare varieties in the formal gardens (open Wednesday to Sunday throughout February). To see the full list of gardens opening for snowdrops, visit ngs.org.uk Shaftesbury Snowdrops in Dorset organises an annual Study Day and Sale, which this year takes place on February 10 at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 9.15am– 4pm. Snowdrop specialists Kevin Hughes and Joe Sharman will give talks in the morning, while Anna Pavord will speak in the afternoon. Tickets cost £40 including a light lunch. shaftesburysnowdrops.org FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Illuminating a garden at night adds a new dimension to the design. Specialists such as John Cullen (johncullen lighting.com), who lit the London garden pictured above, and Owl Lighting (owl-lighting.co.uk) will design bespoke lighting schemes for your garden, while Lighting for Gardens (lightingforgardens.com) offers a huge range of individual lights, from tree to deck lights.

HOT POTATOES

February is the time to buy and chit your seed potatoes, but which varieties are the best to buy? Mostly it is down to personal taste, as well as trial and error, but if your area is prone to potato blight, which affects later maincrop potatoes, the new Sarpo varieties are reliably resistant. The group includes ‘Sarpo Axona’ and ‘Sarpo Mira’, but ‘Sarpo Blue Danube’ often comes top for flavour, with violet-hued tubers that make excellent roast or baked potatoes. ‘Blue Danube’ seed potatoes are available from Patch; £3.49 for 10, £4.79 for 20 or £6.49 for a 20kg pack. patchseed potatoes.co.uk

1 2 3 4 PIXELATE IMAGING; GAP PHOTOS/NICOLA STOCKEN; MARCUS HARPUR; SHUTTERSTOCK

Eco-friendly buys 1 Garden furniture specialist Jo Alexander offers a range of reclaimed teak furniture, such as the ‘Rosemoor Reclaimed Garden Bench’. Made from old floorboards or roof beams, it has a natural, rustic finish, which gives it instant character. The bench measures 97 x 184 x 68cm and costs £595. joalexander.co.uk 2 The ‘Big Paper Potter’ from Nether Wallop Trading enables you to make your own biodegradable pots from strips of old newspaper.

The homemade paper pots are 6.5cm wide and 7cm deep, making them perfect for larger seedlings and plug plants. Made from handcarved oak, the potter costs £16.95. netherwalloptrading.co.uk 3 Made in Holland from recycled bottles, the lightweight ‘Brussels Eco Planter’ comes in white, terracotta or grey. Each one measures 14 x 30cm diameter and costs £15. henandhammock.co.uk 4 Made from recycled plant pots, these plant labels look and feel like slate. Supplied with a wax pencil, the labels are 15cm long and cost £4.95 for a pack of five. Printed labels for herbs and vegetables are also available at £1 each. ashortwalk.com

GIVING YOUR HOME THE GARDEN IT DESERVES

INSIDER | NEWS

Latest launches… chic showrooms… hot buys… LAURA HOULDSWORTH takes note WALL ADORNMENT This mural features C F A Voysey’s nineteenth-century wallpaper design ‘The Anselm’, with its pink flowers and pale green botanicals. It is from the V&A collection at Surface View; from £65 a square metre. surfaceview.co.uk

Laura at the Farrow & Ball showroom in Notting Hill

The ‘Blue Home L-spout’ tap from Grohe dispenses filtered and chilled still, semi-sparkling and sparkling water.

With a streamlined tank that fits neatly into a cupboard, it is a great eco-friendly alternative to bottled water. It is 37.8cm high with a spout reach of 22.1cm, and costs £2,039. 020-8283 2840; grohe.co.uk

Congratulations House & Garden’s editor Hatta Byng was named editor of the year in the homes and interiors category of the 2017 BSME Awards.

Splash out

I am Seeing splatterware ceramics from Puglia everywhere. Designers Guild has a great selection, including this salad bowl in indigo splash on white, 23cm diameter, £17. 020-7351 5775; designersguild.com

More is more

Do not skimp on size when it comes to rugs – a generous one will help ground furniture in a space. This is ‘Cirrus’ by Amy Kent, who was inspired by a painting by her sister Lucy Kent. It is made from Tibetan wool and silk. As seen here, it measures 2.7 x 3.66 metres and costs £8,400. 07979-594651; amykent.co.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF Fireplace specialist Chesneys has opened a new flagship showroom in Hampstead at 147–151 Haverstock Hill, NW3. Browse the extensive range of fire surrounds and wood-burning stoves alongside fire baskets, gas and electric fireside products, and a selection of firedogs and irons in the 325-square-metre space. chesneys.co.uk FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

PHOTOGRAPHS: JOSHUA MONAGHAN; © VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON; PIXELATE IMAGING. LAURA IS WEARING A COAT FROM RALPH LAUREN (RALPHLAUREN.CO.UK). HAIR BY PERFECT 10 MOBILE BEAUTY (PERFECT10MOBILEBEAUTY.CO.UK)

Water wonder

January

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Tel: 0800 032 6492 www.harveyjones.com

INSIDER | NEWS

In crowd NEWS ON THE LATEST READER EVENTS

CHARITY Q&A Join me and interior designer Gail Taylor of Th2 Designs at the Design Club in Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, SW10 on Wednesday, February 7 at 10.30am.

I will be hosting a Q&A with Gail and her team about their trade secrets on ‘How to transform your space’. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity. Tickets cost £25 and include a glass of Prosecco in the Th2 studio after the talk and the opportunity to browse an exclusive charity cushion sale. To book a place, visit rainbowtrust.org.uk/events/ interior-design-event

LOUISA ASKINS, ROSI DE RUIG AND ANNA HAINES

EMMA REDMAYNE AND ALBERT READ

KITCHEN MASTERCLASS

You are invited to a kitchen design masterclass with House & Garden and designer Tom Howley at his new Islington showroom at 166 Upper Street, N1, on Wednesday, March 28 at 11am–1.30pm. Tom will give a presentation on kitchen planning and design, along with news on the latest kitchen trends.

This will be followed by a cookery demonstration by chef Ben Tish (above) founder of the Salt Yard Group and author of Grill, Smoke, BBQ. A relaxed lunch will be served, with wine. Tickets cost £25 each and include a gift bag. To book your place, visit tomhowleykitchen masterclass.eventbrite.co.uk.

BENJAMIN LAMB, RICHARD PARR AND CLARE GASKIN

THE LIST DIRECTORY LAUNCH PARTY The iconic Television Centre in Wood Lane was the perfect location to celebrate the launch of The List Directory 2018. Guests enjoyed champagne from Warwick Banks & Jenkins, Gilpin’s Gin cocktails and delicious canapés created by Social Pantry.

JOANNA WOOD, MELINDA CHANDLER, RICHARD MIERS AND LAVINIA DARGIE

NAOMI GRAHAM, JOÃO BOTELHO AND JENNIFER MANNERS

MANUSHI PATEL AND HARPAL MATHARU

CLAIRE GERMAN AND NICHOLAS COLERIDGE

J J MCCARTHY AND EMILY LEWIS

Diary dates

Maison&Objet Paris January 19–23, 9.30am–7pm (6pm on Tuesday) The trade-only interiors exhibition is held at Parc des Expositions de Paris-Nord Villepinte. maison-objet.com

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Visit houseandgarden.co.uk/the-list. Are you a design professional and want to appear in The List Directory 2019? Call 020-7152 3639, or email charlotte.richmond@condenast.co.uk

SHAUN JAMES COX

Paris Deco Off January 18–22, 9.30am–7.30pm (9.30pm on Saturday) Over 100 brands will welcome interiors designers and amateur enthusiasts to their showrooms. parisdeco-off.com

CHESNEYS FIRESIDE

BATTERSEA

BELSIZE PARK

Stockists throughout the UK

t

chesneys.co.uk

18th ­ 22nd January 2018

The «rendez­vous» of international interior designers and decoration editors Les rendez­vous des éditeurs et créateurs de la décoration internationale

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art scene

INSIDER | ART

Edited by EMILY TOBIN

Anthony van Dyck painted Charles I from three different angles so that the Italian sculptor Bernini could create a lifelike bust of the king

The first of a new series exploring the history behind famous works of art looks at the painting that defined a monarch

THE UNTOLD S T O RY

CHARLES I IN THREE POSITIONS,

BY ANTHONY VAN DYCK

ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II

I

n 1632, Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck moved to England to take up the role of principal painter to Charles I. He produced several regal portraits of the king and his family during his tenure, providing us with an enduring image of the Stuart court and redefining British portraiture. He shunned the stiff, formal approach in favour of something more lively and elegant, which countless successors would aspire to imitate.

While in London, Van Dyck was knighted, paid an annual pension of £200 and installed in a house at Blackfriars. History recounts that his residence had a special jetty so that the royal barge could moor when the King was visiting.

When Queen Henrietta Maria decided she wanted the Italian virtuoso Bernini to create a bust of her husband, Van Dyck was engaged to paint him. Rather than producing a traditional portrait, he depicted the king in varying poses to provide as descriptive a view as possible to the sculptor. It was the next best thing to Bernini meeting Charles I in person. Royal Academy curator Per Rumberg explains that Charles and Van Dyck sought inspiration from the corridors of Whitehall – namely Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of a Goldsmith in Three Positions (which at the time was thought to be by Titian). This was the spark that inspired Van Dyck to rotate the figure of the king in space.

Van Dyck knew his painting would be shown in artistic circles in Italy and so he created it accordingly – each of his Charleses

wears a different but equally sumptuous costume, complete with a filigree lace collar and pearl earring. As art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon noted, ‘The painting, also known as the triple portrait, is far more than a sculptor’s aid. It is a gauntlet thrown down by one great artist to another: a challenge to Bernini to sculpt an image as compellingly lifelike as that which Van Dyck has created, here in paint.’ This impressive and unusual portrait was his calling card and ‘just as Van Dyck had hoped, the painting caused quite a stir in Rome’, says Rumberg.

Bernini completed the bust in the summer of 1636 and sent it to the King and Queen at Oatlands Palace in Surrey the following year, where it was admired ‘not only for the exquisiteness of the worke but the likenese and nere resemblance it had to the king’s countenaunce’. Bernini was rewarded with a diamond ring worth £800 – a small fortune in the seventeenth century.

Unfortunately, the sculpture was short-lived and, in 1698, it was destroyed in a fire at Whitehall Palace.

Bernini kept Charles I in Three Positions and it stayed in his family by descent until it was sold to British art dealer William Buchanan in 1802 and later acquired by George IV in 1822. This month, it will form part of an exhibition at the Royal Academy.

‘Charles I: King and Collector’ runs from January 27 to April 15; royalacademy.org.uk ET HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

INSIDER | ART EXHIBITIONS

BUYING ART

Three limited-edition prints to consider adding to your collection

ELIZABETH FRIEDLANDER This month, the work of the German-born artist and typographer will go on show at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. Friedlander escaped to London in the Thirties and worked for Ellic Howe’s wartime black propaganda unit, forging Nazi rubber stamps and ration books. She later became known for her typography and ornamental design, including her covers for Penguin’s in-house magazine Penguins Progress (above). January 6–April 29; ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk

GIORGIO GRIFFA In recent years, Giorgio Griffa has been enjoying a renewed interest in his work. He first became known in the Sixties, when he was part of an Italian generation of artists who proposed a radical redefinition of painting. This month, the Camden Arts Centre presents the first major exhibition in the UK devoted to Griffa. January 26–April 8; camdenartscentre.org Pictured Obliquo

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

OUTSIDE IN The charity Outside In provides a platform for artists who find it difficult to access the art world, whether due to bad health, disability, isolation or social circumstance. This month, Outside In’s exhibition at Sotheby’s brings together a group of artists it has worked with. The charity’s goal is to create a fairer art world, which rejects institutional judgements about whose work can and should be displayed. January 11–19; sothebys.com | outsidein. org.uk Pictured Rakibul Chowdhury, Ophelia after painting by Millais

[1 ] DAVID HOCKNEY A Wooded Landscape, etching, edition of 100, 39 x 27cm, £5,000, from Alan Cristea Gallery. alancristea.com

[2] QUENTIN BLAKE Woman with Birds I, etching and aquatint, edition of 30, 35 x 31cm, £480, from Marlborough Gallery. marlboroughlondon.com

[3] DECLAN JENKINS Who’s Next on the Microphone I, woodcut, edition of 3, 130 x 84cm, £800, from Sims Reed Gallery. simsreed.com

INSIDER | ART

CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW Bridget Riley’s Cosmos (2016–2017).

The artist in 1967. Vapour (1970). Vespertino (1988)

a brief history of

BRIDGET RILEY

SAM MOORE; JEAN VONG, COURTESY GIORGIO GRIFFA AND CASEY KAPLAN, NEW YORK; FXP PHOTOGRAPHY; © BRIDGET RILEY 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, COURTESY DAVID ZWIRNER LONDON/NEW YORK; THE PAINTER BRIDGET RILEY 1967, PHOTOGRAPH BY KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Charting the octogenarian artist’s stratospheric rise ahead of a new exhibition of her work at David Zwirner gallery in London

I

t is hard to imagine that there was a time when Bridget Riley painted figuratively. She is the visionary whose hallucinatory lines, undulating arcs and rhythmic dots are so entwined with the revolutionary art of the Sixties that, in 1966, Keith Moon, the drummer from The Who, was pictured wearing a T-shirt adorned with her painting Blaze.

And yet, following her studies at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art, she experimented with painting figures in a semi-impressionist style. She then shifted to pointillism and copied the works of Georges Seurat as a means of exploring optical effects in art. This was her path to abstraction.

But it was a fortuitous encounter that secured her position in the art world. ‘You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a made-up story,’ says Doro Globus, managing director of David Zwirner Books and the person behind all of Riley’s publications for the past decade. In the early Sixties, Riley was working at an advertising agency. On her way back from the office one day she was caught in a rainstorm and sheltered in the doorway of Gallery One, whose director, Victor Musgrave, took pity on the sodden Riley and asked her in. In turn, she invited him to her studio to see her black-and-white paintings and, the following spring, he exhibited her first solo show.

In 1965, The Responsive Eye exhibition at MoMA in New York cemented Riley’s place at the centre of the Op art movement, and while she was thrilled to meet the likes of Josef Albers and Barnett Newman, she was furious to see guests at the private view wearing clothes adorned with images of her work. In her own words, she believed her art was being ‘vulgarised in the rag trade’. ‘There was no commercial copyright law in the US at the time,’ explains Doro, ‘Riley fought to establish this legislation, which was quite a statement for such a young artist.’

Following a period of experimenting with the tonality of grey, Riley began to work with colour. By playing with the order of her chosen kaleidoscopic hues she could ‘create a sense of movement in her paintings’, says Doro. In 1968, she became the first British contemporary painter and the first woman to win the International Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale.

In 2009, Riley wrote in the London Review of Books: ‘For the last 50 years, it has been my belief that as a modern artist you should make a contribution to the art of your time, if only a small one.’

Her contribution has been far from small and, now 86, she is showing her latest work at David Zwirner gallery in London. Half a century on from her first solo exhibition, Riley continues to create work so deceptively simple that it creeps up on you, hypnotising and disarming the viewer with one glance. 24 Grafton Street, W1, January 18–March 10; davidzwirner.com ET HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

WOR D S A N D P IC T U R E S What to read: the latest books chosen by ELIZABETH METCALFE

O n my b o o k s h e l f Harriet A nstruther The interior designer and author of ‘Reveal: Interior Design as a Ref lection of Who We Are’ (Clearview, £30) recommends three books to read in 2018

THEIR DIPLOMATIC AND ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

by James Stourton (Frances Lincoln, £40)

A greatly admired lady decorator once said, ‘Isn’t it odd that English furniture looks funny abroad, whereas continental furniture looks wonderful in this country?’ This beautifully produced book goes part way towards bearing out her theory. Almost every British embassy dining room, from Tokyo and Tunis to Buenos Aires and Bangkok, has a tripod mahogany table surrounded by a set of Chippendale-style chairs. While looking slightly out of place amid elaborate tilework or barocco boiserie panelling, these typical items of ‘brown furniture’ certainly induce a sense of Britannia ruling, port after dinner and, I daresay, a much needed whiff of Gloucestershire.

There are exceptions: elegant houses furnished with all the Louis and cannily bought for a song by the then government; contemporary glass and steel commissions, with interiors to match; or the charmingly gemütlich, such as the residence in Addis Ababa, which looks like an Oliver Messel villa in the Caribbean. There is also the idiosyncratic – such as Lutyens’ updated Queen Anne in Washington, with witty stair balustrade and some wonderfully whoopsie pelmets.

Some of the façades are pretty daunting indeed, such as the full-on Florentine FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

palazzo of Pera House, our British Consulate General in Istanbul. Once inside, we find vast, nearly all-white and crystal-hung formal entertaining rooms.

But at the residence in the Turkish capital Ankara (notoriously one of the most unloved of postings in the diplomacy business), any ambassador would surely feel less isolated in its upmarket Sunningdale sitting room, or dozing in the little wood-panelled study with a very chic Soane-meets-Forties fireplace.

House & Garden contributor Luke White has photographed the unpeopled rooms with a panache that makes us feel we are entering some with hushed awe, while in others we can sense phantom figures who negotiated treaties amid, say, dark-timbered Flemish Renaissance in Moscow, or oil deals on softly lit, lemon-coloured porticos in Tehran. For every embassy, James Stourton has supplied a concise, yet fascinatingly detailed – at times gossipy – history.

Due, perhaps, to friendships forged in these very buildings, continental furniture indeed looks wonderful in this country. But if English furniture can sometimes look ‘funny’ abroad, this book shows that British style surely never does. Nicky Haslam

My happiest childhood memories are of the time I spent with my father and siblings in the knotted and ancient woodlands around our house in West Sussex. We learnt about trees, how to look after them and their importance in our world. Reading this book took me back to those happy times, reinvigorating my love of nature and sense of how beneficial it is to us.

PLANTING SCHEMES FROM SISSINGHURST: CLASSIC GARDEN INSPIRATIONS

by Tony Lord (Frances Lincoln, £12.99)

As an avid gardener, I look at this book all the time. It is impossible not to take design inspiration from the colour combinations and play on scale, form and silhouette that it contains.

DAVID HICKS SCRAPBOOKS

by Ashley Hicks (Vendome, £60)

I am always inspired and intrigued by scrapbooks.

David Hicks was a creative genius, and his scrapbooks show the boldness and confidence with which he worked, and his ever-present questioning of ideas. Sadly, I haven’t kept my scrapbooking up to date, but it is going to be my mission in 2018. harrietanstruther.com

PIXELATE IMAGING

BRITISH EMBASSIES

THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES: WHAT THEY FEEL, HOW THEY COMMUNICATE – DISCOVERIES FROM A SECRET WORLD

by Peter Wohlleben (William Collins, £9.99)

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Better together CHARLIE PORTER combines pretty print fabrics and trims with options for the floor and walls to create two harmonious bedroom schemes CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT ‘Quartz’ (neutral), cotton/linen, £96, from Fermoie. ‘Beaded Braid’ (green /royal/ butter), cotton/wood, £28.75 a metre, from Jessica Light. ‘Trebizond’ (emerald), by Penny Morrison, linen, £158, from Lorfords. ‘Crayford’ (oyster), linen, £142.50, from Toile de Jouy. ‘Drag’ (1254) wallpaper, 53cm wide, £62 a 10-metre roll, from Farrow & Ball. ‘Crosshatch No 5’ (sap green), by Quercus & Co, linen, £178, from George Spencer Designs. Flooring background, ‘Mazandaran’ wool kilim, 250 x 290cm, £4,458.75, from Sinclair Till

PHOTOGRAPHS RACHEL WHITING

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

DECORATING | SWATCH

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT ‘India Yellow’ paint, £43.50 for 2.5 litres estate emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. ‘Rochambeau’ (grey), by Le Manach, cotton, £177.60, from Pierre Frey. ‘Natural Maroc’ vegetable-tanned goatskin leather (from top: malachite, raf, poppy), £26.40 a square foot, from Howe at 36 Bourne Street. ‘Aiko Floral’ (indigo), linen, £155, from Ralph Lauren Home. ‘Mazandra’ hand-woven dhurrie (ink/saffron), silk, £1,132 a square metre, from Vanderhurd. ‘Nezu’ (indigo), linen/polyamide, $83.91 a metre, from R P Miller Textiles. ‘Vineflower’, by Penny Morrison, linen, £160, from Lorfords. Flooring background, ‘Herringbone’ sisal carpet (holbury), £47.50 a square metre, from Alternative Flooring. Fabric prices are per metre. For suppliers’ details, see Stockists page FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

FOR HOW TO USE THESE FABRICS, VISIT HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK/SWATCH

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DECORATING | COMMENT

Imitation Game

DAVID NICHOLLS looks at the issue of cultural appropriation in the interiors world ILLUSTRATION GLORIA CICERI

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the decorator or owner that is meaningful,’ he says. ‘The idea of lick through the pages of this magazine and “ethnic” or “Indian” decoration shows no acknowledgement of you may well see rooms occupied by wallindividuality. “Indian in style” is absurd; the country is more culhung suzanis and Berber rugs, or a shelf of turally diverse than Europe.’ The appeal of the exotic, often tribal art. There will almost certainly be an expressed through Orientalism, carries with it a sense of the ikat cushion or lampshade somewhere, and primitive and ultimately conquered. ‘It’s also a matter of being very possibly a combination of two or more respectful of what one is using,’ says James. ‘Do you know if what of the above. This is the English decorating you have bought simply for decoration has important spiritual style: a layered, mix-and-match look that has connotations in the home country?’ How many people who buy developed over the course of 300-odd years. mass-produced ceramic Buddha heads from Kelly Hoppen see Should it matter whether these pieces are bona fide examples of them as having a religious significance akin to that of a crucifix? their type or products that simply capture the style of the original?

As far as interior designer Ben Pentreath is concerned, there Is it insensitive – or even inappropriate – to own creations are bigger battles to be fought. ‘Although I can see it is fraught without any awareness of their cultural significance, or an with issues, I don’t have a problem with it. But I’m not from an acknowledgement of the communities from which they originate? ethnic minority,’ he says. ‘The British have always appropriated.

These are the types of questions that are being asked by those When we won the Battle of the Nile, we went Egypt-crazy. When concerned with the issues surrounding cultural appropriation, Victoria was Empress of India, we built Indian palaces. Since the a term that describes the taking of an idea, style, tradition or time of the Grand Tourists, the British aristocracy has had a design from one culture by another. You could see it as an voracious appetite for collecting stuff from around the world, argument to protect cultural intellectual copyright, if you and it has become deeply embedded in our believe that such a thing exists. We are decorative psyche.’ more accustomed to seeing news stories ‘Do you know if what Ben says he has grown tired of the current or social media outrage on the subject in you have bought simply appetite for what he calls hyper-authenticrelation to fashion (see Stella McCartney for decoration has ity. ‘Sometimes a product could just as and Ankara fabrics) and art (Damien important religious or easily be made in a factory,’ he says. ‘I’m Hirst and Nigerian sculpture). Interior spiritual connotations?’ not too worried about where a dhurrie is design and decoration have remained made if I like the colour.’ relatively unscathed by accusations, but Dylan O’Shea is co-founder of A Rum Fellow, a London-based they are interesting to look at within this context nonetheless. textiles studio that began life selling vintage fabrics from indigThere is an uncomfortable irony in the fact that Western enous communities in South America. ‘We were sensitive about design and decoration often borrows from the very cultures that cultural appropriation from the beginning and always tried to the West historically colonised, exploited and plundered – from pay homage and respect to the original artisans and culture,’ he India to South America, the South Pacific to Africa. For some, it says. When he and his wife, Caroline Lindsell, decided to design adds further insults to long-standing injuries when they see a and make their own fabric line inspired by these traditional designer or company from a dominant culture reproducing and textiles, they chose to work directly with the artisans. ‘We didn’t profiting from the aesthetic heritage of the more vulnerable one. just buy things in a market and then send them to India to be It denies the latter a role within the economic cycle. made by someone else. We were inspired by the country, wanted Few cried ‘cultural appropriation’ last year when the Danish to learn about the process, meet the people and work with them concept of ‘hygge’ – a deeply culture-specific idea badly transto make the collection.’ This process will also carry more benefit lated as ‘comfy and cosy’ – was hijacked and commercialised by to that community, in terms of providing financial independence British retailers in order to flog felt slippers and sheepskin as well as preserving traditional skills. throws. But then, Britain and Denmark do not have quite the As the provenance of what we buy has become increasingly same troubled history as Britain and, say, India. important to many of us, new questions are bound to arise when Cultural appropriation is not necessarily a bad thing, though. we decide how to fill our homes. But just as we have become more ‘If I go to a bazaar in Uzbekistan and buy a suzani, it is hard to aware of the importance of responsible supply chains that see what is wrong about that,’ says Dr James O Young, author promote fair trading practices and safe working conditions, and of Cultural Appropriation and the Arts. He suggests that it is do not wreak havoc on the environment, there is an opportunity often no more than a compliment to the original culture. ‘If you to apply the same scrutiny to the origin of the designs and ideas genuinely admire it, it can be a powerful way of decorating.’ themselves; it is an opportunity that can only be enriching However, he warns that there are caveats. ‘It is the intention of HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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DECORATING | DESIGN IDEAS

DESIGN IDEAS

Part two

KITCHENS

ROB SANDERSON

In the second of a two-part special on this most important of rooms, ELIZABETH METCALFE focuses on balancing materials and colours, and explores the options for open shelving

If you want a colourful, patterned work surface, choose this engineered marble terrazzo, which is part of designer Max Lamb’s ‘Marmoreal’ range for Dzek. It costs from £325 a square metre. The large green f lecks connect neatly with the green-painted units, while brass edging adds a sophisticated touch. The kitchen was designed by Play Associates. dzekdzekdzek.com | play-associates.com

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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FIND A BALANCE Skilfully combining materials gives a layered feel

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1 Simple floor-to-ceiling tiles and rustic cabinets in this kitchen, by American designer Steven Gambrel, keep the marble worktop from looking too grand. Try the ‘Metro White Tile’, £19.50 a square metre, from Topps Tiles. srgambrel.com toppstiles.co.uk 2 In this minimalist kitchen, a classic palette of white paint, Carrara marble and oak works in perfect harmony. The Vincent Van Duysen table adds texture and the wall lights are from Skinflint. vincentvanduysen.com skinflintdesign.com 3 Introduce colour to a kitchen with a splashback. Here, interior designer Sarah Chambers has laid glass, stipple-painted with silver gilt, over soft pink paint. sarahchambersinteriors.co.uk 4 The interior designer Tara Craig chose Fired Earth’s distressed ‘Paris Isabelle’ tiles (£721.23 a square metre) to complement the blue painted British Standard units. tcraig.co.uk firedearth.com | britishstandardcupboards.co.uk 5 The shimmering concrete island in this kitchen forms a pleasing contrast with the weathered wooden cabinets, which were made from salvaged shutters.

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FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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DECORATING | DESIGN IDEAS

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ANNIE SCHLECHTER; PAUL MASSEY; CHRIS TUBBS; NATALIE DINHAM; ANNA BATCHELOR; JOANNA MACLENNAN; TOM FALLON

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6 For her own kitchen, interior designer Rita Konig lined a wall with large, square, pale blue tiles from Made a Mano. The room is also a masterclass in kitchen lighting, with enamelled pendants, spotlights and a pretty table lamp. ‘A lamp is always good, because it helps kitchens feel like decorated rooms,’ explains Rita. ‘And lamps are useful in the evening when I want to turn off the spotlights.’ ritakonig.com | madeamano.com 7 In this kitchen by Maria Speake, the island is crafted from one piece of salvaged onyx, while the geometric patterned cabinets are made from Victorian tulipwood and oak shelves. The splashback and lower units are in reclaimed iroko wood, a robust and water-resistant option. retrouvius.com 8 Combining tiles in different formations will jazz up a wall. Here, a line of cream tiles has been arranged vertically to break up the wall of horizontal tiles. The tile is the ‘Anya’ from Topps Tiles, in the ocean and frost colourways (£54.59 a square metre). toppstiles.co.uk 9 Kitchen company West & Reid has clad this island with encaustic cement tiles from Bert & May. The simple pattern provides a visual contrast to the white Carrara marble worktop and splashback behind the island. westandreid.co.uk | bertandmay.com

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HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

DECORATING | DESIGN IDEAS

2 DI SPL AY

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Open cupboards and shelving make storage stylish 1 Made-to-measure storage is not the only option. Auctions and antique fairs, and websites such as The Saleroom, are great places to find free-standing pieces, such as the open-sided Victorian shelving in this kitchen. the-saleroom. com | retrouvius.com 2 This display unit by kitchen company Lanserring is as beautiful as it is practical, with its deep petroleum oak chevron doors, woven mesh sliding panel and walnut drawers and shelves. lanserring.com 3 Repurpose an existing piece of furniture, as in this kitchen by Maria Speake.

She had this island made from a piece of mahogany museum furniture and then added a mirrored partition 15cm from the front to create a display unit for glassware and ceramics. retrouvius.com 4 Two long, open shelves provide elegant storage in this kitchen by the interior designer Rose Uniacke. It is a good way to display decorative pieces. roseuniacke.com 5 Special storage compartments for glassware and jars have been built into this smart ‘Phoenix’ kitchen by Poliform. poliformuk.com

4 FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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‘Eastern Bloc Factory Pendant Lights’, 36 x 45cm diameter, £300, from Skinflint. skinflintdesign.com

‘HW601 Herringbone Oak Wood Flooring’, £41.94 a square metre, from Havwoods. havwoods.co.uk

GET THE LOOK ‘Special Green Brick Metro Tile’, 6 x 13cm, 70p a tile, from Milagros. milagros.co.uk

‘The challenge here was to integrate a fully functional kitchen with a design that looks a bit thrown together,’ says interior designer Hubert Zandberg of this smart Holland Park kitchen

‘Bronze Maria Banjo with Pattress’ (gloss black enamel), 19cm diameter, £203.04, from Urban Cottage Industries. urbancottageindustries.com

CA S E ST U DY

PAUL MASSEY; JO BRIDGES; LUKE WHITE

The owners wanted a multi-functional space that did not feel fitted, so Hubert Zandberg decided to use plenty of found pieces that would set the tone and prevent the kitchen from feeling too utilitarian. hzinteriors.com TILES Glossy green tiles were chosen for one of the walls. ‘We wanted to form a link with the garden,’ says Hubert. The shelves on this wall have also been tiled to blend in seamlessly. LIGHTING For task lighting over the island, Hubert has used large vintage shades, which he combined to create a single three-pendant fixture. ‘I like to include boldly scaled, interesting lighting in kitchens,’ he says. ‘It is a great way to add soul to the even the most minimal spaces.’ The cages on the bottom of the shades here give the lighting an industrial feel, which is echoed by the grill-style metal doors in the corner. The larder, concealed behind them, is illuminated with a simple black wall light above it and spotlights have been used to provide ambient lighting throughout. MATERIALS Mixed materials give a layered look.

The metal larder doors are a reproduction of vintage industrial doors, and they tie in well with the unusual vintage metal stools. The island itself is topped with a chunky wooden worktop, which softens the metal elements and links with the wooden storage unit to the right of the picture and the parquet flooring.

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

DECORATING | DESIGN IDEAS

K I T C H E N MO ODB OA R D Complementary colour palettes that work, including tiles, worktops, furniture and lighting

Geometric

Earthy

WALLS ‘Bonheur Ceramic’ tiles (white), £71.28 a square metre, from Artisans of Devizes. artisansofdevizes.com FLOORING ‘Hex Crossroads’ tiles (custom green and milk), by Popham Design, £225 a square metre, from Day True. daytrue.com LIGHTING ‘Mobil 70 Pendant Light Brass’, 70 x 46cm diameter, £550, from The Conran Shop. conranshop.co.uk FURNITURE ‘Joyce Cabinet’, 187 x 132 x 42cm, £6,970, from Pinch. pinchdesign.com

WALLS ‘Cement Tile’ (rose babe), €94 a square metre, from Emery & Cie. emeryetcie.com WORKTOP ‘Reclaimed Teak Worktop’, 120 x 100cm, £252, from Retrouvius. retrouvius.com FURNITURE ‘Bar Stool One’ (oak), 76 x 39.5cm diameter, £395, from Another Country. anothercountry.com LIGHTING ‘Terracotta Medium’ pendant, 20 x 27cm diameter, £288, from Hand & Eye Studio. handandeyestudio.co.uk

Provençal

WALLS ‘Floral 1’ tiles, 15cm square, £26 each, from Victorian Ceramics. victorianceramics.com LIGHTING ‘Single Paris Ceiling Light’, 12 x 12cm diameter, £45, from Willow & Stone. willowandstone.co.uk TAPS ‘Classic Bibcock and Pillars’, 25 x 14.5cm, £499.20, from Lefroy Brooks. uk.lefroybrooks.com FLOORING ‘Antique Hexagonal Blanc Rose’, £105 a square metre, from Martin Moore Stone. martinmoorestone.com

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Metropolitan

WORKTOP AND SPLASHBACK ‘Carrara Marble’, £298.80 a square metre, from Lapicida. lapicida.com LIGHTING ‘Esme’ shade, 21 x 39cm diameter, £35, from Habitat. habitat.co.uk TAPS ‘La Loire Kitchen Mixer Tap’, 37 x 17.3 x 23cm, from £540, from Catchpole & Rye. catchpoleandrye.com FURNITURE ‘Camembert Chair’, 82 x 45 x 51cm, from £1,277, from Howe. howelondon.com

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DECORATING | ADVICE

RITA’S PICKS

Rita at Jamb on Pimlico Road, SW1

Rita Notes

RITA KONIG warms to the topic of fireplaces and the joy to be found in assembling their accoutrements PHOTOGRAPH CRAIG FORDHAM

‘Bolection Fireplace’ (black marble), 118.5 x 135cm, £4,200, from Jamb

RITA WEARS A JACKET AND SHIRT FROM HOLLAND & HOLLAND (HOLLANDANDHOLLAND.COM)

‘Kelp Oak’ match striker, 15cm diameter, from £374, from Lucy Cope. lucycope.com

‘Salisbury 5 Series’ wood burning stove, 53 x 48 x 33cm, from £1,110, from Chesneys

‘Flourish Fireguard’, 105 x 65 x 30cm, £156, from Oka

I

t is often the accessories to something that really hold the appeal for me – the tennis outfit, for example, more than actually playing the game.

With fireplaces, though, I love the thing as much as the accoutrements, probably because the activity of making the fire is really a lead-up to sinking deep into a sofa. But those accoutrements are good, too – the baskets, the logs... I have even managed to get excited about the firelighters.

Christopher Howe (howelondon.com) provides a lot of this for me. All my log baskets come from him, including a lovely big willow one and another that sits by the fire, filled with kindling and the aforementioned firelighters. I use natural ones that look like Shredded Wheat, which I bulk buy on Amazon. Just look up ‘natural firelighters’. To this I add a long barbecue lighter. They are not pretty, but they are so practical. Alternatively, a match striker on the mantle is a more expensive but also more attractive route.

You need everything close to hand, so you can light the fire easily and at a moment’s notice without having to run around finding bits and pieces. It is this that makes a house comfortable and luxurious.

In addition, a well-stocked log pile in the garden, especially in the country, is very reassuring. There is little as appealing as the split log, so do pay attention to the type of wood you are buying –a good rough side on a split log seems to catch so well.

For the actual fireplace, I find myself either picking them up in junk shops and reclamation yards or going to Jamb (jamb.co.uk). It makes beautiful reproductions and has an amazing inventory of antiques. Its staff are total professionals and I completely trust their eye for scale. You want to be in good hands when working on your fireplace, because it is so integral to the architecture and there are so many details to get right (the size, and the basket and slips, etc). One of my favourite pieces at Jamb is the ‘Bolection’ surround in black marble; when you run

You need everything close by, so you can light a fire at a moment’s notice your hand along it, you can feel it has been handmade, as it is not completely flat, which is fabulous. Howe, next door to Jamb, does good wooden fireplaces, too.

There are places in the house that a wood-burning stove is a good solution. They are wonderful in entrance halls, where you might not want to leave an open fire unattended, and are so efficient at sending the heat whistling up the stairs. We have one in our house in Wales, in an old barn we converted into a sitting room.

Chesneys (chesneys.co.uk) does a good line and I like wood burners from the American company Malm (malmfireplaces.com). They look so cool – a bit like James Bond in the Alps – and are more convivial than the cauldron-like wood burners we are used to, as they feel as if they are actually designed for sitting around.

For fireguards, I turn to antique shops or Howe again (sorry about the ode to Christopher this column has become, but he makes beautiful things and even has a fireside section on his website). Oka (oka.com) also has a ‘Flourish Fireguard’ that is great looking; Nicky Haslam has it in his house. Failing that, hardware stores always have good options.

Be always on the lookout for things for the fireside.

When you start on a project, keep your eye out in antique shops for mantles, irons and more. These are hard things to find in a rush, but fun when you have the time to collect the stuff you really like HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

DECORATING | PROFILE

Nest Design EMILY TOBIN talks to Lucy Bathurst, whose one-of-a-kind curtains made using vintage fabrics are as exquisite as works of art PHOTOGRAPHS DEAN HEARNE

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ucy Bathurst comes from a long line of keen ‘stitchers’. Her grandmother wrote a book on patchwork – which curiously was published by purveyors of schmaltz Mills & Boon – and both her mother and aunt were interior designers. Holidays were spent in Scotland learning how to sew, while Lucy’s time at home was dedicated to decorating her bedroom. ‘A life of making things was inevitable,’ she says.

Having worked as an interior designer for a time, Lucy trained in curtain making and launched Nest Design in 2001. In the company’s first iteration, traditional tassels, swags and tails were the order of the day, until 2007, when she was flown to India to make 42 pairs of identical silk curtains for a palace in Hyderabad. ‘I’d work on-site among the frangipani trees with pigeons flying over our table as we stitched,’ she says. ‘It was wonderful.’

Regretfully for Lucy, the project finished on time and on budget after three months, by which time she had fallen in love with India. Her plan was to move to Delhi, but when a job came up working for Retrouvius in London – a design practice known for its innovative and intelligent use of salvaged materials – it was too good an offer for her to turn down. ‘Maria Speake, the company’s co-founder, taught me to see fabric in a completely different way. She chucked out all convention and introduced the idea of incorporating vintage fabrics into design.’

It was there that Lucy formalised her magpie-like obsession with textiles, and when she left Retrouvius in 2010, she relaunched Nest as a design studio that is as much a hymn to the wonder of fabric as it is a place of production. Every piece she and her team of ‘ninja’ seamstresses make is bespoke.

In 2017, Nest relocated to a workshop in north London. Here, Lucy has squirrelled away boxes stuffed with broderie anglaise, antique doilies, vintage handkerchiefs and embroidered linens. There are kimonos, hand-dyed velvets in gemstone shades, striped Moroccan wools and Indonesian panels. Where possible, all new cottons are sourced in the UK. One by one, each of these pieces will be alchemised into a new design, be it a blind, cushion or lampshade. ‘The process is always the same: find a beautiful textile and imagine what it might want to become,’ says Lucy. ‘Seeing it through to the last stitch still seems to me to be a form of magic.’

Lucy has sewn translucent voile blinds for Somerset House’s restaurant Spring, and created diminutive patchwork curtains for a gypsy caravan and a vast curtain for a double-height sitting room in Shoreditch.

‘Our studio at the time wasn’t big enough, so we had to lower it out through an upstairs window of my house and down the outside wall to test whether the six-metre drop would hang properly.’ It did and the result was an enormous modernist panel in rich shades of copper, created using hand-dyed linen with circles of Indian khadi and a solitary block of burgundy velvet. It is an impressive creation.

Lucy is currently working on pieces for a hotel and continuing to collaborate with the interior designer Rachel Chudley on textiles for her projects. ‘Watch anyone walk into a room and the first thing they’ll do is look at the window,’ she insists. ‘So why not embellish it? Curtains turn an architectural space into a home. To quote William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Curtains are inherently that – they are genuinely useful and exquisitely made, and the fact that they are beautiful just makes them all the more fabulous’ Nest Design: 020-7794 9698; nestdesign.co.uk

SPECIALIST

OPPOSITE (clockwise from top left) A blind made from voile.

A burgundy patch salvaged from a seat cover. Found fabrics in the studio. Hand-stitching voile. A restored antique silk panel. Lucy’s bedroom wall, hand-stitched with gold thread.

Antique lace. Inspecting laces. Lucy hand-stretching voile on lampshades. THIS PAGE Lucy in her north London workshop HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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LIFESTYLE Farquhar fishing in the Englishman’s pool at the Altnaharra Beat on the Lethen Estate in Nairn

Founding father As the son of the celebrated artist and sculptor Gerald Laing, FARQUHAR OGILVIE-LAING is ensuring his family’s legacy lives on, both in the Highland castle home his father saved from ruin and through his prosperous bronze foundry TEXT CHARLOTTE FAIRBAIRN | PHOTOGRAPHS GREG FUNNELL

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

LIFESTYLE

W

hen the Scotland-based artist and sculptor Gerald Laing died in November 2011 and a newspaper journalist came knocking on the door of his son Farquhar Ogilvie-Laing, Farquhar summed up his father with the following words: ‘He painted and sculpted, rebuilt motorcycles and cars and castles, and wrote books. But his biggest talent of all was he was a fantastic father.’

This touching relationship between father and son remains central to Farquhar, himself a father of three, and now, as founder and director of the Black Isle Bronze foundry, one of Europe’s foremost bronze casters. It is also palpable at Kinkell Castle on the banks of the River Conon in Invernessshire, where Farquhar and his wife Jill – whom he met in a bar appropriately enough called The Foundry – live with their children, Madeleine, 12, Fergus, 10, and Jemima, 7.

The story begins with John Osborne’s era-defining play Look Back in Anger and its staging at the Royal Court Theatre in 1957. At the time, Gerald was a subaltern in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, having followed his father into the army and his regiment. But he was clearly not standard army material, and when he saw Osborne’s play as a member of that angry post-war generation, he found himself forced to reflect. ‘It was a turning point in my life,’ Gerald later wrote. Realising he was a rebel and as such ill-suited to a military existence, at 24, he resigned his commission and enrolled at what was then Saint Martin’s School of Art in London. Gerald went on to become a leading light in the Pop art movement of the Sixties. Today, he is spoken of in the same regard as American artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol, and Brits Peter Blake, Allen Jones and David Hockney.

While his paintings are probably his best-known works, FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The exterior of Kinkell Castle. Jill with the family’s Parson Russell terrier Abby. Farquhar in the studio (also centre right) in the castle garden. A family walk in Knockfarrel. OPPOSITE Artwork in the great hall includes the screenprint Domestic Perspective and the bronze Galina VI on the table underneath, both by Gerald Laing.

Beside the latter is a powder-coated steel and glass marble ‘Bumbo Lamp’

by Farquhar’s brother Sam Ogilvie’s company Ogilvie Design Studio

While the property’s fortified origins are still evident, Kinkell Castle is as contemporary today as it is historic

LIFESTYLE sculpture was one of Gerald’s regular mediums and it was an interest in this that was the first major legacy he passed on to Farquhar. As a child, Farquhar had helped his father in a small foundry at home. ‘I knew from the age of five or so that I wanted my work to be here,’ says Farquhar. The ‘here’ he refers to is Kinkell Castle, the second part of his father’s legacy.

The elder son from Gerald’s second marriage, Farquhar went from Gordonstoun School in Moray to a history of art course at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Work at an auction house followed, but it was when he started as an apprentice at the Morris Singer Art Foundry in Hampshire – where works of art have been cast in bronze since 1848 – that the young Scot rediscovered the métier introduced to him by his father.

Although brought up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gerald’s antecedents were Scottish, and from life as an artist in a New York garret, he decided he wanted a summer refuge. Europe beckoned, then Scotland and with Farquhar’s mother Galina, Gerald toured the Highlands in search of some medieval base to call their own. In 1968, they found Kinkell Castle, a Z-plan stronghold that was the former seat of the clan Mackenzie, ruinous and in the hands of local farmer Angus MacDonald.

Gerald paid £5,000 for it and spent the remainder of his life nurturing it into a family home, studio and workshop. While the property’s fortified origins are evident in its gunholes, peepholes and turrets, Kinkell Castle is as contemporary today as it is historic. Inside, old walls sport dot paintings of Brigitte FROM TOP Fergus, Madeleine and Bardot and Amy Winehouse; outJemima with Jill in the studio at side, the relative symmetry of lawns the castle drawing and building is broken up by a sculpted torso, a models. A Gerald Laing dot nude and a modernist pyramid. painting of Brigitte Bardot hangs In 1994, aged 24, Farquhar above the bed in the main founded the Black Isle Bronze bedroom, with a ‘Flair Chair’ by foundry.

Initially, the foundry was Ogilvie Design Studio to the left based at the castle, in that same garden shed. Although his early work was for his father, ‘within a few weeks, I was doing heads for other sculptors,’ he says. When the new, all-seated Twickenham Stadium was being constructed, Farquhar wrote a letter to the Rugby Football Union (RFU) asking whether it wanted some bronzes outside the stadium. The answer was yes and this led to a series of commissions.

After two years at Kinkell, Farquhar and his work outgrew the garden shed. He moved to a steading in Nairnshire and, in 2002, moved again, creating a bespoke foundry on an industrial estate in Nairn. At his new premises, Farquhar made sure that lost wax and sand casting were both on offer – the former being an ancient technique that achieves greater and more subtle detail. His first major international commission was called Mare and Foal; they now stand at the Chukyo Racecourse in Japan. Should you find yourself sauntering down Piccadilly, you will find plentiful evidence of the foundry’s work. All 66 bronze capitals, columns and urns that grace the Robert Adam-designed 198-202 Piccadilly were cast by Black Isle Bronze.

Black Isle Bronze is now a star in the foundry firmament and a source of considerable pride to the Scottish government. Sixteen employees are on the books, with a wealth of commissions in prospect. A Joan of Arc will go to a university in the States; a War Horse monument by Susan Leyland will go to Ascot; and works by Carolyn Morton, Alexander FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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LIFESTYLE

Black Isle Bronze is now a star in the foundry firmament and a source of considerable pride to the Scottish government

Stoddart, Laurence Broderick and James Butler are all on the cards. ‘The relationship between sculptor and foundry is fundamental,’ says Farquhar, gratified to work with the best.

Asked what his mantra is for his creative and working life, Farquhar does not hesitate. ‘It’s a family effort,’ he says. His children and wife stand very much at his side. ‘In my book, survival is success. I am proud to stand on my father’s shoulders and move forwards.’ And if Kinkell Castle and all it represents are not testimony enough to that, it might be worth paying a visit to Twickenham Stadium, for the culmination of the Laing relationship with the RFU was a bronze named Core Values. It is an eight-metre, five-tonne sculpture of rugby players in a line-out. The work was part of the £140 million redevelopment of the south stand. Gerald sculpted it, Farquhar cast it and it was unveiled in May 2010, 18 months before that rebel soldier moved aside permanently to make way for his son Black Isle Bronze: blackislebronze.co.uk

OPPOSITE Farquhar in his foundry in Nairn wearing metal splash protective equipment, with a lifting chain. THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Sanding a ‘Fragmented Crack’ table for London company Based Upon. The Archer by Maja Quille. Farquhar with Black Isle Bronze employees Piotr and Robin pouring bronze. From left: Lady Dorothea Ashley Cooper, by Frank Dobson; Galina VIII, by Gerald Laing; Maxwell Otter II, by Laurence Broderick HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

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The par terre garden at the ruined Low ther Castle in Cumbria

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BACK TO BASICS When antique dealer Christopher Howe was asked to decorate this house in Bray, he set about uncovering its original features. Now eclectic furniture and unusual fabrics complement the exposed brickwork and beams TEXT EMILY TOBIN | PHOTOGRAPHS LUCAS ALLEN

SITTING ROOM (both pages) Next to a seventeenth-century wall sconce is a painting by John Caple.

The sofa is covered in an original f loral silk. A taxidermy penguin, by Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren, is an irreverent nod to the owner’s collection of Penguin Classics

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

T

here are always certain objects that shopkeepers and antique dealers are reluctant to sell. For Christopher Howe, it was a Twenties armchair upholstered in a tufted Bute tweed. Fortunately for him, ‘it was the sort of thing you’d find in your granny’s house – an unassuming piece that most people ignored’. That was until 2012, when a young man walked into his shop, marched straight up to the chair and bought it. ‘As soon as he set eyes on its brown velvet cushion, I knew we would get along,’ says Christopher.

He was right. Five years have passed and Christopher has overseen the decoration of two projects for the chair’s owner: one, a small barn in Gloucestershire (which was featured in House & Garden in July 2017); the second, this house on the high street in Bray, Berkshire.

This was not intentional. In fact, Christopher had advised his client against using an interior designer. ‘I told him not to bother. He has a great eye and might as well make his own mistakes rather than pay someone else to make them for him. I told him he could give me the odd phone call if he needed some help.’

But things snowballed, ‘the odd phone call’ became a site visit and, before long, Christopher was overseeing all of the decoration. It is a higgledy-piggledy sort of house, with parts dating back to the early sixteenth century, and

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

so he repurposed certain rooms to make it a more coherent space. The glass-panelled front door leads into the entrance hall, off which are a snug and sitting room. The hall also acts as the dining room, with a restored staircase that leads up to the four bedrooms.

In the Eighties, a few slapdash alterations were made and a mishmash of false walls was installed. These were swiftly removed to create space and allow more light into what is naturally a dark house. Upstairs, two poky bedrooms and part of the hallway were remodelled to become the main bedroom and, by taking down several walls, Christopher created long views from room to room across the width of the house.

Pine flooring was ripped up and – with characteristic resourcefulness – Christopher turned it into butt-and-bead panelling for the bathroom walls. The walls were stripped back to their original state, revealing handsome brickwork and exposing beams.

The owners had been considering a steel and glass extension but Christopher nudged them towards a timber structure with Crittall windows. This now houses a smart kitchen complete with an island salvaged from a fishmonger’s, an eighteenth-century dresser to which a sink has been added and Neisha Crosland tiles above the powder-blue Lacanche range cooker.

The extension is an architecturally sensitive addition to the house that quietly takes into consideration the history of the building and, despite its pitched glass roof, looks as though it has always been there.

Much of the flooring consists of wide boards from a reclamation yard in Herefordshire, maltings (a red-brown brick), or handmade Norfolk pamments (clay tiles). ‘These came from a brilliantly industrious guy who has set up a business called Norfolk Reclamation, where he manufactures his own bricks,’ says Christopher. ‘His father takes me to Chelsea matches, which is an added bonus.’

As with all Christopher’s projects, attention to detail is the mainspring: the walls of the snug are panelled and tacked with steel pins in a linen and horsehair fabric, which was once used for interlining suits; a tiny jewel box of a dressing room is lined with vintage linen, hand dyed yellow; the restored staircase is interspersed with barley-twist spindles; and the crazy paving in the garden was inspired by Gertrude Jekyll.

Christopher talks about each piece of furniture, bolt of fabric and specialist finish as if he were recalling old friends.

The designer and his client share a boundless enthusiasm for beautiful things and have kitted out this house accordingly. Together, they have transcended faddish trends to create a timeless interior packed to the gills with eclectic pieces and impeccable craftsmanship Christopher Howe: howelondon.com

GARDEN (opposite) The crazy paving was inspired by Gertrude Jekyll. Crittall windows ensure the extension is filled with light. KITCHEN (this page) Inside the extension, the floor is made from cheeseboards, which were found on a trip to the South of France. Fifties Italian bar stools contrast with the island, which was salvaged from a fishmonger’s

Christopher TALKS ABOUT EACH PIECE OF FURNITURE, bolt of fabric and specialist finish as if he were recalling OLD FRIENDS

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

ENTRANCE HALL (opposite) The dining chairs are the ‘Salon Chair’ design from Howe; the door leads to the sitting room.

SNUG (this page) Christopher sourced the Forties jajim rug from Woven Accents.

A linen/horsehair fabric covers the walls

The walls were STRIPPED BACK to their original state, revealing handsome BRICKWORK and exposing BEAMS

SPARE BEDROOM (both pages) The pewter chandelier is fitted with lampshades that match the wallpaper and curtains. The bed was upholstered with vintage beetled linen from Howe at 36 Bourne Street

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

CHILDREN’S ROOM (top left) The bobbin bench is a midnineteenth-century English piece.

DRESSING ROOM (top right) Vintage linen was dyed for the walls.

BATHROOM (this image) Pine flooring was used for the panelling

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MAIN BEDROOM (this page and opposite bottom right) Two small bedrooms were combined with part of the landing to create a light and airy space. The headboard was originally a piece of sixteenthcentury English panelling. The green limewash is from Francesca’s Paints

TEXT CHRISTOPHER STOCKS PHOTOGRAPHS ALEXANDER JAMES LOCATIONS EDITOR DAVID NICHOLLS

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

meeting of minds Architect William Smalley has transformed this Edwardian villa into a modern family house that delights its owner by opening up spaces and working with a palette of natural colours and materials

SEATING AREA A sofa from Christian Liaigre and armchair from Arf lex with neutral linen covers and a Vanderhurd rug create a comfortable seating area. The chimneypiece is in f lamed Purbeck stone, while the wall light is ‘Hanging Lamp No 1’ by Muller van Severen, from Viaduct

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

It is a calm and coherent space, thanks to a carefully considered palette of colours and materials SEATING AND DINING AREAS (both pages) A neutral palette and natural materials unify the L-shape, open-plan space on the ground f loor, which comprises seating and dining areas and a library. The pendant lights in the dining area are the ‘Candela di Vals’ design by Peter Zumthor for Viabizzuno. One of the ceramics seen on the table on this page was made by the owner, the other is by Kasper Würtz, from Sigmar. The brass egg and bowls seen on the dining table in the photograph opposite are by Jacqueline Rabun and Carl Auböck for Sigmar.

William designed the brass detail on the door

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Each sink is centred on a window and the cupboards align precisely with the grid of the sandstone floor KITCHEN (both pages) The kitchen has a ‘floating’ wooden bench designed by William and a custom 10-metre-long brushed steel worktop made by Ottima

‘I like Edwardian houses because the rooms are varied so you immediately get a sense of flow’

LIBRARY AREA (opposite) On the ground floor the library area, with a sofa from Cassina, leads through to the main seating area.

CLOAKROOM (this page top left) The back door is reached through a panelled cloakroom. GARDEN (top right) Grasses are planted in front of the original wisteria-hung loggia; (bottom left) looking south along the walled orchard area to the back wall of the loggia steps on the left lead up to the dining room. MEZZANINE (bottom right) Stairs lead to this oak-panelled mezzanine area with a door to a bathroom HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

H

idden behind a high wall on a quiet street in s outh-we st L ondon stands a rather remarkable house. At first, this Edwardian villa looks like many of its suburban peers, with a studied lack of symmetry, hipped roof and dormer windows. Yet its doors open on to a sleek, modern interior, courtesy of architect William Smalley.

The owner, who bought the house in 2012, had been living in Belgravia, but was looking for more green space. The large garden appealed, as did the long views south from its hilltop setting, but in the owner’s words, as it was then, the house ‘had all the appeal of a boarding school and I did not know what to do with it’. She had already seen five architects before she met William, whose work she came across online. ‘I did not have a specific requirement or a formula,’ she explains.

‘I just wanted the house to be beautiful.’

William takes up the story: ‘At our first meeting, the owner said, “We’ve got to be able to make mistakes. If we don’t, we haven’t pushed ourselves.” I thought that was incredible, and it got us off to a good start. I like Edwardian houses because the rooms are varied in shape and aspect so you immediately get a sense of f low, which you wouldn’t find in a more classically planned Georgian house. We’ve reduced this one from eight bedrooms to five, which has allowed us to combine several rooms and gives a sense of generosity and size, without losing a human scale.’

On the ground floor, a wide hallway leads through double doors into the interconnecting seating area, dining room and library. This large, roughly L-shape space is filled with light from the south-facing bay window and fullheight windows in the dining area. ‘The ground floor was originally divided into several rooms,’ William says, ‘but I could immediately see how the spaces could be opened up to flow together.’

Despite its size and complex shape, it is a calm and coherent space, thanks to a carefully considered palette of timber, stone and linen. These materials are further unified by an art collection chosen by the owner and William, with several pieces from the New Art Centre in Wiltshire. The walls and ceilings throughout are painted in the same ethereal grey, while the floors are laid with Welsh oak boards in unequal widths. Daylight is filtered by gauzy linen blinds and curtains, with pale linen covers on the sofa and armchairs in the

library and sitting area, which has an open fire.

‘The chimneypiece had been off-centre since the house was extended early in its life,’ William says. ‘So rather than disguising it, we made it into a feature, as a recess in a run of Purbeck stone.’

Perhaps the most striking room is the kitchen, with its 10-metre-long worktop in a single piece of brushed steel that had to be delivered in an articulated lorry. The space also demonstrates William’s attention to detail: each sink is exactly centred on a window and the oak-fronted cupboards align precisely with the grid of the sandstone floor. In a refreshing rejection of the current mantra that the kitchen is the heart of the home, the owner always intended it as a working space rather than a social one. ‘At first, I did not even want a table in there,’ she explains, though there is a smart one now, with a bench of William’s design. From here, a panelled cloakroom leads back to the front door.

The stairs, with their Edwardian balusters, rise from the hall and lead to an oak-panelled mezzanine that the owner (who clearly does not take herself too seriously) calls the ‘waiting for the loo area’, with the three main bedrooms a few steps further up. Each has its own bathroom, with polished plaster walls and brass fittings. The beds are all upholstered in ash-grey linen, with mainly mid-century furniture from The Modern Warehouse and new pieces from Viaduct, while the floors have pale-grey fitted carpets. The owner’s bedroom also has a long, cedar-panelled dressing room, which has another built-in bench. On the second floor are two further bedrooms and a gym.

Unusually, the architect’s influence extends outside – a clear indication the project has been a meeting of minds. ‘Quite late on, the owner asked what we were going to do about the garden,’ says William. ‘She wanted it to be woodlandy, as if it were an extension of the common nearby, so we divided it into two areas and we planted 30 native trees, mainly larch, ash and silver birch.’ The results are suitably shaggy and sylvan, though up against the house is a wildly incongruous bed of colourful prairie plants, such as rudbeckias and verbenas, self-seeding in glorious profusion.

An orchard at one side of the house leads to a garage, used by the owner as her ceramics studio.

Back inside, she enthuses about the quality of the light that casts soft shadows across the floor.

‘Almost every day I catch myself thinking, “What a beautiful house” ’ William Smalley: 020-7242 0028; williamsmalley.com

SPARE ROOM (opposite top left) On the second floor, this bedroom has a bed upholstered in grey linen and mid-century Danish furniture. MAIN BATHROOM (top right) The original Edwardian bedroom chimneypiece has been retained. BATHROOM (bottom left) One of the three first-floor bathrooms has a recessed mirrored cabinet designed by William. MAIN BEDROOM (bottom right) This leads into a cedar-panelled dressing room FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

Change of pace Having sold their house in Wiltshire, Charlie and Tweenie Wrey decided on a whim to move to southern Sri Lanka, where they have built a calm,comfortable house in the local architectural vernacular and embraced a relaxed way of life TEXT EMILY TOBIN | PHOTOGRAPHS JAMES FENNELL

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

SEATING AREA This open-sided space was built around a large santol fruit tree. The reinforced concrete pillars were clad by hand in plaster.

A compilation of local screen prints hangs on the far wall. The storage alcoves were not part of the Wreys’ original plan, but Tweenie had them installed as an experiment while the house was being built

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

S

ince 2008, Charlie and Tweenie Wrey have lived in Sri Lanka. Their house is perched on the crest of a hill, with views across dense vegetation and acres of tea plantation to the Indian Ocean beyond. This is a far cry from the Wiltshire countryside where the couple spent most of their married life, but when their sons left home and a neighbour expressed an interest in buying their farmhouse, they decided they would take a punt and sell up.

Unsure what to do next, Charlie and Tweenie flew to Sri Lanka to visit friends who were living on the south coast. Before long, says Charlie, ‘we blagged our way into running a hotel, which gave us a roof over our heads and time to ref lect’.

Within months, the pair had fallen in love with the island and started to look for somewhere they could build a house. They eventually settled on eight-and-a-half acres of land in Galle, incorporating a tea plantation, a handful of dilapidated outbuildings and a thick muddle of jungle.

Charlie and Tweenie swiftly erected a small bungalow to live in temporarily and enlisted Sri Lankan architect Sunela Jayewardene to help realise their vision. Building the house was a feat, including three months of rock blasting before they were able to lay the first foundation, and while the location afforded spectacular views, it also meant hauling every last bathroom tap, kitchen pot and lampshade up the precipitous path to the summit. ‘We quickly learnt to stop flexing our muscles and accept that things weren’t going to happen in a nanosecond,’ says Charlie. ‘But that’s part of the charm of living here.’

Within two years, the six-bedroom house was complete. Built in the local architectural vernacular, it has high, vaulted ceilings and a vast, open-sided seating area, designed to accommodate a lofty santol tree with branches that stretch through the roof and up to the sky beyond. Its impressive stature is echoed by an equally towering pair of pillars. ‘It looks fantastic, but take caution,’ warns Charlie. ‘The heavens

SEATING AREA (opposite top) The sofas here were made by local craftsmen to Charlie and Tweenie’s design. The painting on the far wall was bought in Colombo, where art students display their work on railings at the annual Kala Pola art fair. KITCHEN (opposite bottom) Three reclaimed pendant lights are suspended above the island. ENTRANCE (this page both pictures) A small concrete seating area, surrounded by a pond, offers views of the garden and tea estate. The cushions are covered in a fabric designed by the Wreys and printed in Colombo HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

open, the rains come in and the polished concrete floor becomes a skating rink.’ Treacherous floor aside, it is a comfortable room with plump sofas and pretty printed fabrics. By closing the shutters and rolling down the concealed bata palali rattan blinds, the Wreys are able to keep the worst of the rain out.

The interiors were Tweenie’s domain and almost everything was sourced on the island, from the mattresses to the Thirties steel bathtubs, which once resided in the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. Many of the Indian-style window frames and doors were found in antique shops and reclamation yards in the north of Sri Lanka. This meant the apertures were made to fit the frames, not the other way around.

‘The frames are made of good hard wood so, termites permitting, they will last quite well,’ says Charlie.

Unsurprisingly, the Wreys play host to a constant stream of guests and the house is available to rent, but the clever layout, which splits down an east-west axis, means there is plenty of room for several people to coexist. There is even a massage room and a yoga pavilion. Revenues from the tea estate help to cover the cost of running the house and give the couple ‘a lovely garden for nothing’. The road leading up to the house is lined with pineapple plants and there are countless frangipani trees. ‘It’s a flattering place to be a gardener,’ says Charlie. ‘Everything here grows miraculously quickly.’

The Wreys have happily settled into Sri Lankan life. ‘It’s a jolly attractive lifestyle. You have to learn to change gears and, when you do, it’s amazing how little you can achieve in a day,’ says Charlie. So, the momentous decision to move has proved a success. ‘Some of the biggest decisions you take are the ones you spend the least time thinking about,’ says Charlie. But as Charlie and Tweenie’s house demonstrates, such decisions can also have the best results The Wreys’ house, Sisindu T, is available to rent from $1,500 a night; visit sisindu.com

SPARE BEDROOM (opposite top left) The panel on the wall was originally displayed in a Buddhist temple. TERRACE (opposite top right and bottom left) Monkeys like to play on the earthenware roof tiles, which also have to withstand storms. The Thirties bathtubs here and in the bathroom came from the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. BATHROOM (opposite bottom right) Eggshell paint is not available locally, so a matting agent was added to Dulux Master Palette ‘Hillside View’ gloss paint for the window frames and doors. MAIN BEDROOM (below left) The bed was made locally, with a polished concrete base and a wooden frame for mosquito nets. SWIMMING POOL (below right) The pool is lined with Sukabumi stone tiles from Indonesia

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

Guiding light In this elegant and airy London apartment, interior designer Hugh Henry has worked closely with the owner to bring harmony to her diverse collection of art, ceramics and furniture

TEXT ELFREDA POWNALL | PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON BROWN | LOCATIONS EDITOR LAVINIA BOLTON

DRAWING ROOM A pair of eighteenth-century carved and gilded mirrors hangs on the wall beside the chimneypiece. The curtains are in a cream silk, ‘Faille Antoinette’, by Fleurons d’Hélène from Tissus d’Hélène

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

‘O

ne day I was lying in here on my yoga mat and I suddenly wondered whether Hugh had chosen that central cushion for the sofa – it looks stronger and more geometric than the others – to go with the dark wood in here,’ says the owner of this elegant f lat in one of London’s loveliest tree-lined terraces. ‘But I think he works more on instinct than calculation,’ she adds. She was right and her interior designer, Hugh Henry, conf irms it. ‘Not thinking... but doing’ is how he describes his work style.

The two know each other’s taste well. Hugh has worked on the owner’s various houses for more than 30 years and greatly respects her eye, as well as her decisiveness. When she bought this flat five years ago, the pair chose furniture and paintings from her previous home that would fit well in these lofty rooms.

‘She is wonderful!’ says Hugh. ‘And the only one who will come to a meeting at 8.30 in the morning and have everything decided by 9 o’clock. She has a very busy life.’

The owner had first seen the flat when she came to dinner here. It then belonged to a friend. ‘If ever you decide to move, ring me,’ she had said and the call duly came. And no wonder she was keen. In the main drawing room, floor-to-ceiling french windows open onto a broad terrace overlooked by trees. For much of

DRAWING ROOM (this page top left) A mahogany bookcase holds a collection of Chinese ceramics and an owl plate by Picasso.

LIBRARY (this page top right and opposite) Louis XVI chairs surround an eighteenth-century mahogany table. A jib door opens into the kitchen.

KITCHEN (this page bottom left) A vintage Jean Royère pendant light from Christopher Howe hangs above the Eero Saarinen ‘Tulip’ table FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

MAIN BEDROOM (opposite and this page bottom) A framed nineteenth-century Indian embroidered panel hangs above the bed. Two Louis XVl chairs, covered in a pale blue moire silk, are placed on either side of the fireplace. DRESSING ROOM (this page top) The dressing room was designed by Hugh and made

by Orwells. The antique hanging lamp is one of a pair found at Christopher Butterworth; its twin hangs in the main bathroom

the year you can see nothing beyond their leaves, a truly glorious outlook. The light in here is beautiful, and so is the space.

Hugh has painted the drawing-room panelling in three different tones of a creamy off-white, which he mixed himself, to give a calm interior. ‘We start with a commercial paint in the nearest colour to the one we need and then add the little that is missing,’ he says. ‘You don’t want the colour to look too new.’ At the tall french windows, curtains in a heavy silk from Fleurons d’Hélène, with tete de versailles headings, match the cream of the walls and complete the calm theme.

The colour makes a good background for the owner’s collection of modern art, Chinese ceramics and furniture of many different eras. A French nineteenth-century banquette and stools, all upholstered in raspberry needlepoint, match the colour of the arabesques in the 1880 Amritsar carpet. ‘Over the years, we have wondered about the ideal place for the French stools, but I think we have found it now,’ says Hugh.

The wall at the end of the room is dominated by an immense nineteenth-century mahogany bookcase and there are also two comfortable sofas, a pair of exquisite gilded mirrors and a Chinese Huanghuali altar table holding two modern metal lamps from Rose Uniacke. It is a wonderful melange of items.

‘We simply chose the best of everything from her previous home, and with things as good as these you don’t want to overdecorate,’ says Hugh, with characteristic understatement.

Across the broad, marble-floored hall is the book-lined library, with a darker, more emphatic carpet and curtains in Jasper by Michael S Smith’s ‘Carre Stripe’. Four Louis XVI cane-backed walnut chairs stand around a circular mahogany table and there is a jib door in one of the bookcases, which leads to the kitchen.

This has blue-painted units and in one corner is a little breakfast space, with a built-in banquette, an Eero Saarinen table and chairs overhung by a vintage lamp from Christopher Howe.

Re-crossing the hall, past a Chinese embroidered panel and another of the gilded nineteenth-century stools, a corridor leads to the main bedroom, which shares a terrace with the drawing room. Here, a handsome Agra rug with a strong dark central panel provides a contrast to the cream walls and framed Indian embroidery that hangs above the bed. A pair of pale blue upholstered Louis XV chairs make a comfortable seating area with the sofa at the end of the bed.

Hugh has designed the bathroom next door to echo the panelling of the drawing room, in two different marbles and there is a bank of storage hidden behind the mirrored wall. For storage on steroids, the owner’s dressing room beyond is a dream of organisation. Its cedar wood cabinetry provides a place for everything and includes an upper tier for clothes for a different season.

A pretty guest room with walls and curtains in Bennison Fabrics print ‘Samarkand’ is yet another example of the perfection of the finish everywhere, seen in the many subtle details the camera cannot show. For all this, the owner lives easily among her possessions, doing yoga on the drawing-room floor, with her desk and computer ranged behind a sofa. Hugh has created a calm cocoon for an active modern woman Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi: mhzlondon.com HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

The

K NOW L E D G E P AT T E R N

BACK TO BASICS When antique dealer Christopher Howe was asked to decorate this house in Bray, he set about uncovering its original features. Now eclectic furniture and unusual fabrics complement the exposed brickwork and beams

Several of designer Christopher Howe’s small-scale patterned wallpapers and fabrics have been used in this house in Bray. Sold through Howe at 36 Bourne Street, the designs are part of the Thimble Prints collection, inspired by a box of antique fabric samples. Each printed linen has a matching wallpaper; these can be used together to evoke a traditional chintz look, or separately for a touch of pattern. The fabrics pictured from top are: ‘Folies Bergère’ (ermine), seen as wallpaper in the main bedroom; ‘Knurl’ (brick), which covers the chairs in the hall; and ‘Mr Men’ (clover), used for the spare room curtains; all £144 a metre. 36bournestreet.com

BACK TO BASICS Pages 76–8 5

LIGHTING

F OOT ST OOL A reproduction by Sika Design of Franco Albini’s 1951 rattan ‘Ottoman’ is a close match to the one in the sitting room. It is available in the UK through Made in Design in two sizes; this one measures 40 x 65cm diameter and costs £507. madeindesign.co.uk

Howe sells a variety of restored ANGLEPOISE lamps from the Fifties and Christopher has used several in this house. Currently available is this ‘1227’ model, similar to the one in the main bedroom. It measures 60cm (maximum height) with a 15cm square base and costs £850. howelondon.com

CUPBOARD DOORS WA L L T I L E S Neisha Crosland’s ‘Pollen’ hand-painted and glazed terracotta tiles in the orange/blue colourway decorate the recess behind the cooker. The pattern started life on a scarf Neisha designed. The tiles are available from De Ferranti in the similar orange/grey colour; £582 a square metre. deferranti.com FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

The dressing-room cupboards were designed to optimise storage space, while maintaining a lightweight, Japanese-inspired aesthetic. Originally intending to use bamboo screens, Christopher ended up using fern reeds to give them a semi-transparent surface. Ask your carpenter to create something similar with reed screens, which are widely available through garden suppliers; Wickes sells a 2 x 4 metre panel for £24.99. wickes.co.uk

Inspired by the houses in this issue, BETHAN HYATT gives directions on how to achieve similar style

GUIDING LIGHT In this elegant and airy London apartment, interior designer Hugh Henry has worked closely with the owner to bring harmony to her diverse collection of art, ceramics and furniture

meeting of minds Architect William Smalley has transformed this Edwardian villa into a modern family house that delights its owner by opening up spaces and working with a palette of natural colours and materials

PAINT MEETING OF MINDS Pages 86–95

The walls and ceilings throughout this London house have been painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘AMMONITE’ shade (£43.50 for 2.5 litres estate emulsion). Named after the fossil, the neutral colour has a subtle grey tone that unifies the rooms and creates a calm atmosphere. farrow-ball.com

S E AT I N G Much of the furniture in the house was sourced from Viaduct, including the ‘Eugene Lounge Chair’ on the mezzanine. Designed by Stefan Diez for E15, this version of the chair is made from walnutveneered lacquered plywood. It is also available in an oak veneer, which can be painted in one of 11 colours. It measures 100 x 76 x 89cm and costs from £1,590 for oak veneer. viaduct.co.uk

GUIDING LIGHT Pages 102–107

CERAMICS Some of the owner’s collection of Chinese ceramics is displayed in a bookcase in the drawing room of this London flat.

Yorkshire-based company Shimu sources and restores antique furniture and accessories from China, and commissions new pieces. This glazed ‘Pale Blue Ceramic Round Vase’ is similar to those used in China for storing oil or wine. It measures 23.5 x 15cm diameter and costs £35.

Visit houseandgarden.co.uk/ buyingchineseceramics for an expert’s guide to collecting Chinese pieces. shimu.co.uk

PLANTERS Wicker baskets used as plant pots add an element of texture in the seating area and on the mezzanine.

Neptune’s ‘Somerton’ baskets come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including the medium round log basket (53 x 54cm diameter, £135), which is similar to the ones in this house. neptune.com

T OW E L R A I L S

LUCAS ALLEN; SIMON BROWN; ALEXANDER JAMES

Architect William Smalley has added brass details in several rooms, and these are particularly prominent in the bathrooms. The taps and towel rails are from Vola. Its ‘T39W’ built-in modular heated towel rail is available in 18 finishes, including natural brass.

The rails are 52.5cm wide and cost from £1,772.40 for three bars plus control. vola.com

DRESSING ROOM Aaron Farris of Orwells Furniture and designer Hugh Henry devised the bespoke dressing room.

It is lined in cedarwood with hand-finished bronze rails and knobs that pull out to become hooks. ‘The owner travels a lot, so we planned the dressing room in sections containing different wardrobes,’ says Aaron.

Bespoke dressing rooms start at £25,000. orwellsfurniture.co.uk

LIGHTING A vintage Jean Royère chandelier hangs in the kitchen. French company Edition Limitée produces contemporary pieces that are similar in style, such as this wrought iron and opal glass ‘Artemis Chandelier’ by Vincent Collin. This standard size measures 110 x 100cm diameter and costs €7,850. editionlimiteeparis.com

BED LINEN

DINING CHAIRS

The bedrooms are calm, neutral spaces with polished plaster walls, pale grey carpets and tactile washed linen bedding from Larusi. Available in 14 colours, it costs from £48 for a pair of pillowcases measuring 50 x 75cm, with flat stitched edging and an envelope-back closure. larusi.com

Four Louis XVI cane-backed walnut chairs surround the table in the library. Similar options include these eighteenthcentury French walnut and cane chairs. They measure 93 x 49 x 47cm and cost €1,340 each from 1stdibs. 1stdibs.com HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

RECIPES FOR SUCCESS RUTH SLEIGHTHOLME cooks up three distinctive looks for kitchens PHOTOGRAPHS ANDREW MONTGOMERY

[ 1 ] V I N TA G E C O L O U R OPPOSITE FURNITURE Hardwood fitted scullery with teak worktop, in ‘Boiled Egg’ eggshell paint, from £25,000, from Plain English. Reclaimed ceramic sink, £780 for similar; brass taps, £260 for similar; both from Lassco. ACCESSORIES Enamelled steel pendant light, £80 for similar, from Tinsmiths. On top shelf: French stoneware bowls, from £30 each, from Decorative Antiques. ‘Flare’ fine bone china jug, by Pinch, £150, from 1882. Middle shelf: Enamel ‘Large Jug’ (orange), £24; red clay ‘Brown Betty’ teapots, from £16.50 each; all from Labour & Wait. Bottom shelf: ‘Beryl’ Forties earthenware cup and saucer, £7.50; coffee pot, £19.50; and jug, £9.50; all by Woods, from The Vintage Kitchen. Faceted glass tumblers, £2.50 each, from Labour & Wait. Glass bottles with lids, £2.19 each, from Lakeland. Iroko wood chopping board, £36, from David Mellor. Steel and beech bread knife, £32; wood and bristle ‘Pot Brush’, £12.50; ‘Stripe Hazard’ linen tea towel, £15; enamel ‘Large Lidded Mug’ (burgundy), £10; enamel ‘Japanese Teapot’ (blue), £58; all from Labour & Wait. ‘Beryl’ cup and saucer,as before. THIS PAGE WALLS ‘Mash’ eggshell paint (on walls); ‘Kipper’ full gloss paint (on woodwork); both available on Plain English products only. FURNITURE Oiled oak-topped hardwood ‘Bath Dresser Island’, in ‘Sauce’ full gloss paint, £39,500; hardwood ‘Dutch Larder’, £19,500; both from Plain English. ACCESSORIES Enamelled steel pendant light, £80 for similar, from Tinsmiths. Antique stoneware preserve jars, from £6.50 each, from Black Bough.

‘Touch’ stained-maple tray, by Ilse Crawford for Zanat, €260, from Makers & Brothers. ‘Flare’ fine bone china pitcher, £140; jug, £150; both by Pinch, from 1882.

Velvet and linen cushion (in background), £72, from Kirsten Hecktermann

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

Add elegance to your kitchen using decorative elements, just as you would in any room FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

[ 2 ] M O D E R N C O U N T RY WALLS ‘Calamine’ paint, £43.50 for 2.5 litres matt emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. Ceramic ‘London Tiles’ (emerald green), £25 a tile, from DeVol. Nineteenth-century oil portrait, £800 for a set of two, from The Lacquer Chest.

FURNITURE Hardwood, black marble and brass ‘Classic English Kitchen’ (clerkenwell blue), from £25,000; ‘Real Shaker Kitchen’ hardwood and Cararra marble work table with bespoke storage and copper end table (clerkenwell blue), from £10,500; both from DeVol. Ceramic ‘800 Single Fluted Sink’, £965, by Shaws of Darwen. ‘Ionian’ brass taps, £460, from Perrin & Rowe. Beech and elm ‘Windsor Elbow Chair’, £6,500 for a pair, from Rose Uniacke.

ACCESSORIES Window screen in ‘Rhyme’ (pearl), by Harlequin, polyester, £38 a metre, from Style Library; painted in a bespoke folk design, from £100 for similar, by Annie Millar. ‘Crackle’ ceramic and brass pendant lights, £150 each, from DeVol. Gilded brass and glass chandelier, £475 for similar, from O’Keeffe Antiques. Antique glass jar, £10; antique brass kitchen utensils, from £14.50 each; vintage Denby soup bowls, £6.50 each; brass preserving pan (on work table), £25; all from The Vintage Kitchen Store.

Olive wood chopping board, £40, from Saudade. English linen tablecloth with broderie anglaise border, £110, from Appley Hoare. Provençal stoneware water jug, £110; small glazed confit pot, £90; both from Trésors Trouvés. Large ceramic Italian confit pot, £220, from M Charpentier Antiques.‘Buttercup Meadow’ scented candle in ceramic jar, £30, from Luna & Curious. In cupboard: earthenware cabbage plates, by Bordallo Pinheiro, from £31, from Amara. Amber glass apothecary jars, from £9 for similar, from Balineum. Enamel tumblers (pigeon grey), £6 each, from Falcon Enamelware. French majolica plates, from £50 each, from David Griffith Antiques

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

[ 3 ] I N D U S T R I A L WA R M T H WALLS ‘Pitch Black’ paint, £43.50 for 2.5 litres emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. FURNITURE ‘K14’ wood, metal, granite and steel kitchen, with ‘Hide Tall’ lacquered metal units, both by Norbert Wangen, from £38,400 for a kitchen, from Boffi. Oak ‘Oval Table’, £3,960, from Rose Uniacke.

‘Caribou’ leather and metal chairs (quince, chilli), £1,854 each, from Ochre. ‘Whippet’ oak, beech and velvet stool, £3,240, from Howe. Steel stools, £150 each, from Elemental. ACCESSORIES ‘Boccia’ glass pendant lights, by Piero Lissoni, £828 each, from Boffi. ‘Vase Family 4th Generation’ leather sculptures, £2,100 each, from Simon Hasan. Terracotta ‘Medium Shallow Bowl’, £240; beakers, £27 each; jug (on small shelves), £120, all by Silvia K Ceramics; ‘Large Sculptural Stoneware Jug’, by Adam Ross, £420; all from The New Craftsmen. Terracotta tableware, from £6.50; brush, £12; both from Saudade. On small shelves: ‘Oftast’ glass plates, 50p each, from Ikea. Stoneware ‘Chocolate Mugs’, by Nicola Tassie, £55 each, from Maud & Mabel

WALLS ‘Pitch Black’ paint, as before. FLOOR ‘Mazandran’ wool kilim, £6,146, from Sinclair Till. FURNITURE ‘Boffi Code’ greystone marble, abonos oak, glass and steel kitchen, with abonos oak storage units, by Pierro Lissoni, from £96,000 for a kitchen, from Boffi. ‘Oscura’ scorched ash lounge chair, by Julian Martinez, £4,400; ‘Cartwright’ ash and beech lounge chair, by James Bowyer, £5,300; both from Mint.‘Stockholm’ rattan and ash coffee tables, £85 each, from Ikea.

Hardwood and feather ‘Drawing Room Sofa’, £8,400; covered in ‘Moss’, cotton velvet, £75 a metre; both from Rose Uniacke. ‘Sen’ metal and MDF side table, by Kensaku Oshiro, £909.60, from De Padova.

ACCESSORIES Cotton cushion covers, ‘Martha’, £105; and ‘Zipolite’, £120; both by Colorindio, from Maison Numen. Silk and hemp ‘Indigo Dyed Tassel Cushion’, by Katherine May, £155, from The New Craftsmen. ‘Emerald’ linen and wool cushion, by Chloe Scott, £180, from Mint. Metal canister, £68, from Elemental. Earthenware vase,

by Prinknash Pottery, from £16, from The Pottery Studio. Terracotta jug, beakers, glass and ceramic plates, and stoneware ‘Chocolate Mug’, all as before. For suppliers’ details, see Stockists page

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

C O N TA I N E R G A R D E N I N G PA R T 2 | S P R I N G

Floral formula

In the second part of this series, SARAH RAVEN discusses her fail-safe recipe for springtime pots and window boxes that combine colour and scale PHOTOGRAPHS JONATHAN BUCKLEY

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Hyacinth ‘White Pearl’ with echeverias. Tulips ‘La Belle Epoque’ and ‘Danceline’ with Heuchera sanguinea. Tulips ‘Sarah Raven’, ‘Lasting Love’ and ‘Ballerina’. Auricula ‘Foxgrove’. Forget-me-nots with Muscari ‘Baby’s Breath’. Primulas ‘Ooh La La Pastel Pink’ and ‘Ooh La La Blood Orange’. Tulips ‘Antraciet’, ‘Brownie’ and ‘Copper Image’ with Geum ‘Mai Tai’. Tulipa sylvestris with hyacinth ‘Anastasia’. Pots at Perch Hill (centre) FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

*15 PER CENT DISCOUNT OFFER ENDS MARCH 31, 2018; VISIT SARAHRAVEN.COM FOR FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

T

here are two successful recipes for pots at any nothing to match this, so I use it as the contrast to two double time of year: you can either go for just one plant, greeny-whites: ‘White Touch’ and ‘Danceline’. These both have repeated again and again, or choose a carefully the same peony-like form as ‘La Belle Epoque’, and their heights put together collection. I have been a fanatical and flowering times match perfectly. ‘Danceline’ also has a fleck flower arranger all my life and I love combining of deep pink in every petal that picks up on a similar flush in ‘La flowers to bring inside. Planting up pots is an Belle Epoque’. All three of these double tulips are sterile – their extension of this, but the flowers you mix last for months rather nectaries are bred to be extra petals. This means they – unfertithan days. The pressure is on to get them right, or the mistakes lised – flower longer and harder than most other varieties, which will taunt you quietly for the whole flowering season. go to seed after being fertilised. That is a bonus for containers.

In terms of colour and scale when you are bringing plants For a simple repeating pattern in which each pot contains a sintogether, I have devised a system that works every time. Start gle species, a variety of tulip such as the early ‘Orange Emperor’ with something incredible. I call that ingredient ‘The Bride’ – or creamy white ‘Purissima’ works well, as does the frilly Parrot the flower that shouts out to be selected because it is so beautiful tulip ‘Rococo’. For this sort of pot, hyacinths and narcissi are also and glamorous. Go from there and find a back-up, ‘The Bridesideal, or you can choose a type of flower with varying colours, maid’, which is smaller and less dominant. such as auriculas, violas, primulas or polyanThis is ideally the same colour as The Bride, The garden designer Mary Keen has an T H E F L O W E R S thus. but less showy. Then you want ‘The Gateauricula theatre in what used to be an outdoor crasher’, the person at the party who might Y O U M I X L A S T privy, which shows the repeat magnificently, feel like the last thing you need, but is in fact but even one pot of the auriculas ‘Argus’ or F O R M O N T H S , ‘Foxgrove’ makes a perfect table centrepiece. exactly what makes it work.

It might sound like an unlikely recipe, but it I love Primula forbesii as a February greenN O T D AY S – works – here at Perch Hill in Sussex we use it house or cool window-ledge houseplant, but it T H E P R E S S U R E is tricky to find, so this year we trialled the for all our large-scale pots in spring. Following it to the letter, the combination of the crimson new Japanese primulas ‘Ooh La La Pastel IS ON TO GET tulip ‘Sarah Raven’ and equally long-flowering Pink’ and ‘Ooh La La Blood Orange’. Like THEM RIGHT and matching tulip ‘Lasting Love’ works brillauriculas, these thrive in dappled shade, but iantly when clashed with the highly scented, flower for longer (from February to July here zingy-orange tulip ‘Ballerina’. You can also use ‘Ballerina’ last year). Like P. forbesii, they are happiest frost-free, but if kept as The Bride, with the similarly scented ‘Request’ as The well watered with odd spells outdoors in mild weather, they also Bridesmaid and the luscious satin ‘Antraciet’ for contrast. make good window-ledge houseplants.

Still rich, but more muted, ‘Antraciet’ is also ideal for a window When you are choosing hyacinths, you want blues like ‘Peter box collection if used again as The Gatecrasher to two new tulips: Stuyvesant’ or the delicate, multi-stemmed ‘Anastasia’ for maxi‘Brownie’ and ‘Copper Image’, burnished browns with a vintage mum scent, and the beetroot-juice-coloured ‘Woodstock’ for the look and feel. All three are quite short, so ideal for a window box. greatest richness. When you plant the bulbs, place natural twig To extend the season, we grew them with Geum ‘Mai Tai’ and narsupports in the pot and cover the soil with moss, so the container cissus ‘Baby Boomer’, which flowered before the tulips. The bulbs has a presence even before the top-heavy flower spikes emerge. were planted in two layers with a couple of inches of compost When they do, they will be well supported by the twigs. A pot between each layer. Planted in window boxes in a Dutch friend’s containing one of these or the greeny-white hyacinth ‘White garden in autumn, this combination was a success all spring.

Pearl’ will scent a room, or if you want to perfume a ballroom, In the paler spectrum of colours, the same recipe works. Match arrange a series of them on a plant stand. the double early tulip ‘Exotic Emperor’ with another Fosteriana As spring begins, whether your garden is little or large, make variety, ‘Purissima’, and clash them with the early-flowering room and time for a pot or two. With all these varieties, they are hardy annual, honeywort (Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’). It easy to look after and a real life enhancement will take several degrees of frost, so it can be sown in February to slot into the top of the pot before the tulips start growing.

Visit sarahraven.com to receive a 15 per cent discount on Sarah’s I am obsessed with the tulip ‘La Belle Epoque’, but there is plants and bulbs by using the offer code HGSR18*

Cultivating the castle

New life has been brought to the ruins of Lowther Castle in Cumbria, thanks to an ambitious planting project undertaken by James Lowther and a formidable team of garden restoration specialists, including the designer Dan Pearson TEXT CAROLINE BECK | PHOTOGRAPHS NGOC MINH NGO

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

The lawns approaching the castle are f lanked by wildflower meadows, which are filled with the nectar-rich wild carrot, Daucus carota

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

I

n the rugged borderland between England and Scotland, there is a renaissance happening.

Outside the market town of Penrith, a wild, imaginative garden is rising up, set against the austere ruins of Lowther Castle. Cumbria, with its poetic links to the birthplace of the eighteenth-century Romantic era, could not be a more fitting place for this garden, largely the work of the designer Dan Pearson. The task is Sisyphean, with more ups and downs than a Cumbrian footpath, but slowly it has become one of the biggest and most ambitious garden restoration projects in Europe, all happening on England’s outer edge.

Plans began in 1999, as the vast castle – which once boasted a room for every day of the year – was an unstable ruin with trees higher than the walls. It could easily have followed the same script as countless large country houses: a fall from grace into decrepitude and eventual destruction. The Regency castle was funded by the Georgian industrial boom, but by the Thirties, the family money had been squandered by Hugh Lowther, a profligate charmer known as the Yellow Earl (he established the Automobile Association, now the AA – known today for its yellow emblem).

Debts stacked up by the millions and the castle’s inevitable decline began. It was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence during the Second World War, when the once elaborate parterres were used for shelling practice. By the Sixties, the overgrown gardens were full of battery chicken sheds, pig pens and rows of conifers. The fountains silted up, the rock garden mossed over and the estate sank into a financial mire. ‘I loved growing up here, but later I came to hate it,’ says James Lowther (known as Jim). In the mid Nineties, Jim took over responsibility for the rundown garden at the request of his late father, also called James, the 7th Earl of Lonsdale, but admits it was a poisoned chalice. ‘When a hotel chain offered me £100 for the lot, I seriously considered it,’ Jim says.

By 1999, the estate had come to the attention of English Heritage, which recognised its historic importance, and a plan was hatched. ‘The Lowther Castle and Gardens Trust and I got a team of garden restoration professionals together,’ says Jim. ‘This included the landscape architect and chair of The Garden History Society, Dominic Cole, and later the designer Dan Pearson.’ Dan recalls his first visit in 2004. ‘The garden felt truly lost and I wanted to recreate the excitement of that first discovery.’

Inspired by the Garden of Ninfa near Rome, Dan threaded the planting up, round and through the bones of the castle, tapping into an enduring Romantic fascination with Gothic ruins reclaimed by nature.

Within the castle’s shell are deep pockets of planting. Clematis, Eglantine roses and birch trees lead

BOTH PAGES Inside the ruin, red-leafed Vitis coignetiae climbs up the pink-flecked stone walls. The textured blend of ground-cover plants includes yellow Welsh poppies, the grass Hakonechloa macra and two lacy ferns, Dryopteris wallichiana and D. cycadina FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

The planting taps into an enduring Romantic fascination with Gothic ruins reclaimed by nature In the parterre, tall, bronze Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’ and white-flowered Selinum wallichianum mix with the grass Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

your eye upwards towards a skyscape framed by the central tower (and disconcertingly, cast-iron chimneypieces seemingly suspended in mid-air). Around the stone pillars is a textured blend of ground-cover plants: lacy ferns (Dryopteris wallichiana and Dryopteris cycadina), a purple-leafed Tellima grandiflora ‘Purpurea’ and a charming white-flowered Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’, which sends out sprays of pure white flowers all summer, lighting up the shadows.

Dan’s tapestry garden unfurls in front of the castle, with yew hedging and the grass Panicum virgatum ‘Rehbraun’ forming a warp and weft through which tall grasses and perennials are woven. The muted colours intensify the drama, a dark-leafed Actaea simplex ‘James Compton’, the grey-blue foliage of Thalictrum ‘Elin’ and the parchment tones of Astrantia major linking the moody northern skies with the castle’s pink-flecked stone. When the wind howls through the ruin, the noise and sway of this part of the garden is mesmeric. Wild grasses, yarrow and rosebay willowherb, which have self-seeded in the cracks outside the ruin, look at one with the cultivated plants within the walls, forming a visual link with the meadow flanking the lawn. You would have to have a heart of stone to resist it.

This has not been a seamless progression from dereliction to designer garden – there have been many times when the project has nearly run out of steam, money and enthusiasm. But if Jim’s tenacity has driven it through and Dan’s harmonious design has caught everyone’s imagination, it is the head gardener, Martin Ogle, who has dug, planted and cared for every plant at Lowther. Just after he began work in 2012, the contractors on the project went bust, the previous head gardener left and Martin found himself in charge with no budget or staff. Now, happily, he has a team of four gardeners who understand the garden’s place in the landscape as intuitively as he does. Dan and Jim both say that without Martin’s refusal to be intimidated by the scale of the project, it would not have gone so well.

The garden is far from finished – the best gardens never are – and there are plans to extend the planting further into the ruin and also to create a rose garden where military tanks once churned grass into mud. There is a constant struggle for money and visitor numbers, and the harsh weather does not help, but as plants colonise the stone mullions and soaring towers of the crumbling building, Lowther is well on its way to become one of the most atmospheric and exciting gardens in the country Lowther Castle & Gardens, Penrith, is open daily, October to March, 10am–4pm, and April to September, 10am–5pm, except Christmas Day. 01931-712192; lowthercastle.org

THIS PAGE The muted colours of white Eurybia divaricata, claret Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’ and Veronicastrum ‘Spring Dew’ intensify the drama of the tapestry garden. OPPOSITE Near the castle, a woodland path leads to the mossy Japanese Garden, which is covered with herb robert and native ferns FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

F O O D & T R AV E L R E C I P E S | TA S T E N O T E S | C H I C AG O | RWA N DA | W I N E C O U R S E

California dreaming London-based food writer CLAIRE PTAK revisits the recipes of her childhood on the west coast of America. All recipes serve 6, unless otherwise stated PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS TONNESEN | FOOD STYLING CLAIRE PTAK | PROP STYLING TABITHA HAWKINS

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

FOOD & TRAVEL | RECIPES

YOGURT-FRIED CHICKEN There is much talk of using buttermilk in fried chicken recipes, but I love the flavour of a good plain yogurt, and the thickness works well to coat the chicken while it marinates.

The acidity tenderises the chicken and keeps it moist, while adding that tang of the signature fried-chicken flavour.

X 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts X 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs For the marinade X 600g plain yogurt X 1tsp cayenne pepper X 2tsp caster sugar For the coating X 500g plain flour X 1/2tsp cayenne pepper X 2 litres vegetable oil

1 Cut the chicken breasts into about 4 or 5 pieces and the thighs into 2. Set aside.

2 In a container with a tight-fitting lid or a bowl, combine the marinade ingredients with 1tbsp sea salt and 1tsp black pepper. Stir well, drop in the chicken pieces, then cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour or up to 24 hours.

3 Remove the chicken from the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to fry it.

4 Whisk together the flour and cayenne pepper with 2tsp sea salt and 1tsp black pepper. Prepare two baking sheets: dust one with a bit of the flour mixture and line the other with paper towels (to absorb any oil after frying).

5 Heat the oven to the lowest temperature to keep the chicken warm while cooking the rest.

6 Take the chicken strips from the marinade, shaking slightly to remove excess yogurt.

Dip once in the flour mixture and lay on the flour-dusted tray.

7 Once you have floured all the chicken, heat the oil to 175°C using a thermometer. (You need enough vegetable oil so it goes about 6–8cm up the side of the pan.) You can also test the readiness of the oil by placing the end of a clean, dry wooden spoon or chopstick in the oil. It is ready when Champagne-size bubbles form around it.

8 Pick up the strips one by one and re-dip them in the flour. Carefully slip them into the hot oil and cook until golden, turning once or twice, for about 20 minutes. Don’t overcrowd the pan. The chicken will continue to cook after you remove it from the oil, so 20 minutes should be enough.

9 Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the oil, and drain as much as possible. Lay on the paper-lined tray and keep warm in the oven. Continue until all of the chicken is cooked.

RANCH DIPPING SAUCE Ranch sauce is a creamy garlic sauce sometimes used on salads. I love it as a dipping sauce for fried chicken. I also like to serve a hot sauce as an accompaniment to the chicken, for people to use as they wish.

X 400g mayonnaise X 240ml evaporated

milk X 4 cloves garlic, minced X 8 sprigs fresh oregano and tarragon, picked from stalks and finely chopped (optional)

Whisk together the mayonnaise and evaporated milk until smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients with salt and pepper to taste. This keeps well for up to 2 days in the fridge.

SMOKEY WILTED GREENS Greens are so nourishing, and the use of a little bacon at the beginning of the cooking process of this recipe imparts a wonderful smoky flavour that is balanced with the addition of fresh tangy herbs at the end.

X 2 bunches kale,

stalks removed and discarded and leaves cut into ribbons X 100g spinach leaves X 200g rocket leaves X 6 rashers smoked streaky bacon X 1 clove garlic, sliced X 2 whole dried red chillies X 1/2tsp ground cumin X 1 bunch flatleaf parsley, leaves picked X 1 bunch coriander, leaves picked X 1 lemon, zest and juice X Olive oil, to taste (about 4–5tbsp)

1 Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add 2tsp salt. Have ready a colander in the sink or placed over a larger bowl. Drop the kale leaves into the boiling water and cook for about 5–7 minutes or until tender. Use a slotted spoon or tongs to lift them out of the water and into the colander. Save the water to use again.

2 Next blanch the spinach. Drop it into the same water for just a couple of minutes. Remove and add it to the kale in the colander. Repeat this process with the rocket.

3 Slice the bacon into 1cm strips. In a pan over a medium-high heat, cook the strips until they are just starting to caramelise. Add the garlic, the chillies and the cumin. Cook until the garlic starts to get a little colour, then start stirring in the cooked greens. Add the picked parsley and coriander and stir through just so that they wilt. Turn off the heat and add the lemon zest and juice.

4 Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss and taste. Adjust seasoning. Turn out onto a serving plate and drizzle with a little more olive oil. Serve right away or at room temperature.

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

FOOD & TRAVEL | RECIPES

CARAWAY COLESLAW Coleslaw may seem like a summer picnic dish, but winter is the time of year when cabbage is in season. There are so many varieties to choose from and any fresh cabbage will work well in this recipe.

X 1 large cabbage X 1/2 onion X 2 green chillies X 1 large lemon, zest and juice X 2tsp wine vinegar (red or white) X 60g good olive oil X 11/2tsp caraway seeds X 1/2 bunch fresh coriander, leaves picked

BUTTER BISCUITS In America, a biscuit is like a savoury scone, rather than a cookie. The American South is the birthplace of the biscuit and it is usually made with a cultured buttermilk. The acidity makes the biscuits tender and gives them a slight tang, which stands up to the buttery richness. Here again I have used yogurt in place of buttermilk and found that I like it better. I also use a pastry cutter to cut up the butter into the f lour, but you could use a food processor or even the back of a fork. Neal’s Yard Dairy makes a delicious plain yogurt, as does Yeo Valley. Makes 15 biscuits X 250g plain flour X 250g strong

white flour X 2tbsp caster sugar X 13/4tsp baking powder X 3/4tsp bicarbonate of soda X 250g unsalted butter, cold X 340g plain yogurt X Sea salt flakes, for the tops

1 Line a baking tray with paper. Heat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/mark 6.

2 In a large bowl, mix the flours, caster sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and 2tsp sea salt, whisking the ingredients together well.

3 Cut 220g of the butter into small, even-size cubes and use a pastry cutter to cut it into the flour mixture until the chunks are the size of peas.

4 Stir in the yogurt until the mixture just comes together and holds its shape.

5 Turn the ball of dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough into a square about 2cm thick and fold in half. Pat it out again and let it rest for 5 minutes.

6 Use a 6cm round biscuit cutter to get as many biscuits as you can. Take any scraps and pat them together before re-rolling it and cutting the remaining biscuits to get about 15. Place them close together on the prepared tray so that they almost touch.

7 Melt the remaining 30g butter and brush the biscuits with it. Sprinkle on the salt flakes and bake for 15–25 minutes (this will depend on the heat of your oven). They are cooked when they are puffed, golden and springy to the touch.

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

1 Cut the cabbage in half, then cut out and discard the hard core.

Slice thinly into ribbons and add to a large bowl with the onion, also sliced thinly.

2 Halve the green chillies lengthwise before removing the seeds and membrane. Dice and add to the bowl.

3 Add the lemon zest and juice, vinegar, olive oil and caraway seeds.

Mix well.

4 Taste and add salt and pepper. Start with 2tsp salt and a good grinding of pepper.

Leave for 20 minutes, covered. Stir again, taste again and adjust the seasoning. Chill until ready to serve.

5 The slaw can be made up until this point the day before, but add the coriander just before serving.

FOOD & TRAVEL | RECIPES

PECAN SLAB PIE For the pastry X 350g plain flour X 1tsp caster sugar X 220g unsalted butter, cold X 100g ice water For the filling X 50g unsalted butter, softened X 200g soft brown or light muscovado sugar X 3 eggs X 100g golden syrup X 50g black treacle X 1tsp vanilla X 1tbsp dark rum X 150g pecan pieces and 80g pecan halves X 25g salted butter, melted X 4tbsp caster sugar

Pecans are native to America and are, to me, the tastiest nut. Pecan pies can be very sweet, but I make mine with black treacle and golden syrup instead of corn syrup to make it less sweet and give it more depth of flavour. A slab pie is made in a Swiss roll tin, so it is thinner and rectangular. It is good for gatherings because it is so easy to serve. A scoop of ice cream or a dollop of cream with it is delicious.

1 Line a 20 x 30cm Swiss roll tin with baking paper and heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/mark 5.

2 In a food processor, add all of the pastry ingredients except the water and whizz until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

3 Strain the ice water just before using, then, with the motor on, drizzle it in just until everything comes together. Pulse a couple of times more, then tip out onto your work surface. Using the palm of your hand, gently pat the dough into a square. Fold in half and press together again. Rest the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge while you get the filling ingredients together.

4 In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and soft brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and then the golden syrup, black treacle, vanilla and rum. Finally mix in 150g pecan pieces (reserving the pecan halves for the topping) and set aside.

5 On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to about 24 x 34cm. Fold the dough loosely in half and then in half again, but do not press down. Gently lift the folded dough onto the prepared tin, placing it in one corner, then unfold it so it lays over the tin with a bit of an overhang. Pour in the filling mixture (making sure that it comes right up to the edges) and then fold the edges back over the filling in a loose, rustic way.

6 Brush the pastry with the melted butter and sprinkle with the caster sugar. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is set.

7 If you have a kitchen blowtorch, you can use it to finish the edges of the pastry by caramelising the sugar, which will create a golden, crisp sugar crust

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

FOOD & TRAVEL | NEWS

Taste Notes

PIXELATE IMAGING

BLANCHE VAUGHAN shares her news, reviews and tips for cooks and food lovers

The American Short Stack cookbook series will inspire you to focus on your favourite ingredient with a collectable selection of single-subject recipe books. Full of ingenious ideas for everything from chocolate to broccoli, the pocket-size gems are authored by established US food writers. From £9.99 each, from Bookseller Crow on the Hill and Liberty. booksellercrow.co.uk | liberty.co.uk

HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

FOOD & TRAVEL | NEWS

Seville oranges

If you need a lift during these cold winter months – or an excuse to buy more cocktail glasses – this is the perfect recipe.

You can buy crème de violette and maraschino liqueurs at amazon.co.uk.

Makes 1

Pour all the liquid ingredients into an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the cherry.

X

STEAMED MARMALADE PUDDING The Seville orange season runs until February. I love to use marmalade in this warm pudding – it is also a great way to finish up last year’s batch. Serves 4-6 X 140g softened

X 3 eggs

unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing X 200g plain f lour, plus extra for dusting X 125g caster sugar X ½ orange, zest

X 1½tsp

baking powder X 150ml milk X 170g (about 5tbsp) orange marmalade X Cream or custard, to serve

1 Heat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/mark 3. Butter a 1.2-litre pudding basin and dust the inside with a little flour. Set to one side.

2 Cream the butter, sugar and zest until smooth and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and the baking powder. Stir in the milk. Put the marmalade into the bottom of the pudding basin and spoon the batter over the top. Cover with a large layer of baking paper, then a layer of foil and tie with string to secure.

3 Place in an oven tray filled with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the basin and cook for 2 hours.

4 Uncover and loosen around the edges with a knife, then turn onto a plate to serve with cream or custard.

50ml Sipsmith gin

+ 10ml The Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur

+ 15ml maraschino liqueur

+ 15ml lemon juice

Cutting edges + Maraschino cherry =

Savernake Knives combines technology and artisanal craftsmanship with its bespoke service for the ultimate knife. The company will craft your handle from beech, olive or maple wood and finish the blade to the shape and texture required. Knives in the ‘Core’ collection, pictured, cost from £180, and have been carefully designed for chopping, carving, slicing, boning or cleaving with ease and precision. savernakeknives.co.uk

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

The great Catesby’s Catesby’s is a go-to website for fun ceramics. The vegetableinspired ‘Potager’ range includes handmade platters in the shape of a radish, a chard leaf and an onion (pictured), from £25 each. catesbys.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHS: PAUL WINCH-FURNESS; ISTOCKPHOTO; CHRIS TONNESEN; OWEN GALE. ‘ZWIESEL HOMMAGE COCKTAIL GLASS’, FROM £36, FROM BOROUGHKITCHEN.COM

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FOOD & TRAVEL | UNITED STATES

inside track

chicago

SPENCER LOWELL; JOSHUA MELLIN; ANTHONY TAHLIER

EMMA LOVE RECOMMENDS THE BEST PLACES TO STAY, EAT AND SHOP, PLUS DIFFERENT WAYS TO EXPLORE THE WINDY CITY

H OTEL Ace Chicago

R E STAU RA N T Duck Duck Goat

If Mies van der Rohe were to create a hotel today, what would it look like? That was the question the LA-based studio Commune Design asked itself when tasked with furnishing this mid-centuryinspired hotel in Chicago’s foodie Fulton Market district in the West Loop. The answer, it appears, was think local. In a first for the Ace group, which usually inhabits old buildings, this is a newly built glass and concrete space that references the neighbourhood’s industrial past. The brick façade from the factory that once stood on the south side of the site has been preserved; the City Mouse restaurant, overseen by chef Jason Vincent (who also owns acclaimed restaurant Giant nearby), serves up Midwestern dishes; and there are artworks by artists from the city’s Volume Gallery.

There is also a rooftop bar, a garden terrace events space and an outpost of Stumptown Coffee Roasters. The 159 rooms have a simple, warehouse vibe with brass bedside lights and steel-tubing-framed beds. Most come with a guitar or record player and a selection of secondhand vinyl, too. This is a well-considered addition to an in-flux area and it fits in perfectly. Rooms from $149 a night; acehotel.com/chicago

Randolph Street, in the West Loop, is often dubbed ‘Restaurant Row’ – for several blocks, there is nothing but neighbourhood eateries and bars packed with people. One of the first chefs to open a place in the area eight years ago was Chicago native Stephanie Izard, who won awards for her family-style sharing plates at Girl & the Goat. Soon after, the Little Goat diner followed across the street; then, in 2016, she launched Duck Duck Goat (above) round the corner on Fulton Market. Here, the inventive Chinese menu features goat and duck in dishes such as Sichuan aubergine with goat sausage and duck-egg fried rice. Also on offer are dim sum, soups, noodles (the silver needle noodles with shrimp and burdock are especially delicious), sweet-and-sour sesame chicken and grilled pork belly. There is an open kitchen at the back, a bar in the middle and several offshoot rooms for eating: one has red flocked wallpaper, another has shelves lined with pretty food packaging. After dinner, visit the jade lounge bar for a Lucky Duck rum-based cocktail. duckduckgoatchicago.com

A R C HI T ECT UR E TO UR S Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper, so it is not surprising that there are several architecture tours to choose from. One of the most fun is a oneand-a-half-hour guided excursion on the main branch of the Chicago River (above) with Urban Kayaks (urbankayaks.com). The pace is gentle (though it is tough on your hands, so wear cycling gloves), groups are small and you will stop often to hear about the history of landmarks such as the Wrigley building and Lake Point Tower and admire the awesome, neck-craning views. In contrast, it is also worth hopping on the subway to the leafy Oak Park neighbourhood for a look round Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio (flwright.org/tours). This is where the architect developed his famous Prairie-style buildings – horizontal lines, gable eaves and casement windows – inspired by the landscape of the Midwest.

HI G HLI G HTS The 3 Arts Club Café (left), a 15-minute walk north of the fashion boutiques on the Magnificent Mile, is possibly the prettiest coffee spot in the city. Inside the five-floor Restoration Hardware home furnishings showroom, the courtyard café has a high glass roof with chandeliers and lush greenery. For independent shops, head to the Wicker Park neighbourhood. Gather Home + Lifestyle sells chic Scandi-look homeware – terracotta planters, brass watering cans, monochrome cushions – while Asrai Garden is a treasure trove of US-made products. Insect-illustrated plates by Laura Zindel, handmade soaps by Blade + Bloom and bars of Compartés chocolate all make great gifts to take home.

WAYS A N D M E A N S Wow Air flies from London Gatwick and Edinburgh to Chicago, via Reykjavik, from £139.99 each way.

To book, call 0118-321 8384 or visit wowair.co.uk HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

rwanda reborn ONCE INFAMOUS FOR AN APPALLING HUMAN TRAGEDY, THE COUNTRY IS DEVELOPING A REPUTATION AS THE BEST PLACE TO SEE GORILLAS IN THE WILD, AS PAMELA GOODMAN DISCOVERS

I

n the wake of social and economic catastrophe, it is commonly accepted that it takes decades, generations even, for a country to recover its stride. Following the genocide of 1994, when an estimated 800,000 people were killed in 100 days, the outlook for Rwanda was bleak. Fast forward 24 years, however, and it is impossible to imagine that this could possibly be the same place.

Paul Kagame who, last August, won a third seven-year term as president, divides opinion in the West for the simple reason that gaining 98.8 per cent of the vote (on a turnout of 90 per cent) is surely too good to be true. On the ground, however, fiction becomes fact. He is resoundingly, authentically, undeniably popular and it is not hard to see why.

Ideological and ethnic differences have, almost miraculously, been reconciled in favour of a common national identity; security, health, education and stability now define this once fragile country and an all-consuming optimism exudes from every pore. This is a country where women make up the majority of parliament and plastic bags are banned – indeed litter is a rarity in towns and countryside. It is Emmanuel, my driver – who, despite a gruesome background, is perhaps the most positive person I have ever encountered – who tells me with pride of umuganda, the nationwide ritual on the last Saturday of every month, when communities work together to clean the streets and assist each other in local projects. It is impressive stuff.

In truth, the capital Kigali is not the most interesting of cities, with tourists passing through only long enough to visit the Genocide Memorial and perhaps the Liberation Park Museum. I linger for a drink, however, at Pili Pili, one of a new breed of stylish restaurants that are slowly appearing in the city, to meet Teta Isibo, a young, dynamic female entrepreneur cutting a dash in fashion and design. Her company Inzuki Designs, she tells me, is behind the decorative Rwandan accessories (cushions, table mats, slippers, staff uniforms, for example) found at Bisate Lodge, the country’s most talked-about hotel opening of 2017, and to where I’m headed next.

The three-hour journey by road from Kigali north-west towards the Volcanoes National Park is as scenic as you could wish, unfurling a landscape of endless, steeply terraced hills and deep valleys, where even the tiniest plot of land has been cultivated and where fruit and vegetables – potatoes in particular – grow in rampant abundance. Paved road gives way to potholed track until on a low hillside a small collection of thatched cocoons – like random monkey nuts on a palette of green – comes into view.

Bisate, which is owned and operated by Wilderness Safaris, is the first

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

THIS PAGE The Volcanoes National Park. OPPOSITE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Each of Bisate’s rooms is in its own cocoon.

A gorilla poses for the camera. The lodge’s central pod is where guests gather for meals. A Rwandan woman carries bananas on her head

of several new, luxury lodges to open in accordance with Rwanda’s desire to establish itself as a high-end destination, particularly where gorilla trekking – the country’s most precious tourist commodity – is concerned. Top-notch brands such as Singita and One & Only have projects in the pipeline, and Wilderness – now that Bisate is up and running – is already considering expansion plans in the Nyungwe Forest (for chimpanzees) and Akagera National Park, on the eastern border with Tanzania, for ‘big five’ game viewing.

Perhaps, with this in mind, it was inevitable that prices for a gorilla permit would increase, though the overnight doubling of the cost last May from US$750 to US$1,500 per person for a one-day, one-hour permit has undoubtedly caused a rumpus. With fewer than 100 permits issued each day to see the 12 habituated gorilla families, it is a rich man’s game, for sure.

But for deep-pocketed conservationists and animal-lovers, it is an experience like no other, perfectly complemented by Bisate. The six extraordinary rooms – each in its own cocoon – blend elaborately creative African design with every comfort, be it a hot-water bottle in the bed, an ebony-black freestanding bath, a wood-burning stove, even Wi-Fi, but this is no surprise in a country where internet services are vastly superior to most of rural Britain.

The central pod is where guests gather for early pre-trekking breakfast, post-trekking lunch and convivial dinner (all included in the price) – often choosing to gather round one large table rather than at individual tables for two. And on warmer, sunnier days, glass doors slide back on the view of rainforest-clad volcanoes invariably topped with puffs of white cloud.

The gorilla trekking seems painfully commercial at first, when all the nearby lodges disgorge their guests at the gorilla headquarters each morning to be divided into groups of varying walking ability. Reluctant walkers and less able guests (some of whom, unbelievably, are carried by porters on stretchers) are assigned the most accessible gorilla families; meanwhile, fitter, heartier types get to trek farther and higher into the rainforest in pursuit of remoter ones.

I was lucky, in part for having only four other tourists in my group and in part for the weather. The higher we walked, with our guide cutting a path through tangled undergrowth with a machete, the better the sun-drenched view. Even the gorillas, when we finally found them, obligingly posed – without the slightest concern for human company – against Rwanda’s picturesque backdrop. It was almost too good to be true.

WAYS AND MEANS Pamela Goodman travelled as a guest of Abercrombie & Kent (01242386461; abercrombiekent.co.uk), which creates bespoke itineraries throughout Africa. A six-night trip to Rwanda, including three nights at Bisate Lodge, flights, a private driver and a gorilla permit, costs from about £6,215 per person. RwandAir (rwandair.com) now flies direct, twice weekly, between London Gatwick and Kigali

TOM PARKER

FOOD & TRAVEL | EAST AFRICA

FOOD & TRAVEL | FRANCE

specialist holidays

wine course AT A PROVENÇAL WINE ESTATE, STEPHANIE DRAX LEARNS HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM FINE WINE – AND IS REWARDED WITH A DIPLOMA

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s we dine outside under a linden tree – feasting on fine wines paired with exceptional French food – and look out at the panoramic view of immaculate vineyards, I find myself casually learning all about taste and terroir. This is what student life is like on the Chêne Bleu Extreme Wine Experience at La Verrière in Provence. It is a class – with class.

Ten eager pupils, from neophytes to seasoned collectors, have journeyed to this remote 450-acre hilltop estate to learn about wine at warp speed. This is the tenth anniversary of the course and our very international group consists of a young entrepreneur, a clutch of retirees, and those who work in law, finance and law enforcement. La Verrière promises us all the frills – an elegantly restored medieval priory to stay in, replete with infinity pool and private chef, and the prestigious Chêne Bleu biodynamic vineyard and winery on our doorstep.

The five-day immersion covers a wealth of wine knowledge, including grape varieties, wine regions and label terminology, viticulture and winemaking. I am even offered the challenge of blending my own wine (a fruity little number with Syrah, Grenache and a dash of Viognier). The course ratchets up in intensity and culminates in a one-hour exam to attain the internationally recognised Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2/Intermediate award. No one has failed the test after completing the course here (reassuring, given the price tag) and all go home with enough knowledge to test a sommelier.

A lavender-lined path leads to a state-of-the-art teaching and tasting room, our daily hub for lessons. We taste and evaluate over 100 wines on an upper spectrum of quality, refining our noses, palates and descriptive vocabulary with each one. We agree that the 1985 Château Montrose, a superior Bordeaux wine from Saint-Estèphe, has ‘spice’ on the nose and the ‘vegetative, mushroomy quality of the forest floor’ – or sous bois – on the palate. The 2006 Dom Pérignon Champagne has a gentle fizz or mousse, with olfactory notes of ‘light butter, nut and bread’. My spittoon is quietly sidelined.

As we students grapple to express aromas and flavours, our two highly qualified instructors are forgiving: Clive Barlow, a Brit, is chairman of education at the Institute of Masters of Wine and one of the world’s 355 Masters of Wine, and Nick Dumergue, a New Zealander, is an experienced wine tutor and judge.

They have honed the course with Italian-American Nicole Rolet, a former WSET student of theirs in London, who owns La Verrière. They make a dynamic trio, offering a perfect balance of structured education and prankish humour: one evening we are blindfolded to heighten our senses for an apéritif au noir.

A field trip to other nearby wineries reveals the splendid countryside of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The majestic subterranean cellar of Château La Nerthe is shrouded in dust and atmosphere. Nicole has organised a gourmet buffet lunch for us in one of the château’s grand, light-filled rooms with Ralph Garcin, the chief winemaker, introducing his estate’s esteemed vintages. We chink crystal to one of several rare experiences offered by Chêne Bleu, one sip closer to our hard-earned diplomas. (And reader, I passed with merit.)

WAYS AND MEANS Stephanie Drax travelled as a guest of La Verrière (020-7233 8810; laverriere.com), Eurostar (03432-186186; eurostar.com) and Voyages SNCF (0844-848 5848; voyages-sncf.com). Train fares from London to Avignon cost from £99 return on Eurostar’s direct service or from £121 return via Paris or Lille. The next Extreme Wine WSET Level 2 course is on June 23–29 and costs €7,500 (or €5,950 for House & Garden readers if booked before February 28, using the code H&GXW2018). Private courses can be arranged on demand

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

FOOD & TRAVEL | COMPASS

Ta ke th r e e A round-up of some of the other places to stay in Dubai

arabian nights LAURA HOULDSWORTH DISCOVERS A DIFFERENT SIDE TO DUBAI AT JUMEIRAH AL NASEEM

PHOTOGRAPH: PAUL THUYSBAERT. *BASED ON TWO SHARING A RESORT DELUXE ROOM, INCLUDING A COMPLIMENTARY UPGRADE TO HALF-BOARD, BASED ON A MAY 13, 2018 DEPARTURE, BOOKED BY FEBRUARY 28, 2018. **BASED ON A JUNE 4, 2018 DEPARTURE

THE OBEROI BEACH RESORT, AL ZORAH The Oberoi group has expanded in Dubai to open a new beach resort in Al Zorah, a 25-minute drive from the city. Scott Dunn (020-8682 5055; scottdunn.com) offers seven nights from £2,010 per person, B&B, based on two sharing a Deluxe Suite, including flights and transfers.

ARMANI HOTEL For an immersive dose of downtown Dubai life, stay in the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building), in the heart of the shopping and entertainment hub. Destinology (01204-824619; destinology.co.uk) offers five nights from £1,699 per person, B&B, based on two sharing an Armani Classic Room, including flights and transfers.

BULGARI RESORT & RESIDENCES This new Bulgari hotel is opening on Jumeira Bay Island, along with the first Bulgari Marina and Yacht Club.

Elegant Resorts (01244-897517; elegantresorts.co.uk) offers four nights from £1,630 per person, B&B, based on two sharing a Deluxe Beach View Room, including flights and transfers.**

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was expecting to see an abundance of Arabian opulence when I arrived in Dubai: gold leaf, vibrant colours, shiny surfaces, expensive cars and designer clothing. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by the natural materials (stone, wood) and subtle colour scheme in the new Jumeirah Al Naseem hotel. (I was right, nevertheless, about the designer handbags and expensive cars.) I was checking in for three nights and, rather than exploring the duty-free zone with its lavish malls, I intended to have some R&R and a dose of winter sun.

In contrast to its overtly Arabian-style sister hotels, Al Naseem (meaning ‘sea breeze’ in Arabic) is a low-rise property that feels cool, contemporary and refreshingly unflashy. Focused around sea-facing gardens designed by architect Bill Bensley, the hotel has 430 rooms and suites. There are also three large pools (one of which is adults-only), giant hanging chairs and plenty of palm trees, and the property is just a few steps away from one of the city’s best private beaches. My room was spacious and open-plan, with neutral tones and a calm and homely feel. The bathroom had a hammam-inspired wet room and round mirrors suspended from leather straps.

Buffet breakfasts are served in The Palmery and, on Fridays and Saturdays, the Rockfish restaurant as well (the latter turns into an excellent seafood restaurant by night). I spent three happy days on the pristine private beach, which is dotted with turquoise umbrellas and cabanas with billowing white drapes. While all guests have access to the facilities of the extensive Madinat Jumeirah resort, including tennis courts, a fitness centre and one of the largest spas in the city, I was content to spend my time reading, swimming in the sea and being tended to by the professional staff.

My long weekend coincided with October half term and, while I don’t have children, Al Naseem would be a great place for a family holiday. The hotel is adjacent to the Wild Wadi Waterpark and is 10 minutes in a taxi to Mall of the Emirates, with its indoor Ski Zone, and it is not much further to the Emirates KartZone (adrenaline junkie heaven). With 11 bars and restaurants, there are plenty of dining options. I enjoyed a Greek-inspired lunch at Shimmers, sundowner cocktails at Ambar and seafood at the aforementioned Rockfish with its sandy terrace and great views of Burj Al Arab. Just a 30-minute drive from Dubai airport and with a manageable three-hour time difference from the UK, Al Naseem is not only supremely comfortable but also a great option for a sunny long weekend Elegant Resorts (01244-897515; elegantresorts.co.uk) offers five nights at Jumeirah Al Naseem from £1,720 per person, including flights and transfers.* HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2018

STOCKISTS

Merchandise from these companies is featured editorially in this issue. Information is checked at the time of going to press, but House & Garden cannot guarantee that prices will not change or items will be in stock at the time of publication

1882 020-3002 8023; 1882ltd.com

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ALETA 020-7228 9676; aletaonline.com ALTERNATIVE FLOORING 01264-335111; alternativeflooring.com AMARA 0800-587 7645; amara.com ANNIE MILLAR 07836-527804; anniemillar.com APPLEY HOARE 01666-503970; appleyhoare.com

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TINSMITHS 01531-632083; tinsmiths.co.uk TRÉSORS TROUVÉS 00-31-6 1887 3051; tresorstrouves.com

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SAUDADE saudade-shop.com SCP 020-7739 1869; scp.co.uk SHAWS OF DARWEN 01254-775111; shawsofdarwen.com

THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO urbanelectricco.com

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V&A SHOP 020-7942 2000; vandashop.com VANDERHURD 020-7313 5400; vanderhurd.com THE VINTAGE KITCHEN STORE thevintagekitchenstore.co.uk

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WATTLE & POT 07737-696843; wattleandpot.com WILSON STEPHENS & JONES 020-7221 5265; wilsonstephensand jones.com

Below are The List members who have appeared in this issue. Go to houseandgarden.co.uk/the-list to see their complete profiles

CATCHPOLE & RYE | CHESNEYS | HARRIET ANSTRUTHER STUDIO | HUBERT ZANDBERG INTERIORS JAMB | JOHN CULLEN LIGHTING | OK A | OWL LIGHTING | PAOLO MOSCHINO FOR NICHOLAS HASLAM RETROUVIUS DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE | RITA KONIG | VANDERHURD

FEBRUARY 2018 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK

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SELF PORTRAIT I grew up with the SCARCITY OF THE FIFTIES, which was the best school and taught me that one can truly design oneself out of any situation. Being resourceful has become second nature.

My beautiful BENGAL CAT Zulu is the latest addition to my home. She is wild and therefore the most mischievous member of the Edelkoort family.

Be always true to yourself – never pretend

The recent Fortuny exhibition at the Palais Galliera in Paris was sumptuous. His screen-printed VELVETS are set to influence clothing and interiors again, giving the home a historic perspective.

I loved the bedroom I had when I was a child in Holland (above). I used to have an antique bed I imagined was a carriage fit for a princess. I felt very safe from the imaginary pack of wolves hunting me.

Lidewij Edelkoort

THE TREND FORECASTER AND ACADEMIC PAINTS A PICTURE OF HER LIFE, WORK AND INSPIRATIONS

The revival of creative textiles and fibre art can be seen with artists such as DESIRE MOHEB ZANDI (Resilience, above).

I am passionate about preserving textile know-how and am working on a new textiles MFA at Parsons School of Design.

Working in trend forecasting, I feel I have to remain neutral with my own style. I am usually in large DRESSES in sombre colours that I combine with decorative coats and eccentric shoes, creating a flamboyant outer image to my more discreet inner persona.

I have a gift for discovering talent early and over the years have assembled a great collection of CONTEMPORARY DESIGN. Many works are from former graduates I am proud to see flourish, such as this Table Cocoon 10 by Nacho Carbonell.

My father’s insatiable curiosity is something I have inherited. Over the years I trained my intuition to help me to detect trends and relate them to the creative industries

AS TOLD TO DAVID NICHOLLS. PHOTOGRAPHS: ERWIN OLAF; THOMAS STRAUB; THIRZA SCHAAP; PIXELATE IMAGING

I am surprised beauty prevails, even when faced with chaos, as we are today. I am interested in the more spiritual character of design. Hopefully humanity will restore the damage done.

no w on

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