How to decorate your Cotswolds home
Imperfect Interiors have just finished renovating a 15th-Century holiday cottage in the Cotswolds, and have put together some tips on how to decorate your home
Deciding how to decorate your home can be exciting but also daunting, so start off by asking yourself a few initial questions;
1) Do you want it to feel relaxed and cosy, or do you want it to feel grand & elegant? The former tends to lend itself more to the architecture of stone cottages with low ceilings and exposed beams. Whilst the latter works better with Georgian buildings which generally have tall windows & ceilings.
2) Is the house going to be used for holiday lets or as a permanent or second home? This should dictate the practicality of the materials & finishes that you choose- if you are planning to rent it out to guests, choose finishes that are hard to damage such as ‘smart’ fabrics that have a protective coating, porcelain or ceramic tiles in bathrooms and composite worktops in the kitchen which shouldn’t mark. If it is going to be a permanent or second home and you are happy to look after higher maintenance finishes, real stone flooring & worktops, wooden floors & sisal carpets add a lovely authentic feel to older houses.
3) How will you make it personal to you? Avoid choosing neutral tones as default- beige walls with beige furniture is unlikely to make you or anyone else swoon, so find images of other country houses that you love and add them to a Pinterest board. Try to disect what it is that you love about those images- is it the mix of antiques with contemporary furniture, is it the colour palette that has been used or is it the mix of fabrics & art? All of these elements will create different atmospheres, which relates back to how you want it to feel (see point 1).
4) Once you have decided exactly what it is that you want to achieve, start picking up fabric, floor & tile samples that relate back to your chosen images. Paint up some testers directly onto the walls of each room and see how they look in natural daylight alongside your samples- keep doing this until you find the right combination in each room. Try to ensure that you have an overarching ‘scheme’ by choosing colours and fabrics in each room that tie into the choices in the rest of the house. If you are going for an autumnal palette inspired by nature- as we did at Armada Cottage- stick to warm tones such as rust, forest green, dandelion & blackberry and dot them throughout the house. Or if you prefer prettier tones like daffodil, mint, rose & sky blue, stick to fabrics, materials & prints in similar spring-like tones.
5) Avoid buying furniture and art online- your Cotswolds home is likely to be unique so don’t fill it with generic items bought from the high street. Search out local artists at Open House events, hunt down antiques from your local town or antique fairs, and try to buy things that are hand made or pre-loved where possible. They will add so much character to your home & make it uniquely yours. You will get so much more pleasure from hunting down a perfectly imperfect chest of drawers that has a story to tell than you will a new factory made item.
6) If you are still struggling or simply don’t have time to source everything yourself, get in touch! We regularly work on projects in the Cotswolds as well as London- www.imperfectinteriors.co.uk
All images are of Armada Cottage, Charlbury which is available for holidays lets at www.armadacottagecotswolds.co.uk
Interior Design by Imperfect Interiors www.imperfectinteriors.co.uk