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10 Beautiful Rooms

Good Morning and I hope you are all well. Warm innit? Just when you think it might start to cool down and think that it can’t possibly go on any longer, the forecasters announce another week of it. I’m not complaining – much – but I will say that it’s much easier to deal with hot weather when you don’t have to work. Or go to work. So at least, now that the school’s are finally out I (and I hope you) won’t have to get up quite so early and force tired teenagers into uniforms that were huge at the start of the year and are now slightly too tight and permanently slightly grubby.

the white house daylesford via lynda gardener image by Lean Timms
the white house daylesford via lynda gardener image by Lean Timms

Anyway, let’s escape all that reality and take a stroll through 10 beautiful rooms where the temperature is always the perfect shade of cool and there’s a gentle breeze blowing gently through the window. Which, given that these first two rooms are in Australia where I believe it’s winter, seems like a reasonable option. Worth looking, not for the climate but for the two gorgeous rooms alone.

the lounge at the white house daylesford
the lounge at the white house daylesford

Sticking with a palette of cool neutrals what about this gorgeous bedroom with its wooden clad vaulted ceiling. This colour scheme of dark wood, the palest of pale pinks with natural linen and chalky white is absolutely my favourite look at the moment.

We are about to redecorate the spare room and those are definitely the colours I am looking at. I have used similar colours downstairs but with dark chocolately walls instead of dark furniture. I plan to stick to the same sort of colours but use them in different ways upstairs so that there is a feeling of getting lighter the higher you go.

wooden clad ceiling by stacey rossetti @farmhousechic4sure
wooden clad ceiling by stacey rossetti @farmhousechic4sure

Both these rooms have used exposed and painted bricks to great effect. I have mixed feelings about exposed bricks left natural as it’s all about the colour. Many of them are too red or too orange and if you have to repoint them they can look a little too disney. If you do need them repointing then ask the builder to leave a more rustic finish – perhaps by running a finger along to smooth them rather than a hard-edged tool which will give a harsh line.

bath by the water monopoly image by @homeiswherethepackis
bath by the water monopoly image by @homeiswherethepackis

We seem to be all about bathrooms this week – I blame the heat. The next two are the same bathroom but from different ends. Last week I wrote about the return of the coloured bath and here is a black one. But in this cool neutral space it could just as easily be orange, or pink or green and it would also look great. This is the soft way into colour baths – painting the outside and leaving the inside in the original white.

modern rustic bathroom by jessica rose williams
modern rustic bathroom by jessica rose williams

This bathroom belongs to Jessica Rose Williams, who recently moved to a small cottage and has been detailing the renovations on her instagram account. I particularly love the black mirror to echo the black bath and the rustic wooden bathroom that draws the eye to the wooden beam above the window. It’s absolutely key to work with what you’ve got to either highlight great features or disguise bad ones. You can’t just ignore them though.

modern rustic bathroom by jessica rose williams
modern rustic bathroom by jessica rose williams

Next up, because when I’m not dreaming of cool showers, I’m thinking about being on holiday and not having to get up in the morning is this gorgeous bedroom in the Hotel Lokal, which was decorated by one of my favourite interior design firms, Jersey Ice Cream Co. More white-painted bricks, lots of cool linen and a tan leather sofa for a touch of luxury.

lokal hotel by the jersey ice cream co
lokal hotel by the jersey ice cream co

Finally this is the latest project from Devol Kitchens and it’s a really special one as it has been done for The House of Hackney, whose bold punk reworkings of traditional fabrics are on many an interiorista’s (totally made up word) wish list. Given their style you would never expect a traditional kitchen and this doesn’t disappoint.

Now it won’t be for everyone but I’m pretty sure that if you look closely there may well be elements that might inspire your own design. I love the wallpaper and think it would be wonderful to have wallpaper in a kitchen but I don’t think it’s something The Mad Husband would go for. However, I am always suggesting bringing in a little pattern to add more personality and character and if you wanted to keep the walls plain you could add patterned tiles in the splashback rather than the plain ones they have used here.

There’s no doubt this is a pretty maximalist scheme – which is only to be expected of the owners – but if you break it down the colours are minimal and natural with a basic palette of green and cream (it’s Devol linen) and natural wood. It’s the mix of patterns which give it the signature style.

Mind you I love how they have incorporated window boxes into the sky lights. I have a skylight exactly like that and am very tempted to do the same thing although in the current heat I worry than the plants might just burn. Perhaps I’ll wait until the end of the summer.

And in the meantime I’ll just leave this page there so Himself can have a look. What I really need is a trailing herb garden. Now wouldn’t that be amazing?

 

 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

5 Comments

  1. The DeVol kitchen has Fired Earth tiles in the splashback in Tourmaline which I used in my bathroom! At £15 per tile, I used four as the splashback above the sink.

    Champagne tastes, lemonade wallet, as always!

  2. Love that cosy ready for winter kitchen, bar the dining area which is a bit too old American for me. Its nice to see something different. The white house pics win it for me tho, especially the first one, just the right amount of cool and shabby.

  3. Well, I for one, think “interiorista” is the perfect word to describe what you do. It’s a far more imaginative word for creating far more imaginative rooms.

  4. Yes Kate love the plants in the kitchen skylight but if real there might be a problem with watering them don’t you think !!
    Coukd use faux I guess

  5. The Devol kitchen – brilliant styling as always – has all the cosiness of an old London pub. Wonderful after dark but I’m not sure it would work for me at breakfast time.

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