Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Country Homes & Interiors

WE HAD HAILSTONES, TORRENTIAL RAIN and gales during our garden party shoot for this issue (page 76). Fortunately, the sun also shone on the stunning flower displays and styling ideas created by my friend and talented florist, Sarah Crosier. The idea was to create designs that could be interpreted for the table but also as decorations to wear – a corsage that could trim a chair back, or a napkin tie that could also be wrapped around the wrist. I hope you love the results as much as I do, and that they inspire the look for your next special occasion. We’ve headed outdoors for many of our other features this month, too. If you’ve been wondering about installing an outdoor bath or shower, dive into page 93. If a…

As the great-niece of Nancy Lancaster (the founder of Colefax and Fowler), Jane Churchill has always been immersed in exquisite design taste. Her fabrics and wallpapers made her a household name in the 1980s and she still runs her interior design practice from London’s Pimlico Road. Jane recently partnered with The Lacquer Company to create a range of high-gloss lamp bases and candlesticks, using the ancient Vietnamese So’n mài technique. How would you describe your style? I grew up surrounded by design, so while my style has evolved over time and my love of colour continues to grow, my roots are in the classic English style. I find inspiration wherever it chooses to strike – on holiday, on clothing or on Instagram. If you could pick one project you’re most…

Wet rooms can be the ideal solution for older or smaller country homes, working with awkward spaces, unusually shaped rooms and unconventional floor plans. ‘The advantage of installing a wet room is the power to choose the shape and size of your shower area, meaning that it doesn’t necessarily have to be tucked into the corner of the room,’ explains Ruth Foster, interior designer for Victoria Plum. Q Where can I install a wet room in my home? A ‘Awet room can be added anywhere in the home – it is suitable for installation on both the ground and upper storeys, as long as the supporting floor is of concrete or timber construction and is in good condition,’ explains Ruth. Even though the process of installing a wet room is…

Tick tips for walks Protect yourself and your pooch from ticks when you go walking. Wear long sleeves and tuck trousers into your socks, and check your clothing for ticks before coming inside. Take a tick removal tool and antiseptic with you, and feel your dog’s fur for the parasites (curly-haired breeds are most at risk of infections). Ask your vet about anti-parasite protection or a lyme disease vaccination.…

My grandparents, in the latter stages of their lives, lived in a small corner terrace two-up two-down house. Every Sunday, my mum would pile us three kids into the car and drive over to them for lunch. Lunch was a 30-strong family affair with all the aunties and uncles, and more cousins than I could count on my two hands. Everyone brought a dish to share, and there was always a big pot of something on the stove needing a stir. As young as I was at the time, those Sundays, filled to the brim with love, fragrant food and a cacophony of chatter, became a treasured core memory. A living room and eat-in kitchen made up the ground floor. As you can imagine, space was at a premium, so…

I first became absorbed by gardening nearly 40 years ago, growing troughs of salads and pots of herbs on my doorstep in west London. I was – and still am – a passionate cook and just-picked food, straight from the garden, is a great life enhancement for me. With advice from a book or two and prompts from a couple of veg-growing friends, I landed on five plants in those early days, all of which I highly recommend and still grow. What I hadn’t realised at the time is that each of these crops is cut-and-come-again. With the leafy plants, if you harvest them regularly, picking the outer leaves (or in the case of tarragon, the uppermost ones), the heart of the plant grows to replenish them. And with the…

SARAH CROSIER created the stunning sustainable floral displays and ‘wearables’ for our In a Country Garden feature. ‘Wearables are custom pieces designed for a special occasion. Each one is unique and tailored to the individual,’ she says. Take a look, and find instructions to make your own, on page 76. PIPPA BLENKINSOP styled the images for In a Country Garden. ‘It was a dream,’ she says. ‘I’m a flower fanatic, so it was a pleasure to source beautiful items to create inspiring settings and imagery.’ NATASHA GOODFELLOW went under canvas for our Career Shift feature on camping (page 110). ‘I don’t camp often but waking up to birdsong and the sizzle of frying bacon is a treat!’…

Carnation sensation Instead of bunting for a summer garden party, why not make this beautiful fresh flower garland instead? Cut the carnations where the stem meets the green base of the bloom, then put a dot of floral glue over the cut to keep the flowers fresh. Push a darning needle and fishing line through the flower heads, from the base and through the centre of the bloom. Space them evenly along the line.…

BATHING IN BEAUTY ‘An outdoor bath allows you to connect with nature,’ says Bee Osborn, of Osborn Interiors, who has recently added an open air tub to her cottage. The bath must be made of a durable material, as Barrie Cutchie, design director of BC Designs, explains. ‘We find that tin and copper baths can weather the elements,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t hurt to cover them during the winter months or design a “bath house” with a roof and three sides to help provide shelter.’ While it may be possible to fill the tub with a hosepipe connected to hot and cold water taps, the best solution will be to hire a plumber to connect the bath to the household water supply and to ensure proper drainage. BATHING IN BLISS…

A water feature will quickly become a favourite part of your garden. Wall fountains are perfect for courtyards or to bring shady corners to life. A still pool or decorative cascade can be a tranquil centrepoint, while more sculptural designs or reflective orbs are popular in modern settings. PERFECT PLACEMENT First and foremost, your water feature should be positioned where you can enjoy it – perhaps adjoining a patio, near a seating area, or where it can be viewed from a window of your home. Secondly, the power supply will also inform the placement. Electrically powered water features are determined by cabling – it is easier to connect a fountain closer to the house than further away. ‘Plumbed-in water features are best placed against a wall, as plumbers can easily…

Golden shadows stretch across the chestnut field on a glorious summer’s evening at Woodfire Camping’s site just outside Petworth in the South Downs. As the sun bleaches the sky white, backlighting each individual blade of grass, husband and wife Stella Gurney and Mark ‘Griff’ Griffiths are hard at work serving the evening’s meal. The scent of rosemary and charred steak drifting in the air has brought gaggles of hungry campers to the tables while others finish a last game of rounders, children squealing with delight at the togetherness and lack of routine. The scene couldn’t be more different from Stella and Griff’s previous lives in London, where Stella worked in publishing and Griff in digital advertising. ‘Griff was really unhappy in his job, I had repetitive strain injury in my…

Bring the pizzeria and ice cream parlour to your home with Cuisinart’s summer must-haves: its Indoor Pizza Oven and Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker. Cook up restaurant quality pizzas from the comfort of your kitchen with Cuisinart’s new Indoor Pizza Oven. Reaching temperatures of up to 400C, it allows you to make multiple wood-fired style pizzas back-to-back in as little as five minutes. Designed with convenience in mind, simply plug in and get cooking with its complete pizza kit, including a large pizza stone for crispy crusts, a deep dish pan for speciality pizzas, a foldable pizza peel and a pizza cutter. And when it’s time for an after-dinner treat, the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker ensures every day is a sundae! Small enough to slot seamlessly onto your…

Even lovers of English wine often can’t quite believe how good our native productions are. But if proof were needed, surely it’s in the fact that the Champagne houses of Pommery-Vranken and Taittinger have bought land in southern England to make their own English fizz. English sparkling wine has come of age in the past decade or so. The industry has moved from a pioneer period, through a sometimes awkward adolescence to a confident early adulthood. A number of factors has helped: the warming of the climate, although worrying in many ways, has meant that Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, the three grapes of Champagne, have no difficulty ripening consistently; serious money has flowed in; and a new generation of highly professional winemakers has taken over from the sometimes inspired,…

FROM £14.99, SAVE £15 WISTERIA FRUTESCENS ‘AMETHYST FALLS’, also known as American wisteria, produces dense clusters of trailing lilac flowers throughout May, filling the air with perfume and attracting bees and birds. ‘Amethyst Falls’ is an ultra-compact variety and therefore perfect for growing in a pot, making it a brilliant plant for the patio. In its early years, it will remain compact and manageable, growing to 3m in height with a 2m spread and, maintained like this, will continue to yield masses of flowers every spring. If left unpruned, it can reach a height of 4.5m. Unlike many other wisteria varieties, which can take up to five years to flower, ‘Amethyst Falls’ will reliably flower in its first year. OPTION 1 Supplied as an established plant in a 15cm pot ready…

ONE FOR THE DIARY… 22-23 JUNE Borde Hill Garden Festival, West Sussex. Set in historic parkland, Borde Hill Garden features formal gardens, wide lawns, a plethora of unique plant species and one of the UK’s largest collections of rare trees. Discover it all, alongside curated talks from garden designers, eclectic live music and over 40 artisan stalls (browse garden furniture, handcrafted tools, botanical beauty products and rare blooms) topped off by irresistible food from Sussex’s best pop-ups, £18pp, bordehill.co.uk…

The reinvention of Belle Hadley’s family home belies its setting in the English countryside, drawing on style influences from her childhood in South Africa and from living on America’s East Coast. ‘Growing up in the southern hemisphere, light and space is important to me, both indoors and out,’ Belle says. ‘I also wanted to create a peaceful home that holds memories but is pared-back enough so we can unwind after a busy day.’ Interior designer Belle recognised the potential to create a soulful family home from the backbone of a modest 1929 semi in leafy Surrey. ‘It was a charming house on a large plot, with scope to extend at the side and back,’ she says. Husband Chris also grew up in South Africa, and the pair were keen to…

TIP As you arrange flowers around your chandelier, aim to make the blooms ‘talk’ to each other – like these three peonies, interspersed with filler flowers TIP Add flowers to the balloons first, then fill with water. You can gently squeeze and turn the balls to ensure the petals can be seen before freezing TIP If you make the corsage the night before your party, place it in the fridge on a layer of damp tissue. The flowers should stay looking fresh for 24 hours TIP The flowers for your cake meadow should form a soft wave, with the taller blooms at the sides and smaller ones at the front, so the cake can be seen TIP When you make the mossage base for your seat decoration, hold it against…

The colour of sunlight, harvest and nectar, yellow is one of nature’s most positive shades. It energises, brings joy and is a bold – even brave – colour choice. Yellow is seen in religious imagery, symbolising gold in the Roman Catholic faith, highlighting the holiness of saints in devotional paintings, and is worn by Hindu gods. In China, the Yellow Emperor was the first to take the throne, and the colour was worn only by the Imperial Family or laid down as resplendent rugs for distinguished guests. Literally ‘hi-vis’, yellow is the colour that is most apparent from a distance, which is why it is frequently used for signage, and for warnings on roads and railways. In 2021, yellow hue ‘Illuminating’ was named as one of Pantone’s colours of the…

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Grilled market vegetable salad with herbed toasts SERVES 6-8 Pile the beautifully charred vegetables onto a large wooden board with the grilled toasts and serve. 1 head Radicchio Treviso, quartered1 head cos lettuce, quartered2 small fennel, quartered6 courgettes, halved160g cherry tomatoes6 Japanese aubergines, halvedCoarse sea salt, to sprinkleExtra virgin olive oil, to drizzleA handful of freshly torn flat-leaf parsley, to garnish SPANISH SHERRY MARINADE 120ml extra virgin olive oil,60ml Jerez Spanish vinegar2 garlic cloves, finely chopped1 shallot, finely choppedA pinch of Spanish smoked paprika HERBED TOASTS 1 large baguette, thickly slicedGarden Herb Butter (below) 1 Mix together all the marinade ingredients and season. The marinade will keep in a jar in the fridge for up to a month. 2 Put all the vegetables in a large baking dish and pour…

Lilies are our sizzling summer stalwarts. The most dramatic types, large-flowered Oriental and Asiatic hybrids, come in a cocktail of bright colours and markings. Grow them in pots and you can admire the exotic blooms or smell their sweet fragrance up close. Plant the bulbs in loam-based compost with added grit and plenty of crocks for drainage. Although the best time to plant lilies in pots is late September or October, the bulbs are not always available until late autumn, or even spring. They look most natural when planted in groups of three or five, with each bulb spaced about 30-35cm from its neighbour. Water them in, but then keep the pot under cover in a shed or an unheated greenhouse over winter, so that the compost does not get…

The concept of decluttering and throwing stuff away is something I struggle with. I prefer to find new uses for unwanted items, and the garden is usually my destination of choice for reinvented things. There’s an innate kinship between old, worn items and fresh foliage and flowers, where the distinctive patina of vintage garden furniture, statues and architectural salvage adds instant lived-in charm. They are usually investment pieces at the pricey end of the scale, but if you are on a budget, try hunting down smaller items. Stone and concrete planters or galvanised metal troughs are simply begging to be filled with overflowing planting. Salvaged bricks, tiles and paving are recycling gold dust, with a naturally aged feel that adds character and warmth. Reclaimed from building work, they can be…

I live in Edinburgh’s New Town and moved here almost 10 years ago, with my husband, James, and beagle, Darwin. We relocated from a remote farming village in North Yorkshire but it didn’t feel like leaving the countryside as the city has such superb access to the outdoors. Hillwalking is a part of my life. On an ideal day, I’d head north to Perthshire or to the Cairngorms National Park to tackle a Corbett. Corbetts are mountains between 2,500 and 2,999 feet high. Less popular than the better-known Munros, which are Scottish peaks over 3,000 feet, Corbetts are sometimes dismissed as ‘old men’s Munros’, but they are often spectacular and usually less crowded. Sadly, our dog Darwin died in 2022. Losing him has left a huge hole in our lives…