A 17th-century Berkshire house, blending traditional interiors with contemporary art

In the first-floor sitting room, a modern painting now hangs over the chimneypiece.

In the adjoining bathroom, the main changes were the addition of a shower – currently the only one in the house – along with a chinoiserie wallpaper by Watts 1874 and floor-length curtains in a sage-green stripe by Susan Deliss.

Next came the first-floor sitting room, which had been the owner’s parents’ biggest decorative project. ‘This was the nursery when my father grew up here. They turned it into the most amazing winter drawing room,’ she says. ‘It’s such a beautiful room, so we didn’t want to make too many changes.’

The principal switch was the modern painting that now hangs over the chimneypiece. Henriette took her colour cue from that and the portrait hanging beside it to update the soft furnishings in the room, reupholstering several chairs and the club fender, and adding new cushions and lampshades.

The upstairs landing features an antique tapestry which contrasts with a palm-tree print by Howard Hodgkin and other modern pieces from the owner’s collection.

Paul Massey

It was the downstairs drawing room, however, with its original timber panelling, that was the trickiest room to navigate when it came to integrating the owner’s art collection. The initial starting point for the scheme was a palm-tree print by Howard Hodgkin, one of a series he created in the late 1980s. ‘It’s the first piece of modern art I bought and it’s still one of my favourites,’ she says. But as a decorative springboard, it proved problematic. ‘I love bright colours, so we talked about painting the panels green, or putting some green silk in them, but none of it was working.’

In the end, the Hodgkin print was relocated to the upstairs landing, while inspiration for the drawing room came from a book, How They Decorated by P Gaye Tapp, which features a room with similar panelling and a hand-painted mural. Henriette had already commissioned artist Su Daybell to paint a pair of lampshades for the winter drawing room, ‘and when Su dropped them off, she said to me, “By the way, I paint walls as well,”’ the owner recalls. ‘So I said, “Well, how about the drawing room?” And she said, “You’re absolutely mad. You’ve known me for about 30 seconds.” But I had a good feeling about it.’

That gut feeling turned out to be prescient: over a period of several weeks, Su worked on the design day by day, mixing colours on site and painting directly onto the walls. The mural now wraps around the room, featuring vases of flowers and plants, some of which can be found in the gardens outside.

The owner’s art collection inspired the colours of the bespoke bed in the main bedroom, with its headboard in ‘Karsamba Weave’ by Robert Kime, and the Robert Stephenson rug.

Paul Massey

Henriette then fine-tuned the wall colour, and let the murals ‘sink in’ before adding further to the room. ‘We sat there and tried to feel it,’ she says. ‘Then we re-upholstered the furniture and did the cushions and curtains. I was worried about putting some of the older paintings back in, but it all worked really well. It’s a cracking room – lovely to be in after Sunday lunch, when you can open the doors out to the garden, but also in the evening, by candlelight, it glows.’

‘My parents hardly used the drawing room, whereas now, we use it all the time,’ notes the owner. The snug is next door – another room that has a youthful new look – and the children’s playroom next to that, ‘so everything happens on the same floor’.

The house has retained its provenance, but now reflects the way the owner and her young family want to live, and its journey goes on. She and Henriette are working on the entrance hall, and are hoping to create a new kitchen opening onto the rear garden, as the existing kitchen is dark and north facing. ‘The house itself is not really changing; it’s not even a new start,’ Henriette reflects. ‘It’s the continuation of a story, the continuation of a family. It’s a privilege to be able to help write its next chapter’.

VSP Interiors: vspinteriors.com