A grand classical house in Somerset by Christian Bense, perfectly balanced between tradition and modernity
Christian Bense’s client had been threatening to buy a country house for some time, before she settled on this gracefully sprawling West Country property set in acres of countryside. An irresistibly lovely place, it was built 20 years ago in an early-18th-century style by its previous owners (and featured in House & Garden when it was first finished). ‘Her call couldn’t have come at a worse time,’ says Christian. ‘We were so busy but, when I saw it, I knew I’d kick myself if I didn’t do it.’
Aside from the beauty and scale of the house, there were other compelling reasons to say yes: Christian had worked with the client on their other properties over the years – both as a designer at Turner Pocock and when he set up his studio in 2020. He agreed to come on board for the new project, but there was a hitch. She wanted it ready for her young family (three boys and a baby on the way) to move into the following June: they were only given the keys in March. With admirable nimbleness, Christian and senior designer Lexi Strang tore up the usual timeline for a project – a period for conceptualising the design with the client, followed by another period for procurement and installation – and decided to design things as they went along. Happily, the client trusted them entirely and so began a hair-raising, but ultimately satisfying, creative process that, like all the best rollercoasters, left Christian wishing he could do it all over again.
Time was not the only challenge. The client was moving from a relatively compact Notting Hill villa to a vast house with a grand main wing accommodating the drawing room, dining room and principal bedrooms, a barn-shaped wing for the kitchen and utility rooms, and a third wing for guest bedrooms. There were 24 rooms to work with on the ground floor alone. ‘All their existing furniture immediately vanished in these rooms,’ Christian recalls. Not only that, but while their city house was decorated in a style that he describes as ‘very art gallery, form over function to the max’, the new one came with a gracious country-house aesthetic that was alien to the owners’ taste.
The client’s first brief was that the house should be ‘masculine and edgy and all Brazilian furniture’, a highly contemporary, art-filled interior that would come as a surprise to anyone taken in by its traditional façade. Over time, however, as they visited the house more regularly, they began to develop an affinity with the place. ‘I’m always happy to do a crazy art-gallery house,’ explains Christian. ‘But designing a forever home requires an element of sympathy with the architecture and your surroundings. You don’t have to be a slave to them, but you need to be sympathetic.’
Working on the fly, Christian and Lexi began to evolve an interior that would pay respect to the classic country-house aesthetic without falling into familiar clichés. Their fast-paced design process took on a semblance of tightrope walking. In those spaces that felt particularly traditional – the kitchen, for instance, where they opted to work with existing cabinetry – they amped up the modernity with strong lines in the furniture, or punchy artworks. But if their schemes began to feel a little too edgy, they’d let in a few country-house elements to compensate. In the dining room (once the entrance hall), an alarming life-size clown figure and sculptural Lindsey Adelman ceiling light have to play nicely with the elegant panelling and uber-trad, gilt-framed oil paintings.
‘One key decision was that we wouldn’t use printed linen, as it’s something you see in every traditional country house,’ says Christian. ‘So we restricted ourselves to woven or embroidered fabrics, or those with a pattern intrinsic to the nature of the material. It was hard – but ended up adding a new dimension to the interior.’ While there isn’t a whisper of chintz anywhere, it did feel important to bring a sense of the garden into the house, especially as the client was keen to replant the surrounding wildflower meadows. Florals have, therefore, been allowed, but in unexpected ways. The vast proportions of the garden room next to the kitchen, used as a playroom, are highlighted by a Cox London ‘Magnolia Grandiflora’ chandelier while, in the hall, artist Tess Newall has sketched onto the walls ethereal monochrome flowers that drift up the stairs on a pale pink background.
Tess’s contribution was typical of how Christian and Lexi worked with craftspeople on this project. Because of the tight time frame, they often found themselves giving only the loosest of briefs to the makers and artists working on bespoke pieces, and letting them get on with it – with brilliant results. Similarly, Jo leGleud, one of the duo who founded interior design studio Maddux Creative, was entrusted with much of the embroidery, from the curtains to cushions, which evolved brilliantly under her.
Trust has been the keynote of the entire process – both between client and designer, and designer and makers. The result is a joyful and elegant house – a vibrant setting for full-throttle family life. ‘The playroom is stylistically perfect,’ says Christian. ‘But the kids build forts with the cushions and turn everything upside down. You can’t create a family home where things mustn’t be touched – the essence of designing for a family is that it should all be easily put back, and that is the real beauty of this house.'
Christian Bense: christianbense.com
Michael Sinclair1/9What had been the entrance hall has been converted to a formal dining room, with walls in a warm ochre yellow and a Christopher Farr snake rug on the floor. The client's pendant light (by Lindsay Adelman) creates the perfect centrepiece.
Michael Sinclair2/9Traditional oil paintings form an intriguing contrast with the client's life-size clown sculpture.
Michael Sinclair3/9The drawing room is a long space running the length of the dining room and the hallway, with five windows flooding it with light. Christian reupholstered the client's existing sofas and added various striking contemporary and bespoke pieces. The bespoke sleeper table is by James Trundle and is one of Christian's favourite pieces in the house. The pendant light was designed by Martin Huxford, and the drinks cabinets on either side of the window were sourced from Galerie Glustin in Paris.
Michael Sinclair4/9The main bedroom has a soothing colour scheme in greeny blues, with bedside tables designed by Tree Lounge in collaboration with Christian's studio.
Michael Sinclair5/9Existing wardrobes were repainted in Argile’s ‘Gui d’Octobre’, contrasting with the pale tiles and quartzite surround of the bath. A Vaughan ‘Windermere’ chandelier hangs over a Hunter Knight ottoman in V&N’s ‘Aleppo’ with Samuel & Sons fringing. On the wall is Nina Mae Fowler’s graphite and oil pastel artwork Love III, 2019.
Michael Sinclair6/9Off the dining room, the hallway leading to the guest bedrooms is painted in Farrow & Ball’s archive shade ‘Etruscan Red’ on the ceiling and walls . Plaster mouldings along with drawings and plans of the house hang on the walls.
Michael Sinclair7/9The walls and ceiling in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Drab Green’ are the backdrop for a Beaudesert four-poster with a bedcover in a Tissage
des Flandres jacquard and an ottoman in Howe at 36 Bourne Street’s ‘Burnley’ ticking.
Michael Sinclair8/9Above a Biedermeier mahogany table from Foster & Gane, a mid-century wall light illuminates Alberto Morrocco’s Self Portrait in a Turkish Hat
Michael Sinclair9/9Another guest bedroom has a pretty colour scheme enlivened by the vintage kilim on the bed.
