An interior designer's clever conversion of a farm outbuilding into an elegant, unfussy country house

Downstairs became a sitting room and study on one side and a large kitchen and dining area on the other, with a generous hallway joining the two spaces. Limestone flooring runs from the entrance through to the kitchen, which means that ‘you read the space as one’, Thea explains. Soft, tonal pinks on the walls – ‘Lilac Pink’ from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint for the entrance hall and the kitchen, and its deeper ‘Jonquil’ for the sitting area and study – tie the spaces together, too, setting the tone for the rest of the house and picking up on the clay roof tiles outside. Upstairs is painted in a similarly tranquil palette – Paint & Paper Library’s soothing ‘Clay III’ for the side that houses Thea and Jack’s bedroom and its archive green paint ‘Both Barrels’ for the other side. ‘I wanted it to feel warm and restful up here,’ she says.

At the time Thea embarked on this project, she was working for Rose Uniacke, having joined the team in 2015 as an intern and worked her way up to being a designer. ‘I learnt so much during my five years with Rose, especially when it came to antiques and the importance of establishing a language between pieces of furniture,’ says Thea, who left in 2020 to set up on her own. This house is a testament to her talent for sourcing and paved the way for her going it alone. ‘It helped me hone my eye,’ she explains. She is particularly drawn to 20th-century European – especially Swedish – pieces: from the curvaceous cane chairs in one corner of the kitchen, which she bought from London dealer M Kardana, to the Swedish floor lamp in her bedroom. ‘I like strong silhouettes and pieces that are refined examples of their type,’ she says.

Thea has been admirably thrifty in her choice of fabrics, using canvas cloth, bought from an art shop for £2 a metre, to conceal under-stairs storage, while curtains made from cream needlecord – which she snapped up for a song from a shop on Goldhawk Road, W12 – provide a gentle division between the sitting room and study area. An inviting sofa and ottoman in natural linen, both of which she designed and had made, bring additional softness to the sitting room. In one of the single bedrooms, a checked fabric from Merchant & Mills was used for curtains that close to conceal a little wrought-iron bed tucked under the sloping roof, transforming it into a magical den, while the vanity units in both bathrooms have been kitted out with simple fabric skirts. ‘I wanted the house to feel unfussy, elegant and calming,’ says Thea. I think we can all agree that she has whole-heartedly succeeded.

Thea Speke: theaspeke.com