Bridget and her husband, Forbes, moved to Wardington Manor, a Jacobean house near Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 2008. It has since become the base for The Land Gardeners, the design, cut-flower and compost business that she runs with her business partner Henrietta Courtauld.
The manor house, which has 30 acres of grounds, including a Victorian walled garden, had been given what Bridget describes as an ‘Arts-and-Crafts makeover’ in the early 1920s. The library, which doubles as a drawing room, was designed during this period, a project that involved taking out the ceiling to create the double-height space and adding panelling from another house of a similar age.
Bridget has filled the room with furniture and upholstery that she already owned, recovering a few pieces with the help of her friend Lulu Lytle, co-founder of Soane Britain. ‘Anything that’s really lovely in the house comes from her,’ Bridget adds.
The curtains are made from old French sheets that have been dyed a mustard yellow using natural colours by Polly Lyster. ‘The tone of the wood was tricky to match, so we tried a few different colours in situ before arriving at this one.’
Adding freshness to the room — and complementing the chintz fabrics — are the generous bunches of flowers for which The Land Gardeners have become known. Here there are various types, including Elma E, Otto’s Thrill and Café au Lait, all of which have been grown in the garden.
This image appears in ‘At Home In The English Countryside: Designers And Their Dogs’ (£40; Rizzoli). ‘The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers’ by Bridget Elworthy & Henrietta Courtauld is published by Thames & Hudson (£39.95)
A drawing room that dodges the stuffy, formal feel and doubles-down on blocks of colour
The transformation of a Wiltshire drawing room by Lucy Elworthy demonstrates the rich possibilities of a carefully considered use of
-
If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
-
Gaze over Cap Ferrat in this four-bedroom French villaIgnore the wind and the rain. Imagine yourself in this hillside home with some of the best views the Mediterranean can offer.
-
Injecting colour, pattern and character into a once-plain sitting roomBooks, art and textiles transformed a once-characterless space into a warm, inviting sitting room.
-
Say no to boring walls: Six choices of paint and paper which will get people talkingAmelia Thorpe picks out some glorious alternatives to just painting everything white.
-
'Not cheap... but cheaper than a divorce lawyer': Why it pays to hire a consultant to choose the perfect paint colourDriven to distraction by paint charts? A colour consultant could be the answer for anyone befuddled by choosing the right hue, says Giles Kime.
-
Room with a cru — how an 'enduring legacy of lockdown' is the latest must have in interior designLong gone are the dusty cellars of the past. Now is the time to make the place you store your wine as pleasurable as drinking it.
-
The secret to transforming an awkwardly shaped roomCave Interiors turned the awkwardly shaped sitting room of an Edwardian house into a warm and welcoming space.
-
A gloomy kitchen entirely re-created as a cosy living spaceWhen Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham were asked to redecorate a country house in Berkshire, the first task was to turn a dark space into a colourful sitting room.
-
A living room that's a lesson in how to restore lost character in a historic spaceNicola Harding used rich colours and textures to enhance the historic character of a Jacobean house in Berkshire.
-
The slipper chair: How one of America's great designers produced a classic of armless funThe slipper chair might have its roots in the 18th century, but it owes its compact, convivial appeal to Billy Baldwin, a giant of 20th-century American interior design.
