The owners of this farmhouse, set among rolling hills and with views to the sea, were keen for a larger kitchen, better suited to entertaining. Emily Todhunter, co-founder of Todhunter Earle, set about designing an extension that had the same atmosphere and feel of the existing house.
‘It’s something we specialise in as a studio: balancing new with old,’ explains Miss Todhunter. ‘We intentionally didn’t want there to be a significant visual difference when stepping into the new kitchen.’
Marrying the two spaces involved adding beams to the new room, albeit higher than those in the existing house. A second nod to the latter is the use of bead-and-butt boarding on the walls, which continues a theme established in other downstairs rooms.
‘We draw a line at pastiche, so the floors in the kitchen are a more contemporary contrast to the flagstones in the rest of the house. Our approach is to adapt houses to make them fit for today’s lifestyles.’
Greens and blues dominate the colour scheme. Picking up some of the hues from the garden beyond, the tiles behind the Aga are Maison Series in moss green from Craven Dunnill. The floral curtains are in Bannister Hall by Christopher Moore, who specialises in authentic copies of 18th- and 19th-century French and English designs.
‘It’s so important to balance the practical with a softer aesthetic in a kitchen,’ says Miss Todhunter. With this in mind, she lined the walls behind the kitchen table with Panama Ardoise by Abbott & Boyd, which lends a cosy feel. Above the fumed-oak island are Petworth lanterns in bronze from Vaughan.
Todhunter Earle (020–7349 9999; www.todhunterearle.com)
Credit: Ray Main / Todhunter Earle Interiors
Creating a graceful, beautiful and above all cosy bathroom in a period house in Wiltshire
Emily Todhunter took a restrained approach to the decoration of her Wiltshire bathroom. She explained more to Arabella Youens.
Get your home's lighting just right: Seven questions answered
Few things are more important for the atmosphere of your home as the lighting. Interior designer Emily Todhunter shares her
Going off piste: How to embrace modern alpine style
Chalet chic is getting a modern makeover, says Amelia Thorpe.
Credit: Astrid Templier for Rosanna Bossom
A drawing room design that shows how if you start with the right wallpaper, everything else can fall into place
A distinctive wallpaper was the foundation for this drawing room of a London townhouse. Arabella Youens explains how Rosanna Bossom
Credit: Getty
Britain's best interior designers on the paint colours you just can't go wrong with
People across the country are using their time to decorate, and with the big companies still running delivery services you're likely
The Country Life Top 100 architects, interior designers, craftsmen, builders and garden designers in Britain
It's now six years since the original Country Life Top 100 was published, but the aim hasn't changed: we name
-
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.
-
How to create a serene, yet hard-working kitchenPlain English worked with antique dealer Robert Young to make this traditional kitchen with an effortlessly relaxing colour scheme that marries perfectly with the views over beautiful gardens.
-
Why kitchens are going green — literallyGreen is the perfect colour for a kitchen, says Amelia Thorpe.
-
A modern kitchen perfectly framed by the exquisite ancient beamsArtichoke designed a discreet and timeless kitchen to complement a converted granary. Amelia Thorpe takes a look.
-
Yes, you can put a new kitchen in a Grade I-listed house — and this beautiful example shows howTraditional cabinetry was a key ingredient in the sympathetic restoration of a Grade I-listed Tudor house in Shropshire.
-
A London townhouse kitchen transformed to be sociable, practical and charmingThe new owners of this London townhouse have reconfigured it to create a sociable space for cooking and entertaining.
-
A beautiful new kitchen sympathetically created for a 16th century manor houseLimewash walls, a large island and plenty of open shelving combine to create a kitchen that’s sympathetic to this 16th-century manor house in Somerset.
-
10 things I wish I'd known about doing up old houses before I started, by Country Life's interiors guru Giles KimeCountry Life’s executive editor and resident interiors expert Giles Kime shares the lessons he’s learnt from the experience of dragging a succession of houses into the 21st-century.
-
Seven beautiful new looks in kitchens, from classic cabinetry to 80s revivalThe latest looks in the kitchen, selected by Amelia Thorpe.
