Cocktail larders and bobbin fenders. Much of what lies ahead comes from the past.
The cocktail larder
Credit: Paul Craig
As if it wasn’t enough for an all-singing, all-dancing, multifunctioning kitchen to double as a dining room, television room and office, some can now be found masquerading as an occasional cocktail bar, such as with this delightful design from Humphrey Munson.
The obelisk
Not since the days of the interior designer David Hicks has the obelisk — a diminutive version of Cleopatra’s Needle — been so in demand. They work best in pairs, adding a touch of symmetry (as well as neo-Classical glamour) to a tablescape. Additionally, together with plaster casts and pedimented joinery, the profile is well-suited to display cabinets and bookshelves, such as this piece from Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.
The bobbin fender
Who’d have thought a time-honoured classic such as the club fender could be reinvented? This Bobbin design by interior designer Rosanna Bossom is a folksy take on an old favourite.
The pot filler
Credit: STHPhoto.com
One benefit of a kitchen rehash is the logistical nirvana of a pot filler that lets you fill your pots above your stove, rather than in your sink, such as this Regulator pot filler by Waterworks.
Animals
It’s been said interior design is never more dreary than when it takes itself too seriously, something Kit Kemp knows well, having made a career out of creating hotel spaces that both entertain and put guests at their ease.
Bold stripes
They’re back and they’re bold; this classic ingredient of English country-house style is being used by designers such as Flora Soames to create an eye-catching focus in a room.
Bare plaster
Sarah Corbett-Winder’s London home — ‘impossibly chic’.
Pink paint might have been riding high for the past few years, but raw plaster has a brownish-pink hue and an agreeably rustic texture that is increasingly finding favour among a new generation, as demonstrated so eloquently in the London home of Sarah Corbett-Winder. Practical? Possibly not… but impossibly chic nevertheless.
Giles Kime is the interiors editor of Country Life
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