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This year’s Show was a resounding success. I had the pleasure of sharing my stand with Westcote Design of Kingham with their lovely bespoke sofas & chairs. We had many visitors to the stand & welcomed them with a complimentary glass of Champagne. The weather was fantastic & we had a good south facing pitch which shed good light on our display. It was my birthday too, so all in all a great day (& I only consumed 3 glasses of Champagne)!! Lets hope next year is as successful!

Once again i will be having a Display Stand at this year’s Moreton in Marsh Show - the region’s best one day Country Show. This year I will be joined by Westcote Design of Kingham & they will be displaying some of their bespoke sofas & chairs along with a beautiful window setting of mine. Come & seek us out - we will be in the Retail Area.

Harlequin Bakari

Inspired by the organic textures and physical elements of the natural world, Bakari is a gentle, laid-back collection with a tranquil and contemporary twist. Presented in s

even versatile colour stories, this delightfully undemanding and timeless collection will work well in all areas of the home.

How we transformed a room 2

April/May 2008

We were asked to design a scheme for the master bedroom for the Duke of Cumberland, Clifton near Banbury. The brief given was to create a room that evoked ‘smart stylish country’ & given the lovely room height, this should be utilised.

We soon decided that bed drapes in the form of a ‘coronet’ over the bed would work admirably. With the room’s westerly aspect, although benefiting from the evening light, warmth & texture should be included for the time when the room is used in the mornings & daytime.

A warm French blue/ ivory & dark cream palette was chosen, featuring a smart cotton check from Pierre Frey for the internal bed drapes & Isle Mill’s ivory pure wool sateen for the main bed curtains set against a backdrop of Sanderson’s Pillemont Toile wallpaper. This reaches high up into the eaves & also on the mezzanine wall overlooking the bed. The fantastic weight & drape quality of the sateen wool is superb, a fabric we love using. On the adjacent wall which includes the window, we used Sanderson’s fabric design of Pillemont Toile against cream walls. We heightened this window treatment to give the same height as the bed drapes by taking the pelmet further up the eaves walls. Deep pelmets were made for the window & bed drapes, trimmed with the little French check & dark blue tuck banding. The window was fitted with a semi-sheer voile roller blind. Coordinating bullion tiebacks were used on the curtains.

The bed was dressed with a kick pleat valance using a darker cream wool, again from Isle Mill, a quilted throw using G P & J Baker’s Venetian Damask & upholstered bed headboard in Nobilis’ Easy heavy weave. The room was finished off with a chair upholstered in Baker’s Auvergne.

Crisp white bed linen, a selection of cushions, the bedside tables repainted & new glass tops with new lamps complete the story to absolutely everyone’s huge approval! As with all commissions, this was a pleasure to work on & all delivered on time!

This room in an 18th century farmhouse had been almost taken down to the bare bones, with the floor refurbished & original old floor boards made good. The original fireplace in Portland stone style remained. Our brief was to create a warm sunny room around the already chosen wall paint with floral curtains as the main design, to then dictate plain & semi-plain fabrics for the new & recovered sofas & cushions. We only needed to look at one fabric for the curtains.

A beautiful embroidered brocade called Margeaux from Voyage with a slightly rucked, creased effect to it that makes it look gracefully old. The corals, greens & golds in the design came in well with the yellow to match the wall paint ‘Yellow Ground’ from Farrow & Ball. We used an aged looking brass reeded pole with ribbed ball finials on the rear window & a gathered pelmet on the large front bay window following the full length contours. Both the pelmets & curtains were made with interlining. The tassel fringe & braid trimmings were from Titley & Marr’s Italian Siola Alois range. The two new sofas – a 3 seater & a 2 1/2 seater were ‘Keats’ from Westcote Design covered in Linwood’s weave ‘Kendall’ with a small sprig motif in a light olive/gold . The existing sofa was recovered by Westcote Design in Linwood’s trellis design ‘Montrose’ in light gold.

Cushions brought colours together with Robert Allen’s minute green/cream check ‘Zara’ sage, Lee Jofa’s ‘Silbury’ Chenille, a richly coloured chenille in spice/corals & a couple of cushions in the main curtain fabric trimmed in cord to match the curtain trims. We think you will agree that this has created a comfortable warm homely atmosphere, whatever the weather! Our customers were delighted with the results.

This is what the rooms looked like before :

and here is what it looks like now :

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