Sitting Room, West Sussex

This family sitting room sits at the heart of their stunning rural period home. My client already has a great eye for colour and design, so the big challenge was centred around the issue of layout, as the room has three doors so lots of traffic pathways, plus in terms of function it needed to provide the family with comfortable seating to relax in as well as a dining area. The room needed to flow and feel cocooning, but also to be refined, vibrant and have eclectic edge. The characterful brick fireplace had a wood burner installed and we agreed on a layout that zoned top third of the kitchen end of the room as dining space, with an elegant banquette bench, upholstered in Lewis & Wood Bukhara, a print inspired by an ikat coat in the V&A and loaded with scatter cushions from Oka. I felt strongly that the room would really benefit from a darker wood antique table, so I sourced a 19th century oak refectory table which adds great character and weight to the room. Colourwise we went for a new dado, original skirting and radiators in Farrow & Ball Pigeon, then lighter above the dado to ceiling in Blue Gray. These tones were echoed in the celadon of the reupholstered fabric of the large sofa that divides the room, along with the glass and brass console behind it from Neptune. The stunning Atticus tribal print gathered lampshades from Vaughan create a real focal point for the room and really support the vibe we were looking to create.

In terms of the rest of the upholstery the pair of French Louis chairs were sourced from eBay and upholstered in Rapture & Wright’s Serendip, where the generous ottoman was in Nina Campbell Dumas, lending a traditional yet energetic centrepoint. Always keen to repurpose existing pieces we also recovered the client’s pouffe in the small print of Sanderson’s Truffle and piped it in velvet from Samuel & Sons. Last but not least the smaller console, supporting Pooky’s rechargeable lamps with golden marbled shades, was resprayed in Little Greene Adventurer, a timeless plum that works so well with the claret of the existing Tori Murphy blinds.