When Shirley O bought a small brick cottage in Sonning, a quaint village in the English countryside, she initially planned to turn it into a residential-style showroom for Another Country, the furniture company she runs. But even as she focused on converting the former factory into a weekend home for her young family, she still wanted to feature the brand’s contemporary pieces prominently alongside charming prints and a whimsical palette of greens, reds and blues.
So Shirley turned to London-based interior designer Jill McNair, who was inspired by Kettle’s Yard and Charleston, two art museums housed in famous houses. “I wanted to tap into that kind of spirit, but I knew the clients wouldn’t want it to be as cluttered or eclectic as either of those projects,” Jill explains. “We wanted to achieve a warm, minimalist feel. There’s pattern and lots of colour, but not too much stuff. It’s a very small space, so every element had to be very specific.
Let’s take a tour:
Photo by Beth Evans.
Above: The dining room’s green and ivory Antoinette Poisson wallpaper, featuring a geometric pattern of circles, triangles and olive branches, was the first thing Jill chose for the cottage. “It’s really pretty and cool, and it has a touch of English quirkiness to it even though it’s French,” she says. “That was one of the elements that set the tone, and I started building the color palette from there.”Above: Jill designed a roman shade featuring the fun Georgie Hopton Dropped Cherries fabric and designed a herringbone banquette to accompany Another Country’s custom dining table. (Note the charred wood table top and subtly wavy edge, which speaks to the wavy rattan pendant.)Above: Paul de Zwart, founder of Another Country, helped Jill and Shirley create custom versions of statement pieces like the Syd chair, which typically comes with a natural ash frame and leather seat. The team opted for a neon green painted frame and leather seat instead. Painting by Dominic J. McHenry.Above: Shirley wanted to keep the existing cabinets, so Jill freshened them with Farrow & Ball’s Bancha paint. She then installed a new brick countertop and Fired Earth floor tiles in terracotta with bright red grout. “The decision to match the colors was to minimize the many points of difference,” says Jill. Shown in the kitchen: Abstract art by George Hopton (courtesy of the artist and Lindsay Ingram).Above: On the walls, Jill chose soft White School House White from Farrow & Ball.
