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The magical Welsh country house of designer Penny Morrison
The bucolic estate of London-based interior designer Penny Morrison and her husband, Guy, in Wales is the quintessential country house. In spring and summer, every room on the ground floor opens to one of the many terraces or gardens. In winter, a fire blazes in every room. Penny fills the house with bouquets of flowers from her walled garden or wildflowers from the fields. “A room is not alive without fresh flowers,” she insists.
Inside, floral prints abound. Her own prints, Penny Morrison Textiles, mix with embroideries of oversized tulips or leafy vines from Turkey and carnation-strewn suzanis. In one of the bedrooms, a tree of life pattern covers the walls and a cabbage rose Bessarabian rug lies at the foot of a bed adorned with a tonal, carnation-stripe canopy. In the kitchen and breakfast room, the cupboards and shelves display a collection of ceramics and porcelain, many featuring bouquets of flowers or landscape scenes. Her dining room chairs are upholstered with a multicolored palm-frond print. Whether fresh, printed, painted, or embroidered, the flowers have no common theme, color, or origin. Instinctively, Penny assembles a colorful world rampant with patterns, all inspired by nature and travel.
The Morrisons embrace the old-fashioned country-house tradition of spoiling their guests. Visitors typically arrive on Friday evening for cocktails on one of the terraces, followed by dinner, which often lasts past midnight. In summer, lunches are usually served outside in one of the gardens or on a terrace facing a garden or a field of wildflowers.
Before guests arrive, fresh flowers are placed in every bedroom and a strict protocol is observed: white bed linens and towels, down pillows, a fluffy white terrycloth robe for every guest in winter, a white cotton waffle robe in summer, and a hot water bottle between the sheets each night. Penny’s personality, like her house, is big and bold, yet warm and cozy, and exudes creativity.
This extract is taken from Near & Far: Interiors I Love by Lisa Fine, photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna. Published by Vendome Press, available in all good bookstores and online.
Miguel Flores-Vianna1/13In the drawing room, a painting by George Harcourt, The Crypt at St. Martin’s, hangs over an antique, marble-topped, painted table found at an antiques shop on Pimlico Road in London. The square cachepots faced with antique tiles are Swedish.
Miguel Flores-Vianna2/13On the console in the entrance hall are a pair of antique geese acquired at Christie’s and a pair of lamps with custom-made shades from Penny Morrison Accessories. The plaster busts on marble stands are also from Christie’s. The rug is from the Moroccan town of Asilah, just south of Tangier.
Miguel Flores-Vianna3/13The library’s French doors open onto the park-like grounds. The room is full of vibrant colors and patterns. The walls, painted in Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic Green, are in striking contrast to the red-and-white curtains in Penny Morrison’s Arabella print.
Miguel Flores-Vianna4/13A Tod Ramos painting of the Cheltenham Races dominates this corner of the library.
Miguel Flores-Vianna5/13A watercolor of a duck by eighteenth-century British artist Peter Paillou fronts the bookshelves in the library. The brass lamp on a side table has a custom-made shade from Penny Morrison Accessories.
Miguel Flores-Vianna6/13The shelves in the breakfast room display Penny’s collection of ceramics, acquired over the years from country antiques fairs and shops. Those on the table are filled with sweet peas from the garden. The walls and the table are painted in a mix of Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon and Light Blue.
Miguel Flores-Vianna7/13The open shelving in the kitchen displays a collection of antique French faience plates, English bowls, and French enamel canisters. The chairs are covered in Penny Morrison’s Gobi Blue print, and the tablecloth is Gobi Red on Blue.
Miguel Flores-Vianna8/13The deer heads mounted on the wall of the stairwell came with the house when the Morrisons bought it. The painting of deer is by nineteenth-century English artist Samuel Carter.
Miguel Flores-Vianna9/13A guest bedroom is lined with Penny Morrison’s Begum wallpaper. Underfoot is a nineteenth-century Bessarabian floral rug. The ivory damask curtains are trimmed in Colefax and Fowler fan edging.
Miguel Flores-Vianna10/13The silver mirror and set of brushes on the dressing table were inherited from Guy’s grandfather. The green ikat covering the table is from Carolina Irving Textiles.
Miguel Flores-Vianna11/13In this guest bedroom, the bed hangings and armchair slipcover are Penny Morrison’s Pasha print.
Miguel Flores-Vianna12/13A view from one of the many terraces of the lush rolling hills dotted with sheep in the bucolic Welsh countryside.
Miguel Flores-Vianna13/13A large cherry tree is surrounded by wildflowers. The Regency bench is original to the property.
