An 18th-century Cotswold house neatly balanced between history and modernity

‘It was charming but quietly decorated. The interiors didn’t quite measure up to the character of the architecture with its very grand proportions,’ the interior designer Tom Morris of Morrisstudio says of this eighteenth-century manor house. His clients, both barristers with two small children whose London home he had decorated during lockdown, had bought the house as a weekend escape. ‘They are a fairly young couple and wanted the rooms to be lighthearted and colourful. Because it is a weekend home, we had a limited pool of existing furniture to use, as most of what they owned was in London - with the exception of three vast Victorian chests - so it called for some key investment pieces and a more minimal approach, which I think worked with the character of the house.'

Interior design is a second career for Tom, who was formerly a creative director and writer for titles such as the FT and Monocle, where he spent three years as the design editor. His particular speciality is craft - his latest book New Wave Clay was published in 2018. ‘My approach to interiors is rooted in what I’ve learnt through writing,’ he told House & Garden last year. ‘It’s about getting to know the client in the way I would an interviewee and tying the threads together.’

For this particular house, whose rooms were a blank canvas, Tom took this one step further. ‘A lot of clients know what they like, but they don’t know how to articulate it. As an editor you become pretty adept at finding the story. So with this project we took cues from the owners and invented a character that encapsulated the spirit of the house.’ The overarching feel is paired back and sophisticated, with muted earthy colours on the walls countered by bright, spring-like tones. ‘I tend to lean towards primary colours but here the softness, cut through with more acidic accent colours, feels right. Normally I find the ideas for a scheme flow from a specific object or fabric, and slowly things begin to make sense.’

In the drawing room the crux of the scheme was a tapestry sourced from Retrouvius. ‘It’s from the 1970s but looks eighteenth-century and has the most beautiful colours. That was one of the first things we found and the colour scheme was built around it.’ Clever configuration of the furniture makes the most of the long slim space, with plenty of seats for relaxing and entertaining without it feeling cluttered. Two wooden Arts and Crafts chairs by GM Ellwood for JS Henry are flanked by antique French lamps giving the room an extra layer of visual interest, while also working harmoniously with a comfortable sofa designed by Tom, upholstered in a yellow cord from Rose Uniacke, and a chaise by Pinch. Similarly in the dining room the dark walls and red chairs from Ceraudo are in colours drawn from the Pierre Frey fabric on the curtains.

In the master bedroom the clients were keen to bring personality and colour to a south-facing space with beautiful light. ‘They were great because they were very keen on investing in striking pictures.’ Tom brought together a collection of landscapes by contemporary artists, hanging them in a cluster on the wall in front of the bed. ‘I hate one small picture by itself. This way you’re lying in bed and can see them all.’

‘My style isn’t too period, I don’t like to do anything that feels like pastiche,' concludes Tom. 'With a house of this nature it's a really fine balance to find things that feel a bit more modern, but which still work in a historic space. I am definitely drawn towards post-war pieces and I like mixing those with things from the Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian era to give a layer of history.’

morrisstudio.co.uk