A Cotswold barn goes from short-term let to permanent home for Catherine Chichester
What turns a house – or, in this case, a barn – into a home? As a decoration consultant who believes strongly that people are affected emotionally by their surroundings, Belgian- born Catherine Chichester has brought an instinctive and definite European look to the Cotswold village barn in which she now lives.
For many years, she lived in the large farmhouse next door (featured in the December 2020 issue of House & Garden) and rented out the barn for short-term holiday lets: ‘When Covid happened it was a nightmare for me, as many people cancelled their bookings and my main source of income dried up overnight.’
Juggling her resources, she decided that, as her family had grown up and left home, she should downsize and let the larger house on a long-term basis, moving into the smaller barn herself. The farmhouse let quickly as people were desperate to find accommodation away from cities. However, Catherine’s own move went less smoothly. On Christmas Eve 2020, just before she was due to take up residence, the barn was badly flooded, adding a year of restoration work to her plans. The floor was made of engineering bricks, which people often replace when they renovate, but Catherine dug up every single one and painstakingly cleaned them all. She had memories of having clinker bricks in her bathroom as a teenager in Belgium, which though attractive, had been cold underfoot. But with the addition of underfloor heating, these bricks now maintain the warmth very efficiently.
The entrance to the barn is through the kitchen: inviting and atmospheric, it has a feminine air thanks to the preponderance of pink, with walls and cupboards painted in a colour that is a mixture of four different shades from Relics of Witney – a ‘totally wonderful paint shop’, says Catherine. A vintage lamp from Ebay, with a lampshade by Rosi de Ruig, echoes the dark swirling veins of the marble worktops and casts a warm light, balanced by the freshness of the blue and white plates hung on the wall.
‘I had decorated the barn for short lets so, though it was interesting, it wasn’t personal,’ she explains. To make the space her own, Catherine felt it was important to intro- duce colour, as she knew this would instantly connect her to the feeling of each room. While planning the scheme for the sitting room, she kept returning to a collection of Imari plates that had been in her family since before she was born. It had belonged to her grandmother, a stylish fashion designer, who had passed them on to her daughter- in-law (Catherine’s mother). ‘I became obsessed with them and their signature juxtaposition of blue and red.’ She started by painting the woodwork of the room in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Berrington Blue’: it changed its feeling but did not work with the ‘perfectly nice’ white walls.
The room is huge, with a double-height ceiling, so she knew repainting it would require scaffolding, making the cost exorbitant. But as it had last been decorated 10 years earlier, she bit the bullet and, with its walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Single Cream’, the room started to come together. The new fireplace took much planning as a standard stove would have intruded too far into the space. ‘I found a shallower woodburner from Stûv that is ideal,’ she says.
Catherine has furnished the room with family pieces, including a Poul Kjaerholm daybed. Her grandmother bought one of the first of what is now an iconic design off his production line in the 1950s. She removed the doors from a Chinese cabinet – they would have swung too far into the room – with the result that the ornate gold drawers are gloriously displayed. She was given the dining chairs by her mother in Munich: ‘As a Belgian, you have various influences. Over the centuries, we’ve been occupied by the Spanish, French and Dutch so, as historical underdogs, we imbibed all these different styles unconsciously.’
Upstairs, Catherine’s bedroom and bathroom both bear out her belief that such areas should be spaces of personal nourishment. She papered the walls in ‘Marella’ by Schumacher, with dark wood furniture and personal pieces that can be contemplated from the bath at her leisure. The staircase was made from new oak, which she had limed and then coloured in a dark Jacobean- style stain to age it. All in all, the barn is a tribute to her philosophy that everyday interactions with beautiful objects are restorative. As she says, ‘There is no need for grandiosity. A jug, a vase, a flower planted in a lovely pot will improve both our mood and our health’.
Michael Sinclair1/7The bespoke oak table top on an old wooden base complements the 19th-century Bavarian chairs from Catherine’s mother, creating a pale contrast with the brick floor. A cupboard in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Buff’, designed by Catherine in a 17th-century Dutch style, stands near the door to the kitchen, which came from a reclamation yard.
Michael Sinclair2/7The colour on the walls and cabinetry is a mix of four shades from paint specialists Relics of Witney, which collaborated with Catherine on the grey used for the door and window frame. A Rosi de Ruig lampshade echoes the veined worktop from Middlesex Marble.
Michael Sinclair3/7
Michael Sinclair4/7An antique copper light hangs above an old farmhouse table from a friend, with distressed wooden chairs from Daylesford. A vintage cushion picks up on displays of blue and white ceramics. The antique rug is a family piece from Catherine’s mother.
Michael Sinclair5/7Wallpaper and a blind in Schumacher’s ‘Marella’ in delft and a Cutter Brooks bedcover showcase the headboard by Catherine in Rose Uniacke’s java velvet. Originally red, the velvet of the antique footstool has faded to a soft pink.
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Michael Sinclair7/7
