Modern Country Living
By Max Birkin for House of Henley
Despite – or perhaps because – the majority of UK residents are city-dwellers, we still have a fascination with the country-house and all the style tenets that come with it. Luckily, however, we have progressed beyond straw mattresses and sleeping with the pigs, and a new, more comfortable version of country-style is upon us. It is important to remember the roots of modern-country style are firmly affixed in the past. Country-style is humble, practical and a little bit make-do and mend, and the modern iteration draws on that whilst introducing some new ideas; flagstones remain the best choice for a high-traffic area, but now we can heat them underfoot. Modern country style is taking the old ways, recognising their merits, and fixing their faults. It’s the new Land Rover Defender, not the Range Rover Velar. It is also colourful and homely – interpretations of country style which include polished concrete floors, cantilevered steel terraces and double height glass doors are too contemporary and original to truly be representative. Lord Rothschild’s award winning Flint House is incredible, but it draws its inspiration from the landscape and the proud historical vernacular of agricultural buildings, whereas ‘modern country’ is more about taking the best bits of Granny’s attic bedrooms and combining them with the warm modernism of the late Terence Conran. It is, in a word, inclusive.
Paints, Panels and Papers
Picture Credit: McCollum Interiors
Back to Granny’s house, and you may remember at least one bedroom being wallpapered in a loud floral print, possibly with curtains and bedspread in a matching fabric. Beyond the initial assault on the senses, there is some charm in this whimsical, maximalist style – it feels a little bit Harry Styles, or like a hyped-up Gucci campaign. However, what works for international pop stars and luxury fashion brands often doesn’t quite translate to the average home. Modern Country is a little more pragmatic in this area; scrap the matching fabric curtains and bedspread and choose a sensitively updated wallpaper from the William Morris collection by Ben Pentreath, or Little Greene’s excellent range. If you have money to spare, then paper the walls in a de Gournay print. These are so truly beautiful that you must not hang any pictures on them – it will feel as if you are living in a painting. Otherwise, panelling is your greatest ally, especially when on a tight budget or faced with a soulless house to decorate. Splurge on flooring materials (slate, flags, reclaimed timber) and cheat with the walls. Your carpenter will be able to easily pin MDF batons to walls in any sort of form; tongue-and-groove works well in bathrooms or hallways, three-quarter height vertical panels of 50-60cm with a dado rail are perfect for smarter rooms. You don’t need to be panelling with any sort of expensive or exotic woods, as the MDF panels should then be painted – dark mahogany is Old Country, French Gray is Modern Country.
Mix ‘n Match
Picture Credit: House & Garden
Modern country style does rely on a careful balance. Too much Colefax and Fowler and it tips into chintz, but an abundance of clean lines and shiny new furniture will mean the space feels sterile. The way to combat this is to rely on a loose ratio of one modern piece for every two ‘old’ pieces. Perhaps an Edwardian style high-back sofa and two sheepskin armchairs, or a smart mahogany bookcase with a contemporary brass light fitting and a sisal rug. Choose modern pieces carefully and with respect to their materials – steamed bentwood is better than chrome and leather is only appropriate if well-worked and ideally aged. Equally, an antique armchair can be enlivened with a contemporary print, or toned down with a simple, pale linen. Modern country is, as the moniker suggests, an evolution of country-style, and this process should be on show; the smartly painted MDF panelling mentioned above does work best with a roughly hewn sandstone floor, and a whimsical floral wallpaper will go well with lighter-toned upholstery. It is all about the mixing and matching of old and new. For example, you might pair your Great-Granny’s wooden kitchen table with Wishbone chairs; the combination of old oak that has been stained and scarred over a hundred years or so and the elegant curve of Hans J Wegner’s most enduring design really epitomises modern country style. Set out a tall, cylindrical glass vase filled with cowslip collected on a morning dog walk and you’ll have really cracked the code.
Kitchens
Picture Credit: Rencraft Ltd
One thing we do not want to take forward from the old country style is relegating the kitchen to the ugly back rooms of a house. Even if your entertaining does mainly take place in the dining room or sitting room it is still likely that you’ll be spending a significant amount of time fussing over food preparation, forcing toast upon moody teenagers or trying to make a last-minute supper out of some dry rice and mouldy cheese. As before, the joy of modern country style when it comes to kitchens is that you can take all the aesthetic aspects of Bathseheba Everdene’s farmhouse scullery – Belfast sinks, herringbone brick floors, a pantry – and make them amenable to modern life – namely, fitted kitchen units and Quooker taps. There are two options here; companies like Plain English offer classic shaker style units which can be made more modern with contemporary paints in dark, brooding colours like British Racing Green or Farrow and Ball’s Railings, or some other kitchen fitters reimagine the country kitchen in a more original way. ‘Brookmans’, a new design arm of the luxury kitchen masters, Smallbone, is offering a rather beautiful take on kitchen design; they focus on using the same materials that would have been used hundreds of years ago (oak, stone, wooden butchers blocks) but instead of rehashing the basic – but elegant – shaker style, they bump up the luxury and make the kitchen more of a show pony than a work horse. Combine with copper pans and a hanging dead pheasant to add some country edge.
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