|
Сarolyn Grays Christmas begins when she makes mince pics at the start of December and inhales the first waft of candied peel and spices. A week later, she sources materials to use as decoration foi hei home. This involves trips to the local wood yard, where she also goes to buy logs for her fire. "The yard recycles garden waste, and landscape gardeners go there with their prunings," she explains. "I spend ages rooting through the offcuts and, if Im lucky. I find eucalyptus, branches of fir and sprays of rose hips."
Inspirational surroundings are important to Carolyn, and not just at Christmas. She bought her Victorian cottage in 2006 because of its prime location in a pretty Sussex village with views to the Sussex Downs and easy access to the sea. "The house was soulless because it had been rented out for years, but Ive renovated lots of period homes." she says. The experience grew into a design service, which covers every aspect of decorating, from choosing furnishings and sourcing antiques to designing with flowers.
Making space work is one of Carolyns skills. "This cottage feels quite open, even though there are only two bedrooms," she says. Key alterations to the kitchen, scullery and a garden room added by previous owners have given the ground floor the easy flow of linked spaces that Carolyn intended. "I didnt want to alter the Victorian layout of the house," she explains, "so I :nade an opening in the kitchen wall where there had been a window, and did the sane in the tiny scullery to give views into the garden room. Removing the door from the kitchen to the garden room and re - roofing the garden room to include skylights increased the daylight and opened up the access between the two"
She is pleased that the kitchen now feels like the centre of the house, particularly at Christmas. "When my daughter, Daisy, and sons, Nick and Tom, pile in. I can be cooking in the kitchen but still be involved in conversations going on in the garden room."
Operating with a limited colour palette also helps to amplify space in a small house. "Ive worked the same neutrals in different ways throughout and painted ceilings in the same tint as the walls," Carolyn explains. "This house is too small to do anything else."
She likes the mix of stripped and painted wood in the kitchen and has an instinct for which items will respond to the restorative powers of paint. The drab kitchen fittings were worth salvaging; now painted and decorated with new door furniture and pleated fabric behind glazed wall cupboards, they pass muster as a smart country dresser.
To find a collage with such a long back gaiden was an unexpected bonus, and the old brick shed and new summerhouse are v/here Carolyn stores the foliage she collects for decorations. "Throughout the summer I watch the long strands of ivy growing on the apple tree and will them on," she laughs. "I especially need them for making a great arched garland for the gilt mirror in the living room." Бу mid - December she is alsc busy making swags for her front door, as well as some for appreciative friends. "I love the nostalgia of Christmas and I love the way my grown - up children still love opening the boxes of tree decorations and reliving their childhood memories."
In addition to decorating, Carolyns other festive essential is the log fire in the living room, where the family gathers as darkness falls on Christmas Day. "We sing blues versions of carols and play board games, with everyone promising not to cheat by looking in the mirrors," Carolyn laughs. "This house is very conducive to eating, drinking and making merry.
Related news items:
Newer news items:
Older news items:
|
The interior