This cottage may sit in a flower-filled Somerset meadow, but the only blooms you’ll find inside are in the vases. That’s because its owner – who commissioned Christian Bense to reimagine the interior – isn’t a fan of the blowsy chintzes and floral prints typically associated with country homes. Avoiding these pastoral clichés was a challenge that Christian and his studio embraced with gusto. As well as this guest cottage, they also designed the main house on the estate where the clients live.
‘The owner is very contemporary,’ Christian explains of the brief he was originally given for the big house. ‘She wanted Brazilian antiques, weird stuff, chairs that you look at but don’t sit in, even though she’s got four kids!’
However, the more time the owners spent there, the more they realised that they wanted to feel like they were living in a real country house. ‘The brief twisted slightly, but some requests remained: colourful, bold and an interesting place to escape to,’ he says, adding that, while the cottage was originally intended to be a guest house for friends and family, his client now wants it to serve as a creative retreat for artists.
Christian’s studio had already worked on the owner’s homes in London and Ibiza, so had a good understanding of her taste and where they could push boundaries. ‘What we decided – which has informed how we now design all our projects – is to present a concept and then give ourselves free rein to implement that,’ he says.
‘It meant we had this enormous freedom to play around, because she had agreed on the North Star and we just figured out how we got there.’ He describes the project as a ‘humble overhaul’, because they touched every surface – painting walls and doors, switching light fittings – but didn’t knock down any walls. ‘It looks entirely different from what it was.’
Because the budget was ‘relatively light’ and a lot of the furniture they had to work with was reused from the client’s London home, Christian knew colour would be the ultimate driver in creating a bold scheme. ‘We asked ourselves, “How can we make this different from what we do normally? Let’s make sure that every room has five different paint colours!”’
What's everyone reading?
Striking combinations dominate some spaces, such as the main bedroom with its burgundy ceiling and blue walls, while others are more neutral, but still feature five different shades. ‘I’m a big believer in colour as the first step in creating a layered scheme without having to overfill it,’ declares Christian.
He has a few simple rules to ensure each room feels balanced, such as painting all the external windows the same shade, and pairing one colour from outside a room to one inside, ‘so when you see it among other things, it’s not like your eye is going, “Oh, that’s novel. I haven’t seen that before.” It’s a calculated journey.’
As well as banishing florals, he decided against using printed linens, opting for woven and embroidered fabrics instead. Christian says this immediately brings a richness and depth to each room, but sticking to his self-imposed rule was tough, he admits, adding: ‘We nearly gave up, but the client said, “You’re only as good as your beliefs. Stick to your principles!”’
It’s clear the relationship between designer and client has been fulfilling for both parties, with each pushing the other to be more courageous. As much as his client urged him to rise to the challenge he’d set himself, Christian thinks her favourite part of the cottage could be the main bedroom and bathroom, ‘because there are so many things she thought she wouldn’t like on paper! If we had done everything she thought she wanted, we wouldn’t have got the result we did.’ christianbense.com
