A FINE VINTAGE
Second-hand finds and strong pattern bring character to this 1930s home in Lincolnshire
For someone whose home is filled with artwork, interesting end-of-line fabrics and upcycled furniture, printmaker Ruthie Hudson has an unexpected confession. ‘Secretly, I like the idea of living in a sleek minimalist box,’ she says, ‘but in reality, I’m too sentimental. I enjoy collecting “stuff”, especially things that feel as if they have a back story.’ Her 1930s Lincolnshire house might be short on echoey white spaces but it has plenty of personality.
Ruthie, her husband Michael, who runs a vintage and pre-war car restoration business, and their sons Jasper, eight, and Felix, five, live in the house, which was originally built as accommodation for a police officer, but had been used as storage for many years by the time they viewed
it. Weeds and plants had taken root in the window frames and the garden was so overgrown that they couldn’t see where it ended. This abundance of space at the back of the property was to become a bonus, though, as it meant that over the next few years the couple could extend the original two-up, two-down building, adding a larger kitchen-diner, a garden room and two bedrooms.
The most dramatic addition to the house is the light and colourful garden room, which is accessed via the open-plan kitchen-diner and the front sitting room, giving the property a circular flow. The room was inspired by a 1969 photograph of David Hockney and Sir Cecil Beaton,
taken in Beaton’s conservatory at Reddish House. ‘Ever since I saw that image of a plant-filled room with an elegant black and white tiled floor I’d thought that I’d love to sit in a space like that,’ says Ruthie. In her version, leafy fronds drape down from shelves and bold wallpaper adds year-round florals. ‘I was drawn to this pattern because it feels as if there’s no beginning and no end to it,’ she says.
As elsewhere in the house, key pieces of furniture in here are vintage finds. ‘When we were furnishing our first home I kept finding really beautiful pieces of mid-century and second-hand furniture and couldn’t resist buying a few extra items, which I sold in a low-key way for a
lesson learnt ‘Painting vintage pieces of furniture from different eras helps to unite themõ
while,’ explains Ruthie. She progressed from selling to friends to taking pitches at pop-up fairs. ‘This coincided with other couples we knew getting their first homes and wanting to furnish them stylishly but without spending lots of money,’ she adds. Some of her best finds have been at auctions and more remote barn sales in the countryside: ‘There’s something about the buzz of being at an auction that I love,’ says Ruthie. But other items never made it onto her stall. ‘There were a few things that I put in our house to photograph in order to sell them, but liked them so much that I kept them,’ she says. ‘It wasn’t exactly a hard-nosed business plan.’ Vintage furniture has been re-covered in fabrics Ruthie found on a local market stall. ‘Almost all our chairs, the footstool and a sofa have all been given a new life with end-of-roll materials,’ she explains. Ruthie now works as an artist and a printmaker, running RH Prints. She makes linocuts using a 19th-century lithograph press. ‘It dates from 1856 so it’s slightly temperamental and results can vary each time I make a print,’ she says. ‘But that lack of identikit perfection appeals to me. You know that each print is done by hand.’ It’s that love of personality that characterises the couple’s style. ‘Whether it’s furniture, clothes or art, it’s interesting to see signs of a life well lived,’ says Ruthie. ‘That’s what makes a happy home.’