STYLISH SIMPLICITY
Blending weathered furniture and warm textured tones has turned a Cotswolds cottage into a welcoming family home
taking in the panoramic view of the frosted landscape from the large kitchen window, you can easily understand why linoprint artist Sam Wilson and her husband Mark moved to this idyllic part of rural Gloucestershire. “It’s wonderful here, especially in autumn and winter,” she says. “On cold evenings, we either warm up by the Aga in the kitchen or make a log fire in the living room and light beeswax candles.” Their home, originally a two-up, two-down, 17th-century workman’s cottage in the hamlet of Saintbury, not far from Chipping Campden and Broadway, is part of a row of cottages on a quiet country lane that gives a real feeling of stepping back in time.
However, Sam and Mark, who runs an illustration agency from home, had pretty much dismissed the house when they first viewed it in January 2012, wanting to move into the area with their children, Molly, 11, and George, 13. “It wasn’t in great condition,” Sam remembers. “We lived in a beautiful barn conversion before in Staffordshire, so it became really hard to find something to match that in the Cotswolds.” The amount of surrounding land eventually swung their decision to move in later that summer.
In the property, rooms were all a good size but in real need of modernisation and there was no central heating. The previous owners had added a large two-storey extension in the 1980s. “Everything authentic architecturally had either been pulled out or boarded over,” Sam recalls. “Our aim was to bring back the real character of the original cottage and make the more recent
additions blend in.” For 18 months the family lived in one room while builders put back many of the traditional features, such as the stone floor that runs throughout the downstairs, and the cottage-style plank-and-latch doors, and reconfigured the upper floor to create more bathroom space. “Much of our furniture was too big but we managed to keep the large sofas and our lovely old kitchen table,” Sam says.
A lot of time was then spent scouring the local area looking for furniture and accessories at antiques fairs, auctions and car-boot sales. For the kitchen, simple Shaker-style units were bought from a company in Burton-on-trent and then hand-painted by Mark. For an unfitted look, the couple added open shelving and a large freestanding larder, inherited from Sam’s parents, originally red but now painted off-white to suit the pale colour scheme.
In the new family room, a lantern roof and large folding doors at the back increase the amount of light, while a solid stone lintel, sourced from a local reclamation yard, now sits above a traditional log burner. In a quiet corner next to the hallway, an old wooden market table backed by a child’s vintage wire bed base has been cleverly fashioned into an inspirational workspace for Sam.
Upstairs in the main bedroom in the older part of the cottage, beams were exposed and stripped back, and in the bathroom a bespoke sink unit with shutter-style doors and a reclaimed wooden top has been painted a soft grey. “We’ve taken pleasure in adding character and lots more texture to the house,” Sam says, “by collecting and finding special pieces over time as well as introducing some of my own designs to break up the simplicity
of the room schemes.” While transforming their home, two years ago the couple launched a new company, Sam Wilson Studio, selling textiles, china, artwork and stationery in Sam’s natureinspired prints, and have recently opened a shop in Chipping Campden. Winning a place at Country Living’s Pop-up Market in 2015 gave them the confidence to set up their new venture.
The home and business are extensions of one another, with new products constantly being tried and tested in the house and shop. “Although it’s taken us a while to feel the cottage is truly our home after the turmoil of renovations, we are growing to love it more and more,” Sam says. “The mature garden we inherited is full of the most beautiful flowers in spring and summer, and the surrounding landscape is so calming and therapeutic. Every morning I go for a walk across the fields or woodland before heading to my desk at home to work – I really can’t think of a better way to start the day.”
Visit samwilsonstudio.com or call 01386 852794.
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