A FINE BALANCE

Amynta Warde-Aldam has !lled her Northumberland home with treasured family heirlooms

Introducing family heirlooms to a house with a di erent aesthetic can be a challenge, but designer and decorator Amynta WardeAldam has achieved this with aplomb in her Northumberland home

Amynta Warde-Aldam’s home serves as the perfect demonstration of her decorating style. Each room is a joyful mix of antiques, pared-back contemporary pieces, bold fabrics, pre!y wallpapers and unexpected colour combinations.

Until recently, the house belonged to Amynta’s husband Jamie’s parents. Built in the 1790s, it sits in around an acre of private garden on a country estate that has been in Jamie’s family for generations. Remodelled in the 1980s and decorated in tune with the times, it was in need of updating. Amynta describes the way the house has been chopped and changed over the years as ‘not entirely sympathetic’, and much of her work has focused on so"ening some of the harsher aspects.

‘ It lost character,’ she explains. ‘ Both the staircase and the entrance were moved and it was quite starkly plastered. I wouldn’t usually use so

much wallpaper in a house, but it’s a good way to put some character back.’

Amynta describes her aesthetic as late Georgian/Regency. ‘ I like the balance and the symmetry of the period – that’s a big part of my signature style, along with details such as grid-hanging pictures, lots of books everywhere and painted !oors. But I’m drawn to cool contemporary things, too,’ she says. Work in London has led her to seek out modern pieces that she mixes with antiques from Judy Greenwood Antiques, wallpapers from David Skinner and fabrics from Jean Monro, though much of the furniture is inherited.

‘ My parents really had no money at all but, back in the 1960s, you could buy pre"y Georgian houses in Scotland very cheaply and they went to all these really junky sales and rescued things for pennies. I inherited some nice things from them and I suppose I’ve carried on in that tradition, as I have continued to buy those kinds of things when I see them,’ she adds. ‘I buy brown furniture and paint it black; the polite term is ‘ebonise’ but it’s still just black paint really,’ she says. ‘And, if you don’t do it too perfectly, it looks like it’s been that way for a long time.’

Recently, Amynta has found herself drawn to pieces from the Aesthetic Movement, noting how a #ordable

they are in salerooms. ‘ I love the carving and you can go mad with the upholstery on seating,’ she explains.

Being smart with the pennies extends to the !"ed furniture in the house, which looks deceptively handcra #ed. The shelves that line the library came from Maisons du Monde, later customised with a coat of paint, while the kitchen cabinetry came from a local hardware store. ‘ We really haven’t spent serious money on anything in this house, apart from pictures,’ she says. The house is full of clever contrasts: quietly decorated areas, such as the hallway and pantry, lead onto busily pa"erned rooms ! lled with block-print cushions and highly decorative wallpaper.

When it comes to colour, Amynta has discovered that the grey northern light can create spectacular e$ects, but it needs warmth to fall on. For wallpaper and fabrics, she o#en turns to her friend, designer Charlo"e Gaisford, while paint generally comes through another friend, Victoria Whitbread of British Colour Standard. ‘ It’s funny because I’ve never started a house from scratch,’ says Amynta. ‘I’ve always had something to work around and I realise I tend to take the same

‘I buy brown furniture and paint it black; the polite term is ‘ebonise’, but it’s still just black paint really’

greens and pinks with me everywhere I go, partly because I like to match to my carpets.’

Fabric is one of Amynta’s great passions. She is especially fond of her Jean Monro chintzes and is a keen collector of vintage textiles, picking up pieces at trade sales such as the Déballage in Béziers, and from dealers such as Starched & Crumpled. ‘I like to cover sofas with antique French quilts and I use the smaller pieces for cushions,’ she says. Amynta also collects Victorian papier mâché trays and turquoise china of all eras, but most of her favourite pieces are inherited, with personal memories a ached. ‘ There is a bell pull that came from the house in Scotland where I grew up,’ she says. ‘ My parents

separated and both died quite young so there were two houses and two collections that I split with my brother, and I have worked around these things ever since.’ Amynta remembers the li!le music cabinet in the hall from when she was a tiny baby. ‘ My parents kept their records in it and there was a record player in the li!le drawer at the bo!om. It’s funny, these are the things you drag around with you your entire life but it’s really quite lovely to do that.’

Christmas is very family orientated, with her children returning as well as Jamie’s siblings and their families. Last year they were 15 for dinner. ‘ Having the estate on the doorstep means it’s easy to grab some ivy from our woods to drape around pictures and table se!ings, but we have shrunk our Christmas tree habits since we moved here,’ she says. ‘ We used to decorate a 20-foot tree. Now we just look for the teeniest one we can "nd!’

Amynta has been clever with her colour choices, using them to lead the eye through the house and to frame the entrances to the rooms. In recent years, Amynta has opted for ever smaller trees – the decorations are from RE.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE The round table is a rent table that used to be in the library in the main house on the estate. The papier mâché tray is early Victorian and was bought at auction. It is part of Amynta’s growing collection; the tea bowls on the mantelpiece are filled with sprigs of greenery and shiny baubles – brilliantly simple Christmas decorative touches; Amynta is a designer and decorator, owner of Forest Mount (forestmount.com); the porch is from Garden Requisites. The front door is painted in Primrose No.69 by British Colour Standard. The wreath is by Flowers Unlimited.

Amynta wanted the library to feel warm and comfortable; it also had to house their many books. The shelves are simple white ones from Maisons du Monde, painted Old Rose No. 314 and Beryl Blue No. 392 by British Colour Standard.

The house was built in the 1790s from Northumberland stone and was the steward’s house on a country estate. BELOW RIGHT The little nursing chair was bought on Sellingantiques.co.uk and is covered in Healey Monkey Amynta fabric by Charlotte Gaisford. The winged chair was once in Amynta’s mother’s bedroom and has been re-covered in yellow needlecord. The watercolour is of St Agnes with her lamb, bought at auction 30 years ago.

BELOW The door to the pantry came from the big house on the estate. Originally it was the door to the linen store but when that was converted into a bathroom the glazed door was taken out. The hall runner was a gift from Amynta’s godmother for her first flat.

The Persian rug in the drawing room inspired the choice of wallpaper, Healey Monkey Amynta by Charlotte Gaisford, which Amynta had recoloured. ‘I hadn’t really noticed that this rug has monkeys on it, too – we really should call it the monkey room,’ Amynta says. She bought the ottoman from Sellingantiques.co.uk and reupholstered it, complete with trim. TOP RIGHT The desk is Boulle work, veneered in tortoiseshell and inlaid with hammered brass. It belonged to Amynta’s father.

Amynta’s smart colour choices in the kitchen make it look more expensive than it is. She designed the layout herself and the cabinetry came from a local hardware shop. Mirrored splashbacks add a sense of luxury but they are also practical as they bounce light around the room.

ABOVE A simple wreath is a pretty addition to the kitchen window.

LEFT Bunches of fresh holly and ivy, cut from the garden, provide attractive festive arrangements, as do pretty baubles arranged in favourite dishes. BELOW The dinner service belonged to Jamie’s greatgrandparents and is still complete. ‘If you’ve got pretty bits of painted china, you might as well enjoy them – I don’t want them shut away behind glass,’ says Amynta. The chairs are from Angel & Boho and are available in a choice of paint colours. Amynta bought the mirror from a shop on Golborne Road and it gives the kitchen a sense of light and space.

The walls in this bedroom are painted Nettle Grey No. 390 from British Colour Standard. The bed linen is a mix of old and new, with an heirloom quilt on top of a modern version from Soak & Sleep. Pride of place in this room is a drum from the Coldstream Guards, Jamie’s father’s regiment, and also that of his grandfather and great-grandfather. The fireplace had been walled up when the couple first moved in.

ABOVE The wallpaper in Grace’s bedroom is from David Skinner, the French antique bed came from Judy Greenwood Antiques and the blind fabric is Jean Monro. Her room still has the doll’s house she had when she was little and it sits on top of one of Amynta’s brown furniture buys, which has been painted pale grey. The chair was Amynta’s when she was small and has been upholstered in a Jean Monro chintz. LEFT The bathroom is papered in Healey Monkey Amynta wallpaper in its original colourway.