classic with a twist
Relaxing colours and vintage finds create warmth in Lisa Pender’s traditional Cotswolds home
Calm colours and vintage objets helped create this Cotswolds home with a difference
LESSONS LEARNT ‘The temptation is to put your stamp on a new home as soon as you arrive, but I’ve learnt to take my time and get to know a house before changing it’
The original shutters proved a deal-breaker for Lisa Pender and her partner Chris Gardiner when they first saw their Cotswolds home. The couple had had an offer accepted on another house, but something didn’t feel right. Once they visited this former Georgian rectory, they knew why. ‘As soon as we saw these beautiful windows with their original shutters, we realised that this was the house for us,’ Lisa explains.
It wasn’t just the windows of course; the 19th-century house had umpteen other persuasive features. The rectory had previously been divided into three properties, with Lisa and Chris’s section retaining the impressive frontage. There are high ceilings in the kitchen, sitting room and two bedrooms, and on the top floor the attic had been converted into another bedroom and bathroom.
The kitchen is much as it was when Lisa and Chris moved in but, before the rectory was modernised by the previous owners, it was a second sitting room, ornately decorated and formal, with the kitchen no more than a sink and cupboard in what is now the cloakroom. ‘How people managed to put together more than a sandwich in that room I do not know,’ says Lisa. ‘The kitchen is my favourite room and where Chris and I spend a lot of our time.’
Lisa is a florist and also runs her own vintage interiors company, Bramble & Gooseberry, so the mix of old and new in the converted rectory suits her well. ‘I’ve always had an eye for vintage pieces and I trawl car boot sales for unusual bits and bobs,’ she says.
Most of the furniture and ornaments in the house are things Lisa has found in charity shops or local auctions and upcycled. Old mahogany TV cabinets have been rubbed back and painted with chalk paint and wax. The worn leather chairs in the sitting room are Lisa’s favourite bargain. ‘I was doing a floristry job and a client had these chairs in their garden shed, covered in mould and spiders,’ says Lisa. ‘I kept asking about them and in the end they said I could have them.’
The couple worked hard to put their stamp on the outdoor space, too. Lisa’s skills as a florist are obvious, with colour and scent in abundance. ‘The garden wraps around the house and so feels part of every room,’ she explains. ‘It’s been a labour of love and gives us a lot of pleasure all year round – as does the whole house.’