MY FAVOURITE VIEW
To interior designer Nicky Dobree, the hills and valleys of the Wiltshire-dorset border offer a chance to escape, disconnect and re-engage with nature
As soon as the rolling hills of the Chalke Valley are in sight, Nicky Dobree feels like she’s home
For me, the countryside is about family and escapism, and where that happens most is on the border of Wiltshire and Dorset. As I head over the hill from Wilton and down towards Bishopstone in the Chalke Valley,
I feel as though I can breathe. It’s like I’ve arrived – I’m home.
Both of my parents are from this area, and my father is now buried here. Although I mostly grew up abroad, I did my O- and A-levels at school in Dorset, so by the time my parents moved back when I was in my twenties, I was already familiar with that piece of the English countryside. It’s where we all still come together to regroup as a family, as we’ll be doing this year to celebrate my mother’s 90th. My husband also grew up abroad, but weirdly he went to school in Dorset, too, so he feels just as connected to the area as I do. The Wiltshire-dorset border will always be very close to both of our hearts. But coming here is just as much about switching off – driving over those hills, away from the frantic 24/7 pace of London life, is a chance for me to escape.
The look and feel of the area is classic English rolling countryside – all farmland and valleys, with the village below, and you can even see the church where my husband and I got married. There are a lot of oak trees here, too, so it’s even more enchanting in the autumn.
Living in the city, what I miss more than anything is not being aware of the changing of the seasons – you lose that sense of the rhythm of life and the passage of time that you get when you live in the country. I do a lot of interior design work in country homes, which I love because an enormous amount of my inspiration for colour schemes comes from nature and the changing seasons – whether that’s the greens and browns of autumn, the yellows of spring, or perhaps the blues and greys of the coast. I try to reflect a sense of place in every project.
I think nature is at the heart of a lot of my designs but, ultimately, life is all about balance and I think that if I didn’t work in the city I wouldn’t appreciate nature quite as much as I do. I need to step away from where I normally am in order to find inspiration and be creative.
And, of course, I’m looking at the countryside in relation to the hustle and bustle of the city – everything looks so much better by comparison.