The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Making merry
Personalised party favours, chic faux foliage and a 20ft tree. This is how interior-design insiders do Christmas – in a converted 18th-century barn. By Hannah Newton. Photographs by Claire Worthy
Celebrating with interior-design insiders
‘I DIDN’T NEED to see the house; as soon as I walked through the gates, I spotted two white turtle doves in the eaves of the walkway and I knew this was it,’ says Sue Jones of her home, hidden in a valley populated by guinea fowl, pheasants and cattle, on the border of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
The walkway has 11 stone pillars, eight of which are classified as Roman and would originally have been part of a building used as a staging post during the Roman occupation: ‘the equivalent of a Burger King in Roman times’, as Jones puts it.
Today, the Grade I-listed walkway serves as an elegant entrance, filled at Christmas with ivy garlands (faux ivy, that is – Jones is the creative director of homeware company Oka, whose faux flowers and plants are mainstay products). It leads to the converted 18th-century barn she shares with her husband, Alexander, and their Jack Russells, Mini and Max.
When they bought the barn in 2007, they thought a lick of paint would be enough to bring it up to date, but when they moved in they realised it needed a complete overhaul. Alexander oversaw the project, which included replacing the shutters, woodwork and beams, and relaying the floors with uneven joists to give the interior an aged feel. The window vents were extended and English-oak linenfold panelling was treated to look antique. They also installed energy-efficient groundsource heating and new fireplaces (which were ‘antiqued’ by taking a bicycle chain to the stone), and had the old piggery in the garden rebuilt as a cottage for guests.
Christmas at the Joneses’ is a funfilled affair: Sue is a bon viveur who adores entertaining and has a reputation for over-catering; while Alexander, who loves to make cocktails and has a plentiful wine cellar, has been known to drag barely met strangers back to the house for lunch. He insists on teaching godchildren who are old enough – between them he and Sue have 14 – how to make a decent Martini.
Their home has an exuberantly refined tone, a visual account of lives well lived and well travelled, replete with piles of books, collections of chinoiserie objects, and 17th- and 18th-century portraits. It is deeply comfortable, with a soft, traditional colour scheme
New fireplaces were ‘antiqued’ by taking a bicycle chain to the stone
and roaring log fires surrounded by plump sofas.
For Sue, who spends a lot of time going to and from the Oka offices, they have a second home in London, and as she often travels to far-flung factories in India and China, this house is her sanctuary. As one third of the female triumvirate that built Oka, which also includes her sister-in-law Annabel Astor and Lucinda Waterhouse, her work pulls her in myriad directions. ‘I oversee everything creative, every product that is introduced,’ she says, ‘and more and more of what we do is designed in-house.’
Sue began her design career at the decorating firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler before going on to work for Jasper Conran. ‘I learnt not to take no for an answer and that nothing was impossible. I saw houses transformed overnight.’
Her mother-in-law, Pandora Astor, had a passion for decorating houses, and Alexander has clearly inherited his mother’s love of composition. He has introduced a modern element to the home, and his keen design eye and love of architecture are the reason the carefully curated interior has not a light switch nor a radiator besmirching its walls.
The festive season for the Joneses officially begins on 23 December, Sue’s birthday, when she throws a dinner party for friends. The main room of the house is vast, and as a result she tends to oversize things. The Christmas tree stands at almost 20ft and the dining table is decorated with huge faux Phalaenopsis orchids, placed amid pinecone wreaths and a large statue of the Place Vendôme in Paris.
‘I try not to mix too many colours; I like red and white,’ she says of her festive decorating style. ‘I like the simplicity and try to create something calming. However, I am a great believer that if you make an effort with the table and give it a wow factor, even if the dinner party is disastrous, it always begins with that high note.’ To this end, she adds a personal touch. She makes her own crackers and loves to hide something completely unexpected inside – last year she filled each one with a Uniqlo gilet, so that her guests enjoyed their Christmas lunch resplendent in their matching outfits. This year, personalised hip flasks will act as place cards for guests dining with her and Alexander.
The couple met in 1979, when Alexander threw a drinks party to which, unbeknownst to her, only Sue was invited. However, his cocktails were so good she never left, and nearly 40 years later they are as generous as they are fun. No Christmas of theirs would be complete without stockings for the much-loved Mini and Max, a long lunch with friends and family, and a decently made pistachio sour. oka.com
This year, personalised hip flasks will act as place cards for guests dining with Sue and Alexander