Samantha Todhunter brings out the fun in traditional design at her Queen Anne country house
A young man stopped his open-top MG outside a beautiful Queen Anne house and said to his companion, ‘That’s the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen.’ There is an element of ‘it was meant to be’ in Samantha Todhunter’s account of how she and her husband, David, found their current home. ‘Fast-forward 30 years,’ she says, ‘and he was idly scrolling property sites online, thinking we should start looking for a place to retire. There was the house – for sale.’
The Old Vicarage, built in 1707, has the exterior of a perfect doll’s house: a stone façade with a central front door surrounded by pilasters and a fanlight. Inside, it is divided into three equal, vertical sections. The staircase forms the central section; its original barley-sugar-twist banisters extend from the hall right up to the attic landing, which gives the house a feeling of coherence.
The staircase is traditional, but Samantha’s treatment is anything but. One of House & Garden’s Top 100 interior designers, she has lined the staircase walls with paperbacked silk in a brilliant turquoise. ‘I like the subtle sheen and variations of tones the silk brings; you could never get that effect with paint,’ she says. Diane von Furstenberg’s ‘Climbing Leopard’ carpet sees the animals rippling down the treads, nose to tail, against an emerald green background. ‘It’s one of my favourite carpets,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t sure David would go for it, but luckily he loves it, too. At Christmas, we have a very tall tree in the hall. The first one we spent here, in 2015, was pretty memorable, with peeling Seventies wallpaper, broken-down central heating, blow heaters in every bedroom and on the landings, and one bathroom for the six of us. Yet we had the happiest time.’
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One of Samantha’s first decisions was to hang a Phillip Jeffries red grasscloth paper in the drawing room, which provides a vivid background for David’s collection of portraits. A pair of bravura scroll-armed chairs she found in Chicago (the inspiration for the ‘Montague’ chair in her Warborough furniture collection), covered in Boussac’s ‘Panthere’ velvet from Pierre Frey, and a handsome 1880 Persian Serapi rug add to the vibrant charm of the room.
Off the other side of the hall is the dining room, its deep original panelling painted a fresh blue, and long mahogany table overlooked by a pair of stern-faced portraits of a Swedish queen and her daughter. The large kitchen next door, originally two rooms, now has a wall of dresser-like cupboards in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’. ‘Storage is everything,’ says Samantha. ‘Especially drawer storage, here and throughout the house.’ A pair of piecrust-front butler sinks, one near the cooker and one for prep under a window, make this an easy kitchen to work in. The couple shelved their original plan to build an extension over the pretty cobbled yard outside. Instead, a laundry, boot room and cloakroom have been skilfully inserted into an improbably tiny space beside the kitchen.
Up on the first half landing, David works in his glossy dark blue study, its bookcases lit by pierced brass lamps resembling smaller versions of those found in Edwardian billiard rooms. Restraint is a thing unknown in the spare room on the next floor, where de Gournay’s eye-catching pink ‘Amazonia’ paper, a collaboration with Aquazzura, has transformed the space into an idealised jungle. ‘It’s the happiest wallpaper,’ says Samantha, who has left it to work its magic, keeping everything else simple and just picking out the mustard yellow of the monkeys for the trim on the white headboards.
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Guests and the pair’s daughters have another treat in store in their bathroom. ‘When I told the girls the wallpaper was going to be grey and brown with big flowers, they were a bit shocked,’ admits Samantha. In fact, Schumacher’s ‘Pyne Hollyhock’, designed by American decorator Albert Hadley, looks fresh and young combined with white-painted floorboards, a daisy-shaped mirror, scalloped raffia lampshades and a ticking blind. ‘I like taking big, full-on traditional designs and giving them a modern tweak,’ says Samantha. However, for the main bedroom, she chose Farrow & Ball’s ethereal ‘Pavilion Blue’ as a restful background for higgledy-piggledy original built-in cupboards, more portraits and an imposing curvy headboard.
Beyond this calm oasis is a riot of strong pattern: the bold stripes of Le Manach’s ‘Pommes de Pin’ design almost drove Samantha’s paper hanger into conniptions, so complicated are the angles of the landing and the little snug – a mini private sitting room for Samantha and David. A bar built into its panelling provides something to enjoy in the bath next door, and nothing could be more delightful than sipping it in the vast, elegant tub, surrounded by plants, shells and Chinese blue and white pots. The parsons (and their wives) who lived here in the reign of Queen Anne would be astonished, but they missed a good deal of fun.
Samantha Todhunter: samanthatodhunter.com
Samantha Todhunter is a member of The List by House & Garden, our essential directory of design professionals. Find her profile here.
Simon Brown1/14The Queen Anne stone façade has a pleasing doll’s house symmetry.
Simon Brown2/14Benjamin Moore’s ‘Light Blue’ was chosen for the original panelling of the dining room. Mismatched sabre-leg chairs from auctions and local dealers surround an antique table with a scallopedged tablecloth in Colefax and Fowler’s ‘Kendal’ fabric. The late-19th-century silver candelabra were found through Great Grooms of Hungerford.
Simon Brown3/14A grasscloth wallcovering by Phillip Jeffries is the backdrop for a collection of portraits. Custom-made sofas in a Rose Uniacke linen with cushions in ‘Althea’ linen by Lee Jofa face each other across an ottoman by Samantha in ‘Spencer’ velvet from George Spencer Designs. The scroll-armed chair – one of a pair Samantha found in Chicago – is upholstered in Boussac’s ‘Panthere’ velvet from Pierre Frey.
Simon Brown4/14A chequerboard floor in ‘Tora Blue’ and ‘Mallory’ limestone tiles from Artisans of Devizes is softened by the light pink of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’ on the painted units of the kitchen, including a wall of panelled cupboards designed by Samantha, inspired by old dressers.
Simon Brown5/14Rattan ‘Wave’ lampshades by Matilda Goad hang above a ‘Mrs B’ dining table from Benchmark.
Simon Brown6/14Walls lined with paper-backed silk made in China for Samantha are teamed with Diane von Furstenberg’s ‘Climbing Leopard’ carpet for The Rug Company on the stairs. Matilda Goad lampshades flank a Balineum ‘Flora’ mirror against a background of Schumacher’s ‘Pyne Hollyhock’ wallpaper in the guest bathroom beyond.
Simon Brown7/14A headboard in ‘Beaucaire’ linen by Nicole Fabre Designs from Tissus d’Hélène blends with walls in ‘Pavilion Blue’ by Farrow & Ball. The bedcover is by Torna Lucia and the ‘End of Bed’ bench is from the Turner Pocock x Lorfords Contemporary Collection.
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Simon Brown9/14Le Manach’s ‘Pommes de Pin’ wallpaper from Pierre Frey covers the walls and ceiling of the small lobby off the main bedroom, which leads to the tiny private sitting room known as the snug. The ‘Amelia’ ottoman from The Warborough Collection by Samantha is upholstered in ‘Milano’ linen by Claremont. The mirror and a French vitrine, containing Samantha’s collection of Veja trainers, were found at a local antique shop.
Simon Brown10/14Samantha trimmed the headboards in the spare bedroom with a Brunschwig & Fils brush fringe that picks up on the golden monkeys in de Gournay’s ‘Amazonia’ wallpaper.
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Simon Brown12/14Antique portraits, a Heriz rug and ceramics, including Chinese jars from Lots Road Auctions, add character to this attic space. The blind is in ‘Aurora’ linen by Paolo Moschino for Nicholas Haslam; the chair is in Warris Vianni’s ‘Malabar’.
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Simon Brown14/14
