{"id":10860,"date":"2022-05-17T09:30:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T07:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2022-05-17T09:57:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T07:57:11","slug":"sue-timneys-monochrome-georgian-home","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/sue-timneys-monochrome-georgian-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Sue Timney\u2019s monochrome Georgian home"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Joe Feehily\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 17 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Sue Timney\u2019s home is, reassuringly, just how one would imagine. The interior designer\u2019s signature monochrome scheme dominates every room \u2013 appearing on the walls via her own-design striped wallpaper and through the furniture (a harlequin print bomb chest is a rather amazing example). It also somewhat dictates her taste when it comes to her collections, which include 1930s-50s Constance Spry ceramics and, most predominantly, Piero Fornasetti<\/a> plates.<\/p>\n

Sue moved here seven years ago, drawn to the house\u2019s location, facing an open quadrangle a few hundred yards from the seafront near Deal. \u2018I love its location by the sea and feel that the Georgian<\/a> architecture suits my possessions,\u2019 she says. The home is in a converted late 18th-century barracks, so seems an appropriate base for Sue, given that her father was an officer in the Royal Engineers.<\/p>\n

The interior wasn\u2019t so appropriate for such a grande dame of design, though. Sue describes it as \u2018plainly decorated and inoffensive\u2019. After moving in, she set to work transforming the decor into something that\u2019s anything but plain thanks to the injection of her trademark black-and-white palette. \u2018I\u2019ve had an affinity with these colours since discovering Japanese calligraphy when studying at the Royal College of Art,\u2019 she says. \u2018It inspired my wardrobe and my work.\u2019 To this scheme she\u2019s added the odd splash of vivid red, supplied by a collection of 20th-century vases, textiles and furniture.<\/p>\n

Throughout the interior, Sue has mixed pieces from different periods. Around the vintage<\/a> dining table \u2013 given a dramatic update with the addition of a black glass top \u2013 are a pair of early 20th-century carved Viennese chairs and four 1930s Italian ebony-framed chairs. Elsewhere in the room is a contemporary cabinet, designed by Sue, and a limited-edition Jean Cocteau printed scarf by Zika Ascher. None of the pieces are by the same designer or even from the same era, yet all sit comfortably together.<\/p>\n

Sue has been a collector since childhood, when she would amass postcards of all the places she\u2019d lived. Since then, she\u2019s developed a love for the work of Italian surrealist Piero Fornasetti, whose plates she displays on her dining room wall. \u2018I first discovered the work of Fornasetti 20 years ago when Paul Smith pointed out some similarity of style between his work and certain aspects of mine,\u2019 she says. \u2018I bought my first piece, a plate that hangs above the fireplace<\/a>, soon after and have loved the designs ever since.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arts and Crafts<\/a> and art deco vases feature heavily, too, and Sue estimates that she has around 200-300, many bought locally from the nearby towns of Deal, Whitstable and Rye. \u2018I love the angular shapes and striking colours of this period of design,\u2019 she says. \u2018There are minimalists and then there are people like me who have always collected. I gain inspiration from my collections, their colours and shapes, and find knowing the history behind an object very satisfying.\u2019<\/p>\n