{"id":19417,"date":"2023-03-01T15:45:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T14:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=40558"},"modified":"2023-03-01T16:36:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:36:46","slug":"a-16th-century-home-filled-with-pattern-and-colour","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-16th-century-home-filled-with-pattern-and-colour\/","title":{"rendered":"A 16th-century home filled with pattern and colour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lynn Walford demonstrates how pattern in all its many styles and forms \u2013 from wallpaper to intricate embroidery and tapestry \u2013 can bring a unique look to a 16th-century home. Photographs Andreas von Einsiedel <\/p>

By Amanda Harling\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 01 March 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u2018It was only a matter of time before we moved to Suffolk,\u2019 says Lynn Walford, recalling how she and her husband John swapped life in busy Hackney, east London, for the picturesque East Anglian village where they\u2019ve lived for the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u2018Although John was born and brought up in Kenya, his family had owned a home in Walberswick since 1905, where he loved to spend holidays, so this part of the world had long been familiar to him, and to me too, from the days when we met as students at Birmingham University.\u2019<\/p>\n

Both Lynn and John studied Drama; John has for many years staged fashion shows and events for designers, while Lynn went on to become a stylist and fashion editor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Because of work we lived in London but, the more congested it became, the more we yearned for a quieter environment with cleaner air. So, soon after our daughter had completed her studies and left home, we set about looking for a place in the country. John continues to teach in London a couple of days a week, so being within reach of a station was important, but apart from that we were pretty flexible about where we lived.\u2019<\/p>\n

The village house the couple eventually bought has undergone many changes since it was built in the latter part of the 16th century. \u2018The core dates from 1590 and originally consisted of two or three terraced cottages, but was later altered to become one property. At the end of the 18th century it was gentrified with the addition of the Georgian<\/a> fa\u00e7ade and the attic floor, which provided accommodation for servants. The alterations we\u2019ve made have been mainly decorative. The first thing we did was change the traditional \u2018Suffolk Pink\u2019 of the fa\u00e7ade,\u2019 says Lynn.<\/p>\n

According to research, this colour was first used in the 14th century by Suffolk dyers, who added natural materials such as elderberries or pigs\u2019 blood to limewash. Blackthorn or sloe juice were other less grizzly ways of tinting the paint.<\/p>\n

Lynn and John also converted what had been a music room, built by previous owners in the 1960s, into a dining room and a kitchen that they use in the summer. The kitchen appliances are concealed in the cupboards so that they don\u2019t dominate the room and, once the weather warms up, Lynn and John turn off the Aga<\/a> in the original kitchen and cook and eat in the new one.<\/p>\n

\u2018If the weather allows, we can open the French windows and take everything outside to eat in the garden<\/a>. A previous owner was the late garden designer Mark Rumary, and we try to keep up his good work by retaining his planting and the design scheme, which divided the garden into a series of \u2018rooms\u2019,\u2019 adds Lynn.<\/p>\n

Time for the garden is limited, however, by Lynn\u2019s other occupation: decorative textiles and fine linen, which she has been collecting for years, buying at auctions<\/a>, antiques fairs<\/a> and from specialist dealers. \u2018There\u2019s something magical about holding a piece of Spitalfields silk,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018After we moved to Suffolk, I did a professional pattern-cutting course and began using fabrics from my hoard to make dresses. Since lockdown I\u2019ve concentrated more on decorative items such as cushions, throws<\/a> and lampshades. Everyone is spending so much more time at home, so there is a demand for individual, handmade accessories that add interest to one\u2019s surroundings.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lynn\u2019s flair for design and decoration<\/a>, and her resourceful approach, can be seen in her own home; the sitting room a vibrant mix of pattern and colour; the dining room where Adam Calkin\u2019s tree of life wallpaper spans one wall, and upstairs where finely worked antique and vintage textiles<\/a> add interest and atmosphere to the bedrooms.<\/p>\n

\u2018Being resourceful was a necessity when I moved to London after leaving university,\u2019 says Lynn. \u2018Nobody had any money, so we\u2019d buy one crepe blouse and dye it a different colour every week. On Saturdays we\u2019d shop at Biba or Bus Stop and then, once we were all dressed up, it was off to the clubs on the Kings Road. One of my first dresses was from Mary Quant\u2019s first shop and I had a couple of Ossie Clark\u2019s beautiful dresses. It was an exciting, innovative time.\u2019<\/p>\n

Initially, Lynn worked for a magazine where the art director, Stanley Glazer, taught her about photography, graphics and design. Later, she worked on films and commercials as a costume stylist. \u2018I had to think on my feet; nipping in here, letting out there. Teaching someone to style is impossible \u2013 one either has \u2018the eye\u2019 or one hasn\u2019t, but it can be honed by studying the work of talented designers and makers. On the sewing side I\u2019m largely self-taught, but I\u2019ve found the more you do, the more you learn.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lynn\u2019s innate sense of style \u2013 and the confidence to mix bold pattern with equally bold colour \u2013 is balanced by knowing when to stop. In the sitting room, the plain painted walls are a foil to the panoply of patterned cushions on the Ercol<\/a> daybed and the purple velvet sofa<\/a>. In the dining room, the timeless design of the wallpaper is contrasted by contemporary dining chairs.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, the landing is a startling white, all the better to showcase the corrugated form of the sunny yellow Tom Vac chair designed by Ron Arad in 1999. \u2018I\u2019m not a purist when it comes to combining designs of one era with those of another. It\u2019s all in the mix.\u2019<\/p>\n