{"id":31355,"date":"2024-03-13T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T16:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/7ebabc60-a88c-44a2-bcc0-22988960ecb0"},"modified":"2024-03-13T18:36:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T17:36:39","slug":"newly-renovated-barn-filled-with-mid-century-furniture-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/newly-renovated-barn-filled-with-mid-century-furniture-in-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly renovated barn filled with mid-century furniture in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

A love of mid-century furniture combined with art, 80s and Art Deco animal ceramics collected over the years, has created a home full of fond memories for Lucy and Jasper Warry. Feature Sian Williams. Photographs Brent Darby <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 13 March 2024 at 16:30 PM<\/p>

\n\n

I have always had a connection to, and love of, older things,\u2019 says former environmental manager Lucy Warry. Her earliest experiences of antiques shops and auction houses came via her mother and both her grandmothers. \u2018My mother was always upcycling<\/a> the furniture she\u2019d bought in a junk shop with a quick lick of paint,\u2019 she says.<\/p>

But her real passion for auctions and collecting came about when she met her mother-in-law,an ex-television props buyer, art director and vintage shop owner. \u2018Her house was the first home I saw where colour, textiles and antiques were really exciting and full of life,\u2019 she recalls.<\/p>

When Lucy and her husband Jasper, founder and creative director of Hello Deer Productions, first set up home in Tooting, south London, they spent a lot of their time visiting antiques markets<\/a> in search of furniture. \u2018Very little that we bought for the house was new,\u2019 she recalls, \u2018so its contents had a story to tell, which I really like.\u2019 Much of what they amassed at that time moved with them to Wales, when they decamped following the arrival of their two eldest children, Bean, aged 16, and Roly, aged 15.<\/p>

\u2018London became harder to navigate,\u2019 says Lucy, adding that the couple would frequently escape to spend weekends with Jasper\u2019s mother in Powys. \u2018We really fell in love with the area,\u2019 she explains,so when Jasper\u2019s mother suggested they might like to move into the newly renovated barn nextdoor to her 17th-century farmhouse, they leapt at the chance.<\/p>

Converted for domestic use, the building was a spacious blank canvas on which they could make their mark, using colour and the furniture they had collected in London, to frame the open-plan spaces. A number of mid-century pieces<\/a>, including an Ercol sideboard \u2013 now in the living room \u2013 and a 1960s Danish dressing table in the couple\u2019s bedroom, looked particularly at home against the whitewashed walls and weathered beams. <\/p>

\u2018It seemed to fit in perfectly within this rustic building,\u2019 says Lucy. \u2018The warm wood and fine streamlined look are very adaptable, and it\u2019s made it easier to add and take things away over the last 13 years.\u2019<\/p>

You might also like <\/strong>A 21st-century townhouse filled with mid-century design<\/a><\/p>

The last couple of years, with their repeated lockdowns, prompted a radical career change for Lucy, and she is currently studying for a degree in ceramics and jewellery at Carmarthen School of Art. The course has resulted in a new-found confidence in colour as well as a change in taste, she says, and the lockdowns themselves offered her an opportunity to redecorate the house.<\/p>

\u2018I\u2019ve always loved colour<\/a>, but I\u2019ve become braver with age. The new blue on the walls of the sitting room, for example, was inspired by Matisse\u2019s Blue Nudes lithographs,\u2019 says Lucy. It took her a long time to find the exact shade, she explains, but eventually a local building materials supplier came up trumps. \u2018The kind people at Huws Gray in Hay-on-Wye scanned a blue plastic eye bath, which gave me the perfect shade,\u2019 she says.<\/p>

Little vignettes provide interesting focal points throughout the house, and enhance the relaxed and eclectic look \u2013 nothing looks forced or contrived. Over the past few years, Lucy has introduced decorative fabrics from different eras \u2013 a vintage kantha quilt as a hanging panel, and geometric prints and florals<\/a> on cushion covers. The walls are hung with contemporary works by friends and family, and pieces bought at auction.<\/p>

\u2018We are very lucky to have a good selection of antiques and bric-\u00e0-brac shops in the surrounding towns of Brecon, Hay-on-Wye and Builth Wells, as well as auction houses<\/a> and fairs, which are always full of unexpected goodies that can be upcycled or displayed in the house straightaway.\u2019 <\/p>

The influence of Jasper\u2019s favourite film director, Wes Anderson, can be felt in some of the colour combinations, such as the pale pinks juxtaposed with brighter colours, and the kitsch, slightly Deco touches that hint of old Hollywood \u2013 notably palm tree table lamps, a quirky flamingo tapestry in the bedroom and the oversized ceramic dogs and leopards that appear at every turn. <\/p>

These large ceramic animals \u2013 big cats in particular \u2013 are something Lucy started collecting following the move to Wales, and would be the things she\u2019d rescue in a fire, she says. \u2018Family and our border terrier, Phoebe, first, but they would be a close second,\u2019 she laughs. \u2018Being a child of the 80s may have been something to do with why I love them!\u2019<\/p>