There is an air of escapism about this Devonshire home. A former rectory at the end of a quiet lane, it looks every inch the rural idyll. It even has roses climbing around the front door. But step inside and a different version of country living unfolds – equally escapist, but in a darker and more dramatic vein.
“I think when you walk into a room, it should make you feel something, be it cosy, intriguing or startling,” says Susy Parker, who gave the house a big makeover when she and her family moved here two years ago. Her husband Ben, a doctor, was offered a job locally and it didn’t take much to persuade her, plus their children, twins Oscar and Felix, nine, and Darcy, three, to make the move.
Back then, the style inside the house was far more traditional, with pastel colours and thick beige carpets covering the wide oak floorboards. Susy had no urge to change the structure of the house, which is largely Georgian with a Tudor core. So no knocking through or ripping out has gone on. “We wanted to keep the ‘bones’ of the house exactly as they were, but I could still imagine the rooms having a very different feel,” she says. Her solution was an evocative scheme of black, greens, deep blues and flashes of rich colour. “I wanted to create the feeling of being at the bottom of a lake, of being immersed in another world,” she explains.
Many of the rooms are now painted in deep blues and lilac greys to create this mood. In the snug hallway, which already had the feel of a creaky ship’s cabin, even the plasterwork is painted in dusky Ichyrcha Blue by Farrow & Ball. “I fantasised about covering the plaster sections in a rich brocade fabric because, to me, they look like bits of bulging upholstery,” she says.
The upstairs bedrooms are covered in jungle patterns and a troop of monkeys clambers up the walls of the bathroom, courtesy of House of Hackney wallpaper. Downstairs, the walls and ceiling of the living room are painted in Hague Blue by Farrow & Ball, which makes the brighter ceramics, lampshades and fabrics shine out, while the dining room is awash with softer greys and golds, reflected in smoky antiqued mirrors.
This dramatic scheme didn’t seem like a stretch for the house for Susy. She says it was more about tapping into an existing atmosphere, particularly in the hallway and neighbouring breakfast room. With low beams, small doorways and a large inglenook fireplace at the end of the hall, these rooms are at the house’s Tudor heart. “This part is quite inward-looking, with thick-walled rooms that centre around the fire, and warren-like corridors,” she says.
Later Georgian additions also have their appeal, including a “secret” back staircase for servants that is hidden behind a panelled door in the kitchen. “I liked that the house felt quite mysterious, as if it held its own secrets.”
When they moved in, the kitchen style owed more to the 1980s than to its Georgian roots. But it seemed wasteful to rip it all out, so the couple adapted what was in situ. “We added a wall cabinet, repainted the base units black and replaced the pine worktops with granite.” She did, however, swap a wall of illustrative wall tiles for glazed versions by Bert & May, adding a dazzle of triangles in a near-luminous green. “I wanted a pattern with impact.”
A fringed oversized lampshade by Anna Hayman helps pull the green, black and gold kitchen scheme together. “I tend to pick out one element I really like and use it as a basis for the rest of the room. Once you’ve decided on a key item, the rest falls more easily into place,” she adds.
Similarly, the star of the dining room – previously used as a study – is a run of antiqued mirror glass along one wall, supplied by a company that usually fits out larger commercial buildings. “The night before it came I worried it would look like a day spa, but the effect is just what I’d hoped for. The smoky, tinted glass brings out the gold tones in the wood, and reflects the Holophane glass pendants.”
The room that has changed the least is Darcy’s bedroom, which came with a gently faded William Morris chrysanthemum wallpaper. ‘“I remember getting lost in wallpaper patterns like that as a child, so I knew I wanted to keep it,’” she says. Vintage pictures and a frou-frou pink lampshade that was found at the back of a junk shop add to the nostalgic mood.
There are plenty of other old prints and paintings dotted around, which add to the atmosphere, and many were bought locally. “The Dartmoor towns of Chagford and Ashburton are rummage-heaven,” says Susy. “I always look out for pictures that have character.”
A still life that hangs in the hallway is a case in point: “It’s not even that old. We reckon it was probably done by an art student, as you can see where they redid some bits. But I love that it comes with its own story.”
In London, Susy co-founded the clothing company Fox in a Glove, but now works as an interior designer, also selling vintage finds at Piper & Poet. “What excites me about interiors is the endless scope for creative play and adding layers to a room,” she says. “I have a feeling that our house will carry on evolving.”
