'There are two ways to decorate a country house,’ says Bunny Turner, co-founder of interior design studio Turner Pocock. ‘One is that you dial pattern and color back and let the outside in, although this can feel quite bleak in the middle of winter. The other is to approach it in the spirit we did here, and have spring around you all the time. And that’s rather wonderful, isn’t it?’
There is something inherently uplifting about this house design, a historic former hunting lodge in Berkshire that dates back to Georgian times. At every turn, colors and patterns spark delight: a vivid coral cloakroom dances with spring flowers; a lobby is adorned with delicate clover leaves; a yellow sofa glows like a ray of sunshine in the sitting room. ‘We chose patterns and materials that truly sing in a country setting,’ notes Bunny.
The clients are, in fact, Bunny’s sister and brother-in-law, who moved here from London with their four children in 2019. ‘For the first year, they did nothing to the house so that they could drill into what the issues were, and think about how they used the rooms – where the sun comes in and where they hang out as a family, for example,’ says Bunny, who points out that the layout was already ideal. ‘Like lots of Georgian houses, the proportions were perfect for family living. It simply needed love and life and spirit breathed back into it.’
Bunny and fellow co-founder of Turner Pocock, Emma Pocock, are ‘quite militant’ when it comes to extracting a brief, and working with family proved no exception. ‘We asked them to harvest visual references to distill the aesthetic they wanted to achieve. That process is always quite revealing,’ she says. ‘What kept coming through in the images was this joyful use of color and pattern. It was brave and we found that very exciting.’
The impressive scale of the rooms proved an ally when it came to being audacious with color. ‘We could go blockier with color,’ says Bunny, pointing to the family room, where walls in a rich leaf green offset furniture in reds, pinks, blues, and softer greens.
Some pieces were repurposed from the family’s terraced home in London but, as Bunny puts it, ‘This house eats furniture, so what they had didn’t really scratch the surface.’ The couple are keen art collectors, and the designers helped them to create a gallery wall in this room. ‘Smaller pieces risked getting lost individually, so we grouped them together to create impact.’
Decorating with antiques provides an essential counterpoint to the vivid colors. ‘Without some brown furniture, many of these rooms wouldn’t have felt finished or layered enough,’ says Bunny, who guided her sister with concept visuals so she could source pieces over time.
A similar approach was taken with rugs, which include worn kilims bought at auction or pieces picked up on a trip to Morocco. ‘I was quite nervous about the idea of my sister being let loose in a souk to finish the rooms off, but I needn’t have been,’ says Bunny. One particular flatweave, which the couple chose with their children, feels as though it was made for the sitting room, its colors perfectly echoing the hues of an embroidered antique suzani used to cover the ottoman.
Upstairs, the unwaveringly confident approach to color continues: ‘If you don’t keep it consistent, rooms can feel disconnected, as if they were decorated at different times,’ says Bunny. In a children’s bathroom, acid yellow paint picks out the tones in a wallpaper humming with grasshoppers and birds, while in the main suite, earthy greens beautifully temper the soft pinks.
The most exuberant space of all is the first-floor playroom, where walls and a perfectly pitched ceiling are wrapped in bold blue and white stripes, with woodwork picked out in crimson red. ‘We love a tented ceiling – always have, always will,’ says Bunny. Beneath the built-in banquette seating, bespoke trundle beds transform the room into the ultimate sleepover space.
A tray is used to add interest to the ottoman in the living room, a pop of color among the display of books. It's also very useful to have a tray on top of an upholstered ottoman to give you a more solid surface to perch a drink.
The kitchen stove is flanked with two sets of small wooden shelving, the lower of which also has a pot rail, ideal for storing the most used utensils. The perfect combination of form and function.
Add vintage charm to any room with a traditional blue and white lamp. This one is made from terracotta and has been given a slight aged look.
And, indeed, the whole point of this project is that it is not only visually uplifting but also deeply livable. ‘These houses invite you to inhabit them fully – to bring in flowers from the garden, to entertain, to gather, to enjoy the everyday,’ Bunny muses. ‘It was a bold transformation, but it was important to have the courage of our convictions. When you commit to color in this way, you have to follow through.’
