The English Home - Labor of Love

A few of you have e-mailed me asking me to post another editorial spread from the magazine The English Home. Apparently it's hard to get here in the USA, and it does not have a web site at all, much a less a web site with the great point and click feature we take in stride.
I've posted two editorials recently HERE and HERE, and you seem to really enjoy this magazine as much as I do.

photo via Tara Bradford Paris Parfait

It's still the February issue. I'm still waiting for the March issue to arrive.
This story called "Labor of Love" is about a Georgian house in Chiswick a small Cotswold town.
Of course when the owners found this house it looked nothing like the beautiful images you see before you.

What could be more English than Wellies and wicker hampers on a stone floor in the entry hall

Mark and Caroline wanted to move from London and work in the Cotswolds. They found the house first, and jobs later. They viewed 100 homes before they found THE one being offered in a private sale on the internet. The Grade Two-star-listed, three-story house is noted for its original marble fireplace in the drawing room and 18th century railings outside.

Gustavian style bench in the hall

This whole magazine article is perplexing. It talks about key elements like that marble mantle, and yet there are no photos to satisfy your whetted appetite. The couple says they love dark furniture which is out of fashion so they are getting fabulous pieces at good prices, and of course we are not shown very much of it.

The living room has elements we love: White slips, dark wood floors,
and I am sure much more if only they would show an entire photo please!

And of course there are partial views galore, which I never understand. Wake up editors! We want to see the whole room AND details too.

The library with a reproduction marble fireplace and toile curtains
I want to see the 18th century fireplace!

The Guest Bedroom
The color and textures reminds me of Lynn Von Kersting

The Master Bedroom
The bed is from Four Poster Bed Company,
the bed hangings from Ikea, the bedspread is from La Redoute
I spy some of that fab out-of-fashion dark furniture the couple collects

The caption for the master bath says "In the spacious en suite bathroom..." and they show this dinky size photo with some stupid little sink. Hello photo and copy editors, take a meeting together why don't you?

Another partial view of what looks to be a fabulous kitchen
I'm intrigued by the leather sofa

Although there is an 18th century facade on the house, the couple thinks the house is older by at least 100 years. It is in a small thriving Gloucestershire town and largely built of Cotswold stone. The house is mentioned in the work of distinguished architecture historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner who wrote a series of guides called "The Buildings of England."
Anthony Trollope allegedly lived here, and it is known for sure that his wife son did. There is also a 250 year old grisly story about a highwayman named Tom Long being caught in the house, and hanged nearby on the town common.

The secluded wall garden has had a life changing effect on the lady of the house. She undertook a course of garden design at the English Gardening School based on the Chelsea Physic Garden, and graduated at the top of her class.

Once again the magazine chose one dinky shot of the garden. I scrounged a few more from Caroline Tatham's web site, because she now has a garden design business formed out her experience with her personal space.


It took nearly five years to refurbish the house. It was structurally sound but the couple put in a new kitchen, new bathrooms, new flooring, and hand made new window frames, as well as Victorian cast iron radiators and new pipe work.
Eleven fireplaces in the house remained intact (though we never get to see one ha ha).

Dinky photo from the magazine of the most important space
to the owner, garden designer Caroline Tatham

So there you have it. I wish the published photos were better for you. Still it's a very pretty house and garden in a very pretty part of England. Let me know if you want to see more things from this magazine and I'll fire up the old scanner.