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The Househunter 4/12/15

Friday morning so we’re off to Somerset to look around this rather fabulous eight bedroom house in Somerset. It’s on the market with Savills for £2,200,000 and this might be a serious contender for the lottery winnings which, as it turns out, didn’t quite come off as planned at all last week so that clearly means we’re on for this weekend…

alice temperley house via savills

Those aubergine walls are just fabulous aren’t they? And that, people, if you needed convincing is why one feature wall is never enough. Do them all. I mean yes, there are lots of huge windows, but look how the mirror reflects the light back, and the pale ottoman also brings lightness to the space. Add in the white shutters (we can have blinds in our houses) and the fact that in this case the skirting boards and picture rail have remained in white and the owner (Alice Temperley since you ask) has managed to retain a sense of light and space even with the dark paint.
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Aubergine is clearly a favourite colour – or, you know, perhaps she had some left over – as here it is in the bathroom. Now again, we probably don’t all have a bath covered in metallic silver tiles but hey, what’s to stop us doing that? It’s actually quite a cool idea and echoes the chandelier as well.

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It’s a little more restrained in here with the white painted floorboards and walls but I also like how the curtains match as well so it just looks like the walls have melted into the fabric rather than jarring with a new colour. As for the hall… I can’t even speak. Imagine having a hall that size… well, I’ll tell you what – when I win this weekend and buy the house you can all come and see it. We’ll probably all fit in at once.

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And after that slice of loveliness do you fancy a helping of this? I drive past this house every time I go and see my mother and it’s one of my favourite buildings. I wish it was my house. Only, obviously, I want the whole building and not a two bedroom flat, but failing that it’s great to have poke around.

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It’s on the market with Strutt & Parker for £495,000 and as well as the aforementioned two bedrooms, it also has two receptions and two bathrooms. Clearly, there are two bedroom flats and two bedroom flats…

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Just look at those doors. It seems a shame to have your back to them with the positioning of the desk but I love the juxtaposition of  industrial exposed brick and an antique desk. I imagine the weird chair is brilliant for posture.

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The building, which was converted into flats in the 1990s, is a former tweed mill. In 1913 the workers went on strike over their rights to join a trade union but a few months later, the mill was flourishing when it received an order for khaki cloth for the British army.

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I pretty much love it as it is although I’m not a fan of curtains and would replace them with plain blinds to keep up the industrial feel. It seems as if it ought to have at least one tweed cushion too doesn’t it?

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And that’s this week property market. For the next couple of weeks we will revisit the highlights as it’s a quiet time of year and Househunter will return in full force in 2016.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

1 Comment

  1. Lovely house, and love the aubergine as an antidote to the greys and blues out there, but I’m always so disappointed that people combine darker colours with pure brilliant white. It cheapens the whole look. Just notching down your contrast colour a few notches to a super pale grey- white or very pale brown-white or off white would make it look so much classier (Blackened, Strong White and Wevet by F&B) are brilliant ceiling and woodwork colours and take off that harsh white edge.
    Great blog with lovely pictures! Thanks.

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