The Blenheim Suite...

Welcome to day 6 of the tour. Today we are sharing what has, surprisingly, turned out to be our most popular suite, The Blenheim Suite. I had always thought that the Brideshead suite would be our most popular, simply because it was the largest, and I thought that people might find my choice of decoration for this room too idiosyncratic.

We took our inspiration from the 18th century Chinoiserie-styled rooms popular in English country houses of the time. After hunting for quite a while to find the right wallpaper we settled on this turquoise paper by Zoffany. We really liked the crimson birds and pomegranates which punctuate the trellis-like branches and leaves. We then found a silk which complemented the colourings with which me made the curtains and had the bed upholstered. I found the throw pillows in Miami and brought them back with me (and people say accurate colour memory doesn't exist!). In time we are going to have a counterpane and top pillow covers made in a complimentary fabric, and possibly a corona with drapes behind the headboard. This is one room where less is not more.

Above: Bedside details.

Below: A sconce and headboard detail.

Above and below: Prints of a peacock and of a Chinese emperor, and sconces with a little blue and white jars. I suspect that in time the prints will be replaced with original artwork, and the jars replaced with finer antique ginger jars.

For now they are rather jolly accents...

The en suite has gray and white marble, with a matching vanity and mirror and nickel sconce lights with opaque glass tubing. The nickel matches the taps and gives the bathroom an Edwardian elegance.

We will share a few photos of the master suite at a later stage, but tomorrow we will be unveiling the Ballroom and Music Room for the first time. Join us then to see our own petit homage to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, and how the piano was shifted into place.

Blenheim Suite Furnishing and Balloon Chairs...

Last week we finalised and placed the order for all the furniture for Willowbrook. We had been working on the designs for about a year. For much of the house we have designed Chippendale styled furniture to match our own antique pieces. Much of the design was taken directly from Chippendale's Director. 

The pieces are being handmade out of sustainable mahogany. We had to search around many different manufacturers before finding one whose workmanship was passable for authentic period carpentry and whose carving was suitable skillful; but who also had ethically sourced mahogany. There is a one year lead in time for a house lot of furniture, so we had to place the order by the end of October to ensure it arrives on time October next year.

One of the less formal and more fun pieces we chose was a balloon chair for the Blenheim Suite.It will be upholstered in a tuquoise silk to match the Zoffany Manchu wallpaper and the custom designed bed stead, similar to the examples below.

Below: Zoffany's Manchu Turquoise Wallpaper. One can see the pomegranates in this swatch, but not the crimson birds which are very jolly indeed.

The bedstead is in the Chippendale Chinese style, with a gilded bedhead with birds carved into the surround. The birds tie in with the wallpaper and are also replicated in an oriental Chippendale-styled mirror for the suite.

Above: The bed head. What is shown in gray undercoat will be gilded, and the upholstery will be in a Chinese silk to compliment the wallpaper.

Below: Detail of the foot of the bed. Again, the upholstery will be in the same silk as the headboard.

Below: The Oriental Chippendale styled mirror.

It was great fun to design our own furniture. We printed out the entire director along with hundreds of photos of furniture we liked and then cut and pasted all the details together to create the perfect pieces of furniture. The carpentrty firm we are using has been very supportive and onboard with what we are doing, which is also very helpful. And the ever patient Robyn of Aureum Imports and McPherson Architecture has coordinated the whole project and helped us pull it together on time. Many thanks to her.

More Balloon Chairs...

Photos from Tumblr