When I was writing New English Interiors, it struck me how so many proponents of the English decorating style aren’t from England. London-based American decorator Remy Renzullo, known for his layered, antique-rich interiors, springs to mind, as does Spanish interior designer Carlos Garcia whose detailed and decorative interiors have seen him become something of a poster boy for English country house style. It got me thinking: are expats who now call England home sometimes the best at the English decorating style? Are they perhaps just a little bit more gutsy when it comes to deploying a flouncy blind or chintzy sofa, or loading up a dresser with pretty china? Or is it that they are less worried about potential cliches, having the fresh perspective that only someone not born and bred in England can have?
Let’s not forget that the great decorator Nancy Lancaster, who is often seen as the queen of English country house style, hailed from Virginia. There are few who understood the concept of English decoration – ageless, uncontrived, defined by comfort, layers and a mix of pieces – quite like her. ‘She was brilliant at creating a very English kind of relaxed comfort, even in grand houses with huge rooms,’ explains interiors writer Ros Byam Shaw, who is behind the hugely popular Perfect English book series, the next of which, Perfect English: Small and Beautiful, is published on March 11 2025. ‘I think it perhaps had something to do with the fact that she was from one of those Virginian families whose wealth had declined dramatically, so she was brought up in a kind of faded grandeur that made her sympathetic to the English style of decorating – one where nothing was too shiny, or obviously new, or brash in any way.’
These values are still at the core of the English decorating style today and very much at the heart of Carlos Garcia’s work, who, unsurprisingly, cites Nancy Lancaster as a key influence. For him, being an incomer gave him a freedom to really embrace the English decorating style. ‘Being Spanish meant that I didn’t have any of the inherited hang-ups about what was right or wrong for an English interior,’ suggests Carlos. ‘It was liberating and allowed me to embrace things in my interiors that an English person might consider cliched or done before,’ he adds, citing china Staffordshire dogs as one such example. ‘Someone born and bred here might find them a bit twee, but they give me enormous joy,’ explains Carlos, who has pairs of them perched on numerous mantlepieces at his house in Norfolk. Back in Spain, Carlos had observed English style via copies of World of Interiors, but when he moved here 25 years ago, he pored over Ros Byam Shaw’s books and visited National Trust properties. ‘I just wanted to absorb everything I was seeing – things like chintz and four poster beds – and incorporate them into my interiors,’ he explains. ‘As a foreigner, it makes you so much more perceptive to things that you’d simply take for granted as a native,’ he adds.
Amanda Brooks, the American founder of cult lifestyle store Cutter Brooks, which champions a very charming English look, agrees that being a newcomer to England when she moved here in 2012 sharpened her eye and appreciation for English style. ‘I moved to my husband’s cottage in the Cotswolds and just inhaled my very English surroundings,’ she recalls. ‘If you’re a creative person, then you’re generally absorbing novelty, picking and choosing the bits that you like and inserting them into your own creative vocabulary.’
It’s a point that American interior designer Brandon Schubert, who moved to London from his native Texas and married an Englishman, also makes. ‘I think it’s far easier to observe when you are out of your comfort zone in a new place,’ he explains. ‘I had the opportunity to look around without the baggage of familiarity and the chance to figure out what the essence of English interiors is,’ adds Brandon, who cut his teeth working for architectural and interior designer Ben Pentreath before setting up his own studio. Brandon likens this process to learning a new language where ‘you go around learning enough words and syntax to put sentences together, and then eventually you get to the point of familiarity when you start to pick up on figures of speech and idioms, which might sound vaguely ridiculous to the native speaker listening.’ He suggests that ‘transplanted interior designers’ must do the same. ‘We evaluate the interiors around us and try to tease out what makes them feel English. We pick up on “figures of speech” in the form of decorative concepts, like the club fender or the coffee table ottoman, and then we use those in a way that is perhaps a bit more deliberate than the native speaker might.’
Of course, this overlooks what ‘transplanted interior designers’ bring to English decoration. Brandon, while certainly demonstrating an English style in the way he deploys, say, club fenders and traditional country house furniture, brings an American sensibility in the way his interiors are a little more tailored. And Carlos, while brilliant at the English country house vernacular, brings a little Spanish flair in the way he combines colours and patterns. There are some pleasing crossovers too. ‘Pelargoniums are a good example,’ says Carlos. ‘My mother always had them at home, but they were always outside, whereas here people put them indoors and it’s considered a very English thing,’ he adds. ‘It’s just given me the opportunity to put them anywhere I want and justified something that I’ve always liked.’
It raises an interesting point, for the English decorating style is one that borrows and imports from different countries. A Suzani cushion, with blue and white Delft pottery, an ornate 18th-century French vase and a weathered country chair – is there anything more English? ‘Having that melange of different pieces is something that is intrinsic to English decoration,’ suggests Carlos. And, of course, when you have designers living in England who weren’t born and bred here and have the freedom to observe, this melange ramps up a level. It’s no wonder that they’re so good at the English decorating style.
