Characterful furniture and clever combinations of colour in an 18th-century house in Bath
Jane Austen made it clear in her novels that the smartest place to live in Bath was at the top of the hill. In 1790, when the architect John Eveleigh designed the handsome crescent where Nick and Catherine Gilpin’s house is set, it was so far at the top as to be almost in the country. When the Gilpins bought the house in 2013, it had belonged to the university for 60 years and was cut up into student rooms. Catherine was daunted by its dilapidation and ugliness, but Nick was confident that with the help of the interior designer Nicola Harding – who had worked on their previous house in London – and the architect Jonathan Rhind, they could make this cold, uninviting muddle of rooms into a family home.
‘The first task was to rip away the partitions and false ceilings to reveal the rooms, and then return everything to its original fabric,’ says Nicola. This included restoring the living room windows to their original tall proportions, repairing the exquisite cornices and replastering the walls. ‘The builders were in the house for nearly three years,’ says Nick. ‘That’s if you include yourself among them,’ interjects Catherine. Nick spent many months scraping glue and screed off the stone stairs, which had been covered in plastic.
MAY WE SUGGEST: Nicola Harding's atmospheric, characterful design for a London townhouse
Nicola chose a dark blue/black, ‘Squid Ink’ by Paint & Paper Library, for the hall. ‘It felt too big and echoey before, but the colour pulls it in,’ she says. ‘I think you should always paint the space with the lowest light level in a dark colour.’ She chose two pinks – Farrow & Ball’s ‘Smoked Trout’ and ‘Setting Plaster’ – for the light-filled dining room and kitchen: ‘Pink is a restorative colour and works well in sunshine.’ The Plain English kitchen units and robust island, with their black basalt worktops, hold their own in the large room. A pantry, also by Plain English, is reached through a jib door, devised by Jonathan.
The dark paint in a dark space rule continues in the basement snug, with its Farrow & Ball ‘Stone Blue’ ceiling and woodwork, and ‘Tanner’s Brown’ walls. Like much of the furniture in the house, the handsome sofa and footstool were found at Howe; Nicola and the Gilpins feel an affinity with the integrity of Christopher Howe’s pieces – both handmade and antique – and love his use of vintage fabrics.
All is light two floors up in the living room, where a Howe sofa and chaise longue face each other across an ottoman, with a Jacobean oak table from the Gilpins’ former London house and, above it, a gilded mirror that came from Blenheim Palace. The pale off-white scheme here is continued in the equally bright main bedroom on the second floor, where a draped four-poster makes a cosy enclave.
The children’s bedrooms are on the third floor, where Nicola’s skill with colour is manifest in another clever scheme in the pink bathroom. She used Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’ on the walls, ‘Hague Blue’ on the woodwork and ‘Smoked Trout’ on the stand for the vintage sink. ‘I wanted to take the building back to its original soulfulness,’ she says. ‘It’s important that it really feels like their home.’
Nicola Harding & Co: hardingandread.com
Jonathan Rhind Architects: jonathan-rhind.co.uk
Paul Massey1/13On the nineteenth-century Persian carpet, Christopher Howe’s ‘Weimaraner Sofa’ and ‘Gainsborough Stool’ are joined by an antique chaise longue by Howard & Sons. The heads on the oak table are by Christopher Marvell (from the Yew Tree Gallery) and Dora Gordine. On the easel is a work by Antony Gormley.
Paul Massey2/13The French twin-arm standard lamp dates from 1900 and is one of a pair. The artwork is by Tony Bevan, from Robin Katz Fine Art.
Paul Massey3/13The family dining room is downstairs, but a dining area at the back of this room is great for parties, thanks to a 2.5-metre diameter table from Holland & Sons. The bookcase was found in a Gloucestershire antique shop. ‘I explain to clients there will be a degree of wear and tear with painted floors, but the patina it creates is part of the look,’ says Nicola of the brilliant white floor in this dining space. ‘To keep it looking crisp, it will require repainting roughly once every three years, but you can get water-based floor paints that dry quickly, so it’s a simple job that can be turned around within a day.’ The shade used here is Farrow & Ball’s ‘Slipper Satin’, £66 for 2.5 litres modern eggshell, ideal for wood floors.
Paul Massey4/13The walls here are painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Smoked Trout’. The dining table and benches are unfinished oak, and the rug is by Swedish artist Märta Måås-Fjetterström. Nicola upholstered the Howe ‘St Bernard’ armchair in a cashmere suiting fabric.
Paul Massey5/13Farrow & Ball ‘Setting Plaster’ was used on the walls here. Vintage wall lights from Felix Lighting Specialists are positioned above the Plain English kitchen units, which are painted in Pure & Original ‘Summerset Mauve’; the island is in ‘Post Modern Mauve’. Pendant light shades salvaged from a factory in Hungary hang over the island. They are sold by Skinflint, which finds, restores and repairs mid-century industrial and decorative lighting from all over Europe. The ‘Eastern Bloc Factory Shade’ measures 51 x 31cm diameter and costs £330.
Paul Massey6/13Nicola suggested applying blue paint to the Howe ‘Cross Stretcher Table’ and ‘Camembert Chair’, which were white in the Gilpins’ previous house. An antique Windsor chair from Robin Cox stands beside the window, which overlooks the terraced back garden designed by Nicola. Plaster plaques by self-styled ‘master plaster caster’ Peter Hone are hung above the chimneypiece. A selection of his pieces are sold through Pentreath & Hall, including the similar ‘Summer Fruits Dresden Plaque’ pictured here. Handmade in London,the plaque measures 42 x 25cm and costs £120.
Paul Massey7/13The architect Jonathan Rhind devised a jib door to connect the kitchen to this small pantry and storage area with units by Plain English. The same black basalt worktop is used in both rooms. The wall lights came from Felix Lighting Specialists, while the Biedermeier-style side chair dates from 1840 and was bought from Matthew Cox. The cupboards are in Paint & Paper Library's ‘Blue Gum’ shade, while the walls are in ‘Squid Ink' (both £46.50 for 2.5 litres emulsion).
Paul Massey8/13Farrow & Ball’s ‘Stone Blue’ was used on the ceiling of this basement room and carried down to create a false cornice above the ‘Tanner’s Brown’ walls. The same blue was used on the woodwork, providing a contrast with the red ‘Basset Sofa’ from Howe and the green antique Swedish rug. In a niche beside the fireplace is a Forties French mechanic’s chest with many tiny drawers. Howe’s ‘Grainsack Mahogany Greyhound Stool’ sits in the middle of the snug. It has a mahogany frame with a horsehair-filled cushion covered in a grain sack and hand-stitched leather. It measures 53.5cm x 137 x 56cm
and costs £3,888.
Paul Massey9/13Dark walls contrast with the pale stone of the stairs and floor. Several large-filament bulbs at different heights on twisted silk flex hang over the landing at the top of the stairs.
Paul Massey10/13The children’s rooms are on the third floor, where this landing is dominated by a Fifties school world map from Ollie & Bow.
Paul Massey11/13The bath and sink here are both vintage and the rag rug is from Sweden. The industrial wall lights are from Felix Lighting Specialists. Nicola chose Paint & Paper Library's ‘Deep Water Green’ in an oil eggshell finish to give the vintage bath a new lease of life (£68 for 2.5 litres).
Paul Massey12/13The walls here, painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Railings’, match the Emery & Cie cement floor tiles. Designer Nicola Harding bought the vintage bath in one of the bathrooms on Ebay. To get the look without having to trawl online, try Heritage Bathrooms’ similar ‘Porto Santo Bateau’ cast iron double-ended bath, which you can paint in the colour of your choice. It measures 67.5 x 170 x 68cm and costs £1,595, including the chrome feet.
Paul Massey13/13The walls here are painted in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Slate III’ and the floor is painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Slipper Satin’. A delicate metal four-poster bed is hung with antique mangle-cloth drapes, with cushions covered in vintage Swedish ticking and antique flags, all from Howe. The two striped rugs are Turkish, circa 1950. A French tôle peinte helmet wall light is above the twentieth-century Indian teak folding table, which probably came from an old civic building. A mid-century brass-framed oval Swedish mirror hangs by the window.
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