A Cotswold barn given a quietly elegant interior by Berkeley Hawkes

For Gracy, the timing of the move couldn't have been better, since she had been drawn to a career in interior design for some time, and had been immersing herself in the decoration of her own flat in London. Laura, meanwhile, had years of experience renovating her own houses and making them available as shoot locations. ‘We were sitting together one day and it just struck me that we needed to go for it,’ remembers Gracy. ‘We both love this so much, it's a passion, and there we were with a readymade project.’ The combination of her own fresh design vision with Laura's abundant experience decorating houses gave them a natural impetus to start their own studio.

Taking on a former agricultural building posed a different set of challenges to the London townhouses they had lived in before. The structure is Grade-II-listed, and though it had been converted into a house in the 1990s, there had been and still were limitations to what could be changed. The original conversion had been done with small windows, and the bedrooms were all in the steeply pitched attic space. ‘We couldn't get permission to enlarge the windows, except in the kitchen,’ explains Gracy, ‘so we had to lean into the darkness of some spaces and go for a more cosy, enveloping look.’

In the entrance hall, the reclaimed oak flooring from Lubelska has been laid in different directions to create visual interest. An Art Nouveau chandelier hangs over a table covered in a tablecloth made by Studio Blackwell in Watts 1874’s ‘Sainval’ velvet, whose design is drawn from a 16th century verdure tapestry. A 20th-century Italian leather and iron Savonarola chair adds contrast.

Mark Anthony Fox

They did manage to change the layout of the ground floor to make for a large, ‘broken-plan’ kitchen and dining room, incorporating a poky back corridor into the kitchen to allow space for a pantry. They also added a guest bedroom and bathroom plus a guest loo downstairs, and opened up the master bedroom, taking it from a confusing warren of small spaces into a generous suite with an adjoining bathroom. While the building is an agricultural one, they were keen to give a sense of the Georgian origins of the farm at large, adding panelling to the main rooms and installing understated kitchen cabinetry that nods to the period. The ancient origins of Cirencester in Roman Britain also had their influence on the serene classicism of the interior as it evolved.

An 18th-century caved wood French mirror hangs over a 19th-century Italian walnut console table, flanked by a pair of Regency mahogany chairs. In the reflection is a modern woven diptych by Ptolemy Mann.

Mark Anthony Fox

Aesthetically, much of what Gracy and Laura were trying to do also revolved around the idea of creating space. ‘We love every single thing that we choose,’ says Gracy, ‘and then we don't choose too many of them. We give each thing its own space so that we can see it and remember that we love it.’ This considered approach began with the floor, where they laid beautiful reclaimed oak floorboards from Lubelska, breaking up large expanses on the ground floor by running some boards in opposite directions. The boards were all reclaimed from agricultural buildings around Europe and have a pleasingly rough texture, easily visible since they have been left bare to make the most of their character. Laura and Gracy have a sharp eye for equally characterful antiques and unique pieces of furniture, such as an unusual shellwork chair they snapped up from an auction of the Belgian antique dealer Paul De Grande’s stock, and which is so delicate that they had to drive to Bruges to collect it, swathed in duvets for the ride home.

The guest loo has a custom made sink and wall-mounted taps from Barber Wilson to make the most of the awkward space. A mid-19th-century French brass cushion mirror from AP & PS Antiques hangs over the sink, while the wall lights have custom shades made in James Hare’s ‘Orissa Silk’ in walnut.

Mark Anthony Fox

What makes this a particularly satisfying interior is the clever contrasts the duo have created throughout. While there is a quiet restraint to the arrangement of furniture and art, there is also plenty of comfort and warmth. The rusticity of the building, its beams and flooring are countered with acres of deeply inviting velvet-upholstered seating, largely created by Lorfords Contemporary. A bedroom with charming ruffled curtains also contains a set of angular metal lamps; the roughness of the bare oak floor in the kitchen is countered by the gorgeous gloss of the red cabinets. Neutral walls throughout are the backdrop to a wonderfully warm colour scheme of reds and browns, partly informed by Gary's work as a feng shui master.

The project has only confirmed how well Gracy and Laura work together, and the pair are now at work on an apartment in Little Venice, London. If this project is anything to go by, we'll be excited to see what's next.

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