Jeremy Langmead's singularly enchanting Suffolk house, decorated by Susan Deliss
Jeremy Langmead and Simon Rayner’s country house in Suffolk has something of the Goldilocks effect about it–big enough for guests, but small enough when it’s just the two of them; grand enough to impress, but comfortable enough to relax in. The elegant Georgian house sits at the end of a tiny country lane which winds past a church and melts into the fields just beyond the garden. Jeremy and Simon found it in 2018 as they downsized from an immense property in Hertfordshire that they had never quite been able to fill, and commissioned Susan Deliss, the expert textiles dealer who has recently turned her hand to interior decoration.
The house is perfectly suited to the customary activities of a weekend in the country: entertaining and pottering about. Jeremy, who now leads content at Mr Porter after editing Wallpaper and Sunday Times Style, and Simon, the founder of PR In A Box, have long hankered after such a house. ‘I used to go into Colefax & Fowler and weep slightly,’ Jeremy says. ‘I love pattern and colour and textiles, and that overstuffed look you get in English country houses. It’s a form of storytelling, which is what I do in my career anyway.’ Having attempted a 'country-house-lite' look in Hertfordshire, Jeremy and Simon decided that this house had the right atmosphere and scale to accommodate the more layered look.
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Decorating in traditional style was a daunting prospect, however. ‘We’d never really used wallpaper and curtains before and I knew I couldn’t afford to get that wrong,’ says Jeremy. So they turned to an expert. Having seen Susan Deliss’ house in Burgundy in the July 2016 issue of House & Garden, they had started buying cushions and fabrics from her, and when she began taking on interior design projects, she was the natural choice. ‘What she was doing wasn’t what everyone else was doing. She also has a very generous approach; she doesn’t just make Susan Deliss houses, she responds to the house that you actually have.’ At the beginning the couple told Susan they wanted a Bloomsbury-style house, but she eventually decided it would be difficult to do without straying into pastiche. ‘What I took from that brief were the ideas of painterliness, Englishness, craftsmanship and charm.’
The house as Susan has rendered it is endlessly absorbing and complex. Some parts of the house feel wholly as you would expect, like the graceful pale blue entrance hall, where an elaborate chimneypiece has made its way from a stately home in Northumberland via Ebay to its current position. The kitchen, in Farrow & Ball’s sophisticated ‘Clunch’, opens up into a delightful, airy sitting room with light streaming in from the garden, where a bespoke hand-blocked paper forms the backdrop to cheerfully-upholstered furniture.
But Jeremy had asked for a house with some surprises in it, and throughout the design Susan certainly delivered. There are some traditions of the English country house writ large, but in unexpected ways, like the 'Tally Ho' wallpaper parading loudly over the walls of a tiny attic children’s bedroom, creating an immersive Alice-in-Wonderland mood. Lewis & Wood’s 'Voysey Park' wallpaper in the sprawling dining room has the opposite effect: delicate and subtle, it enhances the room’s airiness, but when you take a closer look there are unicorns peering out from behind the trees. When Jeremy asked for a Moroccan-style library, Susan created a space that feels at once bohemian and formal–a difficult look to create. The exquisite fabric that covers the walls was an impulse buy on Susan’s part; upon spotting it in a shop window in Paris she bought the shop’s entire stock immediately. The cosy, enveloping feel it lends to the room is balanced and structured by the strict pairing of blue and red in the colour scheme.
Upstairs, the back corridor, formerly rather dark and dreary, has become a beguiling world of jewel-box-like bedrooms. In the corridor itself, Susan has taken a traditional pale blue and red colour scheme and made it fresh and engaging, using a small-scale Robert Kime wallpaper with contrasting woodwork in an earthy red eggshell paint. Each bedroom feels completely different, yet the whole remains cohesive.
Throughout the house, Susan’s expertise in textiles means that her signature suzanis and ikats sit comfortably next to staunchly English stripes and chintzes. Any one room contains a wealth of detail, something that Jeremy compares to ‘going on a little journey every time you look closely.’ In the master bedroom, Susan sourced antique linen for the curtains in France and had the curtains and the trim hand-dyed to go with two of the colours in the wallpaper. It is part of her skill that the interiors never feel overwhelming. While the smaller, cosier spaces draw you in with intense pattern and colour, the larger, more frequently-used rooms maintain an elegant spareness, and give you the freedom to be charmed by the details.
The appeal of the house is sealed by the warmth that everyone involved feels towards it. ‘I sometimes like to go around each room in the house on a Friday night when I get there, and make sure I’ve enjoyed it enough,’ says Jeremy. Susan, on the other hand, appreciates that the house now has a life of its own. ‘I don’t want to impose my vision on my clients, and what’s wonderful is how good Jeremy is at making a home.’ The trust and generosity on both sides are exactly what a collaboration should be.
Susan Deliss is a member of The List by House & Garden, our essential directory of design professionals. See her profile here: thelist.houseandgarden.com/profile/susan-deliss-limited
Owen Gale1/26The fireplace was an Ebay find; above it hangs a portrait by Howard Tangye, former head of womenswear at Central Saint Martins. The chest by the door comes from Dix-Sept, an antiques shop in Framlingham.
Owen Gale3/26Hector the Great Dane stands guard in the entrance hall, where a portrait from Jeremy and Simon's previous house in Hertfordshire hangs at the foot of the stairs. The painting had developed a huge rip in the middle, but was restored by Susan's husband Max Deliss.
Owen Gale5/26Susan found the fabric on the library walls in a shop on Paris' Left Bank.
Owen Gale6/26The sofas were covered in a hardwearing fabric which could stand up to the couple's three dogs, particularly Hector.
7/26In the dining room, a light fitting from Petersham Nurseries hangs over the table. The walls are papered in Lewis & Wood's delicate 'Voysey Park' pattern.
Owen Gale9/26Simon had the fridge cabinet in the background custom-made for the space.
Owen Gale10/26The sitting room opens up from the kitchen. The cabinet in the corner came from Nicky Haslam's collection for OKA.
Owen Gale11/26A custom hand-blocked wallpaper provides subtle pattern on the walls. The sofa is upholstered in Lewis & Wood's 'Nantes' Overdye fabric.
Owen Gale13/26The upstairs landing leads from the main bedroom to another bedroom suite at the front of the house.
Owen Gale14/26In this bedroom, Celia Birtwell's 'Beasties' wallpaper lines the walls. A silk embroidered suzani from Susan's collection takes centre stage on the bed.
Owen Gale15/26In the main bedroom, the walls are covered in Robert Kime's 'St Abb's' wallpaper. In the corner is another of Jeremy and Simon's finds from Dix-Sept in Framlingham. 'It's quite a number', says Jeremy.
Owen Gale16/26The bathroom leads off the main bedroom.
Owen Gale17/26The cover on the bed is a Samarkand suzani sourced by Susan.
Owen Gale18/26The back corridor upstairs is papered in Robert Kime's 'Wattle' pattern, with woodwork in Sanderson's 'Bengal Red' eggshell paint.
Owen Gale19/26Sandberg's 'Raphael' wallpaper features in one of the back bedrooms, echoing the oak tree immediately outside the window.
Owen Gale20/26In the attic bedroom, the 'Tally Ho' pattern from Linwood Fabrics creates a dreamlike effect.
Owen Gale21/26The curtains in this room were inspired by a visit to Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire's last house at Edensor, where she had curtains with similar fringing. As Jeremy admired the Duchess greatly, Susan created the curtains as an homage, with pink ticking fabric for the fringe.
Owen Gale23/26Another view of the back corridor.
Owen Gale24/26The front of the house.
Owen Gale25/26
Owen Gale26/26The rear of the house from the garden.
