A ballerina and an antique dealer's charming refurbishment of a Peak District cottage

The house was originally two 18th-century miners’ cottages that later became Bert the Butcher’s. The buildings had been amalgamated into one by Matt’s parents in 2005, but were in need of refurbishing. ‘We covered the hall in bead-and-butt panelling painted yellow, but it looked too much like a sauna,’ Matt explains. ‘So we redid it in a chalky white and, to add depth, painted the ceiling green. For fun, I have collected references to a butcher’s shop, including antique papier-mâché cows, original signs and rather macabre meat hooks.’

DeVol’s ‘Crackle’ pendant lights hang over a 19th-century pine table from Mallams, teamed with comfortable Pugin-esque oak and horsehair chairs. William Nicholson alphabet prints line the wall beside the early-20th-century dresser.

Dean Hearne

They decided that the kitchen should look as little like a kitchen as possible, so they eschewed wall cabinets and built-in units, choosing freestanding antique pieces instead. Framed alphabet prints by William Nicholson line the wall beside the yellow-painted door that leads into the playfully decorated garden room beyond. Inspired by the drawing room of the farmhouse decorated by Rita Konig in County Durham (featured in House & Garden in March 2020), they chose an apple green for the snug. The blinds, adapted from old French potato sacks by their friend Jacqui Farquhar of Quarndon Curtain Design, add a touch of whimsy.

‘When we were living in our old flat in London, I was a bit cheeky and contacted Robert Kime’s office – I knew him a little,’ says Lauren. ‘I asked him if he was painting a room light blue, which one would he choose? The message came back – Edward Bulmer’s ‘Aerial Tint’ so we used this in our sitting room and in the adjoining library, with a slightly raspberry rusty red on the bookcases. When we’re entertaining in the colder months, roaring fires greet our guests in both rooms.’

‘Secret Garden’ wallpaper by Cole & Son sets off the David Shrigley prints You Win This Mushroom, If You Don’t Like Tomatoes, When Life Gives You a Lemon and They Were Too Long, the colours of which are echoed by chairs from Howe London in the garden room.

Dean Hearne

The focal point of the sitting room is a coastal landscape, May Day by Barnett Freedman – the artist’s Royal College of Art diploma piece from 1925 – which hangs above a second-hand Soane Britain sofa, covered in the company’s ‘Paw Print’ linen in chocolate brown. Muted light emanates from various lamps, as overhead lighting is banned throughout the house, and, above the Derbyshire gritstone fireplace, inset with blue and white Mexican tiles, sits a treasured carved wooden capital that belonged to Modernist set designer Edward Gordon Craig.

The main bedroom, nicknamed the Du Pré Suite after The Cellist, the one-act ballet about Jacqueline du Pré that Lauren was starring in at the time of their move, has a more Victorian feel. A 20th-century reproduction mahogany four-poster, bought for a song from Facebook Marketplace, is set against walls and ceiling in ‘Willow’ wallpaper, designed by William Morris and recoloured in yellow by Ben Pentreath. Paintings of local scenes collected by Matt, including one of the village of Matlock Bath, hang on either side of the bed.

Opposite, the bedroom known as The Clover Room has been transformed by CommonRoom’s ‘Lucky Leaf’ wallpaper, to which it owes its name. The once-dingy attic room on the floor above was given a similar treatment, with its walls and ceiling smothered in Cole & Son’s ‘Sweet Pea’. On the wide landing outside it, Lauren does her daily Pilates and barre practice. There is a radiance to the decoration of this house which, for a first-time effort, done mostly online and on a shoestring, is a remarkable achievement.