Inside the founder of edit58's charming converted barn in a quiet Cotswold hamlet

Eventually, an estate agent suggested this barn in a charming hamlet comprising the original farmhouse and a string of stables and piggeries converted into houses, with the River Leach running through the site. ‘When we saw it, I loved it straight away,’ recalls Lisa.

Like its owners, the space is tall and thin, with a sitting room and study on the ground floor, a kitchen/ dining room on the first floor and three bedrooms over the second and third. Outside, gardens surround the house, with four doors leading out onto separate spaces, including a dining terrace and a small area outside the kitchen. ‘The previous owner had been here for 30 years so the house still had lots of charm – it hadn’t been “done”,’ explains Lisa. It was just the project she craved: in need of a decorative overhaul, but with good bones and plenty of interesting nooks and crannies, including the original rings on the wall in the sitting room where animals would have been tied up. ‘Hilal jokes that I wanted a weekend home just so I could decorate it differently to our house in London,’ Lisa says with a smile. ‘I guess I did see it as a chance to do something a bit prettier.’

On the ground floor, the single door leading to the lofty sitting room was opened up to make space for reclaimed double doors, which complement the proportions of the room. Throughout, new windows were installed and, other than in the sitting room and study, floors were replaced – reclaimed cheeseboard planks from France for the bedrooms, hallways and stairs, and terracotta tiles for the kitchen. Upstairs, space was carved out for a bathroom in the children’s shared bedroom, while a sliver was also stolen from the spare room to enlarge the adjoining bathroom.

Jet by Whiteworks’ ‘Posy’ linen on the headboard inspired the bow motif on the Alice Palmer lampshade custom-embroidered by Cressida Jamieson. It partners a ‘Ludlow’ lamp base made by Kelmscott Studio for edit58.

Paul Massey

Up in Lisa and Hilal’s bedroom on the attic floor, it was a case of finding a way to make the large space a bit more manageable. A half wall was added to gently divide the room, with the bed on one side and, on the other, a generous bathroom with a bath, washstand and fireplace – a lucky discovery, found intact, after a wall of old cabinetry was ripped out.

‘I wanted the house to feel like it had always been this way, rather than having a sense that it had just been done,’ says Lisa, who loves rummaging through antiques markets. The kitchen/dining room is a good illustration of her approach, where she mixed painted units by British Standard with a glazed cabinet from Belgium, a late-19th-century ebonised florist’s table, and a pink and white wall-hung vintage Indian unit, which she bought from a local farm shop. ‘I went in for carrots and came out with a cabinet,’ she recalls.

Pooky’s ‘Cookie’ pendant light in a now-discontinued shade of pale blue hangs above a 19th-century florist’s table from 1stDibs, which is teamed with Thirties bentwood Thonet chairs – originally from a cinema in the Czech Republic – also from 1stDibs. Three sets of framed botanicals (two seen) are displayed on the wall in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Pointing’ above a glazed sideboard from Belgium. A Swedish runner sourced by Lisa adds subtle colour.

Paul Massey

Pinks and greens are colours that thread through the house – from the Farrow & Ball ‘Setting Plaster’ walls of the spare room, to the sitting room with its soft pink lime-paint walls, skirting in Farrow & Ball’s ‘French Gray’ and a green wavy-backed sofa. Fabric plays a big role throughout. Said sofa is upholstered in Howe at 36 Bourne Street’s ‘Folies Bergère’ on the back, a stripe from The Cloth Shop on the backrest and a robust linen for the seat cushions. Another of Lisa’s favourite tricks is to reimagine old rugs into blinds or upholstered pieces like the sitting room ottoman.

It goes without saying that the house has proved an excellent test ground for Lisa. It has also inspired new products for edit58. The ‘Rattan Ripple’ tray, for instance, was created when she realised she needed something to go on top of the ottoman in the sitting room. A wall-mounted vanity unit in her bathroom – found on Ebay – prompted her to create her own painted version. And, with decorative artist Preneet Bart, she has recently launched a hand-painted trug. ‘I’m not sure I would ever have come up with the idea for it if we had not had somewhere in the country,’ admits Lisa. ‘Being here has really influenced my aesthetic’.

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