A secluded 17th century Cornish home filled with antiques, colour and pattern

Robert Carslaw's secluded Cornish home, laden with wisteria and glowing in the sunlight, subtropical gardens dense with azaleas, magnolias and rhododendrons. Estray Park is a rural idyll of the sort that can be found only in the temperate climate of the far South West – in this case, concealed at the end of winding country lanes and a long driveway, yet only a few miles from the university town of Falmouth. Inside, the handsome house is decorated with antique furnishings and numerous prints and paintings inherited or collected over many years. Asked about his favourite elements, Robert’s response is, ‘I can truly say that I love every bit of it.’

Robert, a long-standing member of House & Garden’s Top 100 Interior Designers list, has lived here, with his partner, since 2003. Their quest was originally to find a weekend house within three hours of their west London home and this led unexpectedly – thanks to the discovery of the perfect property – to a relocation to Cornwall. Robert held onto his Chelsea office for another 15 years – commuting via the sleeper train – but now works full time from Cornwall.

Robert’s internationally successful and varied practice came out of a childhood spent building Lego houses and an early interest in art, antiques and interiors. (He recalls a particularly inspiring family wedding at an English country house designed by David Hicks, in which classical proportions contrasted with vivid pink walls.) School was, he says, a ‘catastrophic disaster’; severely dyslexic, he failed all his exams. However, his fascination with form, space, light and colour led him to the three-year diploma course in interior design and furnishing at the London College of Furniture, where the thorough training included textile design, technical drawing, lighting, upholstery and the history of architecture.

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After a couple of years working for the leading interior designer Christopher Rowley, Robert set up on his own in 1983. His first prestigious commission was to restore and furnish a suite of offices and a company apartment in a Grade I-listed building in Bedford Square, WC1. Despite his relative inexperience, he was not daunted. His business took off and he has been in the top flight ever since – he describes himself as ‘relentless and very determined’, although in person he is quietly charming.

Robert’s approach to every design starts with the building itself: ‘The decoration cannot be right unless the architecture is right.’ He knew he wanted to make considerable changes to Estray Park and took two years to plan them, engaging a master builder who has spent three years completing the work to the highest standard.

Built in the 17th century as the home of the bailiff of the district of Kerrier, who was licensed to impound stray (or ‘estray’) cattle, the original house was a modest, two-room dwelling, which was soon expanded with a further two rooms above. The library end of the hall was added some 200 years later and another remodelling took place in the Eighties, when a side extension was built and exterior doors were added to the drawing room, kitchen and study – linking them to the terrace and its wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. The then owners also transformed much of the estate from little more than fields to the accomplished landscaping that can be seen today.

‘When we bought the house, the owners said they felt we were the people to take it to its next stage,’ Robert recalls. ‘We began by removing the external render to reveal the golden granite that the original part of the house was built from. We replaced every door and window and, in the modern part of the house, we made the door openings lower and wider to match the original ones.’