Eclectic chic (From Living Northeast)

Eclectic chic

1:25pm Thursday 21st January 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Natalya Wilson visits the home of a York-based designer with an eye for eclectic interiors.

TRICIA Douglas takes a look around the hallway of her lovely home and sighs with satisfaction.

“We’ve brought it back to life,” she says. As we explore the beautifully decorated rooms, it’s hard to believe that it was ever anything other than stunning.

Yet, taking us into the front sitting-room, Tricia recalls that in place of the magnificent reclamation period fireplace was a pine fire surround, that instead of muted Farrow & Ball tones the walls were once bright orange, and that the original bell-pushes, now shiny and resplendent, were once painted over.

Tricia, who has her own interior design company, and her husband, David, a civil engineer and consultant, moved into their home in a village just outside York seven years ago, and have created a dwelling which oozes class and style, yet still retains a homely feel.

It’s the extra touches that give the rooms their character, such as the cowhide coffee table in the sitting room, which Tricia tells me they made themselves one Christmas when they realised they didn’t have a coffee table.

“We had this cow-skin in the garage, so we made the box and had it upholstered,” she says.

Some of the other touches around the place are just as eye-catching – the giant noughts-and-crosses board in the lounge (“our slob-out room”, she laughs); the twisted pieces of wood in elegant vases, the unusual ornaments, many of which Tricia has picked up from house sales, renovations, antiques fairs and the like.

“We pick bits up and change them round all the time,”

she tells me, pointing out an eye-catching wooden horse in the hallway.

The house was built in 1901, on the cusp of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and Tricia has juxtaposed original features with reproduction and contemporary pieces.

It’s an harmonious mix.

This is especially evident in the bathroom, where the original fireplace has been sprayed with car paint, imparting a classy, expensive-looking sheen, and the original round window gives the room a cosy glow. There are ultra-modern round twin basins, a free-standing bath, chrome fittings and walk-in showers.

Tricia has mixed and matched furniture in some of the bedrooms, such as the “girly”, French-inspired room, where much of the furniture is reproduction, the chandelier is original and the bed, which they picked up from an antique fair in Newark and did up, added the perfect finishing touch.

Some of the house’s original features have survived unscathed down the years. These include the lovely stained-glass window, one of the main features of the hallway, plus all the windows, and the woodwork, though some of it, says Tricia, required quite a lot of TLC. Doors and upstairs fireplaces are also original, and hidden away in Tricia’s library of design books, across the hallway from her office, are the sliding silverware cupboards complete with the original velvet lining, in what was once the butler’s pantry.

The kitchen was the largest project, taking seven months to extend and complete. It was not only given an overhaul, but the original quarry-tiled floor, which had seen better days, was stripped back to bare earth.

“We took out 22 tonnes of flooring,” smiles Tricia, showing me some of the ‘before’ shots on her laptop, which really brings home exactly how much work went into the renovations.

The results are stunning. The kitchen extends down into a further sitting area, and the ultra-modern stainless steel fridge, coffee machine, dishwasher and other appliances sit harmoniously alongside the original Belfast sinks, which were retained and moved, and a fabulous Aga.

“We spend lots of time in here,” says Tricia. “The light is brilliant, especially in summer, when we get sun from midday.”

Heading outdoors through the utility room is like heading into another world. A series of gardens are interlinked, each offering a different style.

Bordered by the garages, which used to be the stables, and which the couple enclosed themselves, Tricia has created a tasteful courtyard garden, leading through to a lawned and bordered area containing Romanesque statues, again picked up from Newark, and, further round, at the back of the property, a paved area and outdoor swimming pool, something that Tricia tells me was there when they moved in.

“It’s not really suited to this country,” she laughs. “I think I’m going to make it into a water feature.”

The front garden, meanwhile, looks as established as the bricks and mortar of the house but is, in fact, another project that Tricia took on around the time the kitchen was done.

But despite everything that the couple have completed so far, the house is still a work in progress, as I see when Tricia shows me a stripped-back-to-basics bathroom, the next project, and hidden rooms, which they only actually discovered after they moved in – all waiting to be developed.

They are looking forward to completing the work on their own home, but most of Tricia’s time is devoted to her business, for which she travels around the country.

Locally, her commissions have included the sumptuous design of the former Alquimia Spa in the city’s Stonegate and, most recently, the apartments in Fossbridge House and Merchant’s Place, the former Stubbs building in York city centre.

Tricia enjoys her work immensely but, at the end of her day, she enjoys relaxing in her own home. “It’s one of those homes that becomes a part of you,” she smiles, sinking back into a cream leather sofa.

And, looking around at her elegant surroundings, you can certainly believe it.

■ For more about Tricia’s work, visit triciadouglasinteriors.co.uk or phone 01904-781343; 07801-849604.