The decoration, too, has stood the test of time, much of it looking deceptively fresh despite it being almost three decades since its application. The Nina Campbell wallpaper in the main bedroom, the hall painted a rich red and the creamy paintwork of the sitting room panelling \u2013 which, Susie says, has acquired a faintly rosy tinge over the years \u2013 all being cases in point.<\/p>\n
What you might not guess is how much of the charm is homemade. Some things more obviously \u2013 like the side table in the hall that was inspired by their miniature of Hampton Court \u2013 and others somewhat unexpectedly. When working together on a replica building, Kevin is the architect and Susie takes charge of the interior decoration. It turns out that their skills as miniaturists scale up and that the same division of labour applies. Kevin built the bookshelves that wrap the library walls and Susie painted them. \u2018We took their design from a doll\u2019s house we made for charity in the 1980s, with rooms by different interior decorators including Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, and created full-size versions for our house in London. We brought them with us, but the ceilings here are much lower, so we had to cut them down. Somehow, the proportions still work,\u2019 says Kevin.<\/p>\n
In the kitchen, Paint & Paper Library\u2019s \u2018Slate V\u2019 on units customised by Kevin complement an island made from an 18th-century oak mule chest with a leathered marble top. A vase by the couple\u2019s daughter Isabelle holds flowers from Little Rituals, the shop she co-owns in Bradford-on-Avon<\/p>\n
Dean Hearne<\/p>\n
He also constructed the kitchen, adding panelled doors and cornices to off-the-shelf carcasses, and made the footstools in both of the sitting rooms. Susie was responsible for the ebullient hand-painted chinoiserie mural in the downstairs loo. \u2018I locked myself in and did it freehand one evening when we first arrived, because I was feeling overwhelmed\u00a0
by the scale of the renovations everywhere else,\u2019 she explains. \u2018I intended to paper over it once we were settled, but then the tiles went in and it just stayed.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ascending the central staircase to the first-floor bedrooms, you find more homegrown inventiveness. Every room has lampshades made by Susie from pretty fabrics: \u2018All favourite bits and pieces I have collected and stuck onto plain card shades.\u2019 The main bedroom is presided over by what they jokingly called \u2018The Great Bed of Mulvany\u2019 because it is unfeasibly wide. This was put together by Kevin. He extended a Victorian bedhead and constructed a canopy using sections of Gothic cornicing, painted and gilded by Susie.<\/p>\n
Needlepoint cushions brighten a sofa in a Romo moss green velvet. Among the artworks on the wall behind are a 1920s oil of a bather by an unknown Russian artist and a portrait of the couple\u2019s daughter Isabelle by her brother Max. A ceramic \u2018sea slug\u2019 by son Magnus sits on an ottoman made by Kevin. On the mantelpiece, a blue print by Isabelle picks up on the chimney board below painted by Susie.<\/p>\n
Dean Hearne<\/p>\n
Their three children \u2013 one now a florist, one an architect and one an interior designer \u2013 have inherited the couple\u2019s artistic genes and there are paintings, drawings and interesting items made by them scattered round the house. Their grandson\u2019s contributions are the Lego turrets that adorn the radiator cover in the hall and the chimneypiece in the sitting room. The whole house is a testament to family creativity, and the tradition looks set to continue.<\/p>\n