Interior DesigN: Master suite
The Project
Working with returning clients is always a huge joy and privilege. By this stage, we know their style, their family members (both two and four-legged!), and, most importantly, how they like to live.
We had previously helped this family settle into life in a beautiful 400-year-old Wealden farmhouse. In 2025, however, they made the decision to move - within the same village - to a contemporary home in a gated development. The appeal of the new property was easy to understand: significantly less maintenance, a warmer and more energy-efficient home, direct access to private woodland for long dog walks, and a house that would offer comfort and ease as they embraced retirement.
While the setting had changed dramatically, it was important that the new home still felt unmistakably theirs.
The Brief
Our clients were bringing several much-loved pieces of furniture from the farmhouse, each with both practical and sentimental value. For the principal bedroom suite - which now included a dedicated dressing room and en suite—we would be designing around an upholstered occasional chair in Ian Sanderson's Inca fabric, a striking velvet bench, and an impressive bespoke headboard. These existing pieces gave us wonderful foundations on which to build the new scheme.
Our brief was to reimagine the colour palette around these key items, while extending the design seamlessly into the new dressing room and en suite - spaces they hadn't enjoyed in their previous home. The overall feel needed to be calm, warm and restorative, but never bland. Our clients wanted the suite to have the quiet luxury of a boutique hotel, balanced with moments of colour, personality and visual interest.
Having worked with them before, we also knew they favour beautifully ordered interiors and a restrained approach to accessories. Every item therefore needed to earn its place, with texture, colour and craftsmanship doing much of the decorative work.
What We Did
The super king bed and its substantial upholstered headboard would naturally become the focal point of the room, so it made sense for this piece to lead the new colour story. While we wanted it to complement the marine blue tones of the existing bench and chair, we also wanted to introduce a fresh colour that would bring warmth and energy to the scheme.
Terracotta was the perfect choice. Sitting opposite blue on the colour wheel, it creates a beautifully balanced contrast while adding depth and richness. This became the thread that tied the entire suite together.
The headboard itself proved something of a challenge to reupholster - it's considerably heavier than it looks - but the Warner House Allerton Cinnamon fabric was worth every effort. Its softly patterned weave introduces movement and texture, preventing such a large piece from feeling visually (as well as literally!) heavy.
From there, we wove terracotta and rust tones throughout the suite: Lewis & Wood curtains, sumptuous velvet scatter cushions and a beautifully patterned bedspread all reinforce the palette without overwhelming it. In the dressing room, we allowed the colour to evolve into a warmer coral, painting a Scumble Goosie dressing table in a glorious Edward Bulmer shade that adds a cheerful focal point against the otherwise calming backdrop.
To soften the architecture and create a genuine sense of tranquillity, we selected oversized linen pendant lights in place of more traditional metal fittings. Their rounded forms and gentle folds introduce softness and warmth, echoing the relaxed feel of luxury hotel interiors.
Finally, in the en suite, David Hockney prints subtly pick up the blues and terracotta tones from the adjoining bedroom. By varying the scale and arrangement of the artwork, the room feels collected rather than overly formal, bringing a relaxed sophistication to what could otherwise have been a very minimal space.
The result is a master suite that feels elegant, warm and quietly luxurious - a calm retreat that reflects our clients' lifestyle perfectly, while giving treasured pieces from their previous home a fresh new setting for the next chapter.