This Georgian Home Mixes Antiques with Bold Art and Color

‘As you’d expect, this house has beautiful proportions,’ says interior designer Victoria Gray, who, with design partner Taline Findlater, had the rather enviable task of filling the three-story Georgian house in Northamptonshire with light, color, and pattern, alongside the owners’ collection of antiques and contemporary art.

The duo from Olivine Design, known for considered, timeless interiors with just a hint of play, were ‘lucky enough’ to be involved at the beginning of this home’s next chapter, working with ‘an amazing firm of architects – Nick Cox Architects – as well as a great construction team’, Victoria says.

Built between 1727 and 1730, the house needed a complete renovation, which involved extending and reconfiguring some spaces. ‘Our clients wanted a light-filled house that respected its heritage, while making it a modern home for a family with four young children to grow up in,’ says Taline.

The work started in 2023 and took almost two years to complete, with new bathrooms, an extension to the kitchen, and the addition of a mudroom and scullery, along with new finishes where the original was not being fully restored.

‘Nick and his team specialize in restoring listed houses, and it’s always exciting to be brought in at such an early stage as it allows us to closely consider the spaces, how they will be used, and by whom,’ Taline adds. The project definitely proved to be a rewarding experience.

Walking through the front door, you step into a paneled hallway with reception rooms on either side – the living room and home office – and the main staircase through an arch. Off the living room is the dining room, with the kitchen, scullery, and mudroom on the other side of the ground floor.

‘We really wanted to enhance the flow between the reception rooms,’ says Victoria. For this, they used a palette of colors that work through these spaces, with olive, cinnamon, straw and brick making repeated appearances.

With large and plentiful windows on the ground and first floor (where the primary bedroom, bathroom, dressing room, and two further bedrooms and bathrooms are), softer iterations of these colors are found, playing with the abundance of natural light.

As you journey to the second floor (home to a laundry room, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms), with its lower ceilings, the palette becomes more intense.

Such color confidence wasn’t without its challenges, though.

‘In the reception rooms, the scale and number of windows were tricky,’ Victoria says. ‘Too much color and pattern and we would have been in danger of overwhelming the space, so we played with pattern on upholstery and accessories, using plain choices with lots of texture on the windows and walls. For example, the living room has a beautiful textured grasscloth wallpaper with linen curtains and a woven seagrass rug,’ she explains.