A predominantly decorative approach was unfamiliar territory for Deniz. ‘I don’t usually like working with ornamentation so it was a bit of a challenge to begin with,’ she says ‘It brought me to the 18th-century Shaker movement and its philosophy of humble, functional craftsmanship, which made sense here.’ Instead of using strong colour or pattern on pattern, she has introduced layers of texture with a mix of wooden furniture, natural textiles and fabrics in classic checks and botanical prints. With the children’s bench as her starting point, she found herself drawn to other hand-crafted Swiss and Austrian pieces that suit the farmhouse’s modest proportions and reflect something of its history.
In five-year-old Alexis’s bedroom, an antique sleigh bed that his father Koko slept in as a child is teamed with traditional rattan furniture and curtains and a lampshade in a vintage Brunschwig & Fils fabric, ‘Egremont’, featuring cows – a sweet nod to the bench downstairs.
Christopher Horwood
The family’s own story is also woven through the rooms. Alexis sleeps in an antique sleigh bed that used to be Koko’s and, up in the attic guest room, Deniz works from the same mahogany desk she had back in London, planning projects across Europe and developing a product line. Next to it is a headboard in a red and blue Liberty print that has inspired a slightly richer palette. ‘We bought it as a tablecloth for the welcome dinner at our wedding, which had a Turkish-Bavarian theme. The pattern and colours reminded me of Iznik pottery,’ says Deniz. ‘When we moved in here, Koko and I covered the headboard with it ourselves, which is a lovely memory.’ It is by incorporating such thoughtful details into her restful schemes, gently blending old with new, that Deniz has turned this blank canvas of a house into the perfect family home.
Studio Kaya: studiokaya.co.uk