Inside Alexandra Tolstoy’s 18th-Century Oxfordshire Cottage | Design Notes

[Music] so I am a firm believer that you should not count out priority decoration should always come first [Music] it is an 18th century Farmers Cottage and it's been the most consistent thing in my children's lives it's been the place where they've come to you since they were born and it hasn't changed I have my travel business where I take people riding in a very remote part of Kyrgyzstan which has really been a passion of mine for 20 years and then I have a second business called the Tulsa edit which is I Source Antiques and decorative things and they're mostly folk influenced and they actually really tie in with the travel when I first bought the cottage um the structure was all the same I did make some changes but I would say that they were more restorative changes rather than modernizing changes I wanted to be very kind and empathetic to its roots my father gave me this lovely book here called English cottage interiors and I found that Cottages generally they would have been painted with this Wayne skirt Brown which is a fair and full color the antique I wanted it to be very English it is very English so I've got well English and Welsh antiques principle I say you can't really have Cottage without Staffordshire so I've gone quite bananas on the Staffordshire here but it's so decorative I think it looks so great with the green plates and then it's so sweet my son he gave me these for Christmas he saws them on eBay and then he was really upsets when they came he said I thought they were really big and he just seen them in the photo these are lovely Victorian shell works so this chair I was really wanting to introduce some chins into this room because I thought yeah everything's great but actually her Cottage without chins is not really a cottage this is a one that has just been relaunched by civil Colfax and I found this really sweet little proportion tiny old armchair and had it covered and it is the comfiest chair to watch TV and so thrilled with that I've collected embroidered pictures Samplers and I love lusterware and never can resist I seem to be able to get on and on accumulating and finding spaces for it and then some blue willow pattern these are very organic colors which work really well the whole thing of this Cottage is the inside Space goes up to the outside space when the children are here the doors are always open everything's covered in mud they're in and out and there isn't really a difference between inside and outside and so I feel like the Antiques work with that foreign the kitchen is the hot I think of any home especially when you have children this is just the most wonderful table for having people to dinner and I've had lots and lots of dinner parties or supper bodies and we were really lucky they had this lovely streamflied floor already so that's actually great I found these wonderful old delft tiles so that's like a tiny little concessions of practicality so it doesn't Splash all over the wall decoration should always come first and I've continued that through the kitchen I've put all the dogs together I've got these lovely wood carvings that I've collected then I found that this is like an old glass lampshade under here but I don't know how but it got cracked and so then I got someone to make this and add it on which I love we did have a lovely Plum Tree but it blew down half in a storm we used to use the ladder to pick all the plums but I've now got a son who's mad about making things so he's often using that during the flood the yoga that was that got damaged and it was an oil one so then I was able to get rid of the oil tank and put in this electric one I was very lucky I was able to ask would you now become a wonderful friend Emma Burns of civil qualifies to help me and she came up with the design for the new unit and it was brilliant I always say this Cottage it's super modern in terms of comfort but you know you wouldn't really see that and it just feels like it's lots of antiques and lovely things that I love I love making cakes I've always made loads of cakes but I have never been able to ice like Maria [Music] so this is my bedroom I have the same bed here as in London I just find it a very very cozy comfortable bed and it's always got children and dogs and hidden in there as a TV and we sit and watch TV here together the bed is a kind of real example of how I love layering this is one of Natalie former Farmers Uh Russian inspired fabrics and just a perfect palette of colors with the beautiful carpet antique carpet and then this is an American Patchwork which I found really locally actually is so harmonious I love having big cushions on a bed because they're just so nice to sit up and read I use this lovely little fireplace a lot it looks very ornamental but it's actually very very effective in the winter and this armchair over here I designed full of your home and I found an archived old Russian design designed for the Central Asian market and I had it printed and I really fell in love with it [Music] so this is the only room which has actually changed because it started off I had one baby my oldest son and then I very quickly had another son and another court and then I have Maria so gradually over five years it went from cop to bed bed and then in the end I had to get a third bed but there was this radiator and I couldn't move it and I wouldn't have been able to open the door either so I got this car so I embed and got them to chop it down so now sometimes Maria sleeps in it with her legs sticking out I think it's formed so much of their childhood they've made amazing camps here do you remember knock down Donnie when you made that put the mattresses on top and tied them up with ropes I've read so many stories from here and we won't change it now even though you've grown out of that but we're not going to get rid of it are we yes no [Music] this outside space was here but it was just completely white actually was a friend of mine who came Benedict Foley and he said you know you should really make that your proper workspace where it's really inspiring so I kept the the glossy Brown woodwork because I thought that then tied through from the cottage and caught some more chins I got this wonderful antique usberg Patchwork which is really quite unusual and then it was a piece of silk that I have made into this lovely ruched blind and then I love it because it's Elizabeth's arm but you look out very English Rose from that window so reminding you you know where you are [Music] it's really great to have a space where I can show what I do it's very personal this room and a bit more eclectic [Music] I really wanted to create a kind of old-fashioned Cottage Garden with lots of color lots of cutting flowers I really do notice that some of us have got hotter and we have so little shade so we've got this wonderful umbrella this year and then this shed has been absolutely life-changing because my boys have both just become teenagers it's all from recycled old corrugated iron all they want to do in the holidays is be here they don't want to go anywhere they don't want to go abroad they don't do anything they just want to be in their shed the wonderful thing is I just love that view going up it's called marriage Hill and I've walked up there thousands and thousands of times to be able to sit outside and look at it as just my view of Heaven [Music] something I really really love about England and about this cottage which I think kind of summarizes England is that I love every season I love the winter and I especially love it here I love that it gets dark early but we have the fire and it's so cozy and I think because it's so small it really throws us together as a family and it's really lovely in that way [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: House & Garden

Views: 233,331

Keywords: alexandra tolstoy, alexandra tolstoy cottage, alexandra tolstoy documentary, alexandra tolstoy house, apartment tour, bright design ideas, decoration ideas, design notes, design tips, home decor, home furniture, home tour, house & garden, house & garden design notes, house and garden, house garden, house tour, how to interior design, interior design inspiration, interior designer tour, living room design, lounge design, modern house design

Id: apjTlCRTnqs

Length: 8min 33sec (513 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 25 2023