Here's a few more

Jim

These pics are wonderful! And I just found the Rosamunde Pilcher book on eBay for less than $20, including shipping. Yay!

Jim -- those photos are brillant!

LOVE them -- I could just sink into one of those chairs with a huge cup of tea ...... and a biscuit or two (chocolate-covered Digestive ones, thanks or Hob-Nobs) .... and a good book ...... and the odd cat or two ........

teacats - I think you need "moggies" in that room!

I love it, but I'd need staff to keep it looking like that!

Sherry

Jim, I'm drooling over that eye candy! You have some great examples in your collection.

I am like a lot of you in that I love a mix of French and English influences, even some Swedish (although it doesn't easily translate to my home).

True -- a happy moggie or two purring away would be the right touch!

Jan

These have probably been posted before, but if you haven't seem them before it will be a feast for the eyes. This is designer David Easton's house in Haverstraw NY - in Mar of last yr the contents were auctioned off.

Jim

Lovely! I know that people and their taste do change -- but those are really charming rooms!~

Jan

My realization that I love everything English came as a surprise to me. My mother was French, real peasant stock, from the southwest. All my young life I heard her stories of life in France (she came here when she was young), and they were full of love and longing. I absorbed the love of a simple, old world kind of life. During college I studied in Tuscany and I gradually developed a passion for Italy. I loved traveling and learning other languages, so I always thought of England as kind of boring country. In 2000 we took a family vacation there, visiting a few friends in different areas. I immediately loved everything English, especially the english home "stuff". The simple, country tables, the blue and white pottery, the homely fruit cobblers served with cream and the chicken pies, the fruit or herb wines, the amazing lavender plants and gardens, the simple and beautiful anglican churches, the lace tablecloths... I was blown away that I had found everything I loved in one place -- and it wasn't Italy. (I love the old buildings there, and the food, and the sun, and everything else, but not the homey stuff....)

I'm glad to see many of you love it too. I don't know anyone around here who's enthusiastic about it. We just bought new furniture, and I ordered things with an eye to creating this feel as much as possible. I wish I had a knack for throwing things together, but I don't, so unfortunately it's not happening easily.

teacats, those chocolate covered digestive biscuits are SOOO good! And the Hobnobs!

luckygal, that link you posted is great!! Thanks!

Try to find copies of Architectural Digest from the late 70's to about 1990, nearly any issue will feature an English style room. It was so popular back then with the American _nouveaux riches_, and with people who were into "Dynasty" (the tv show, that is).
Casey

Love the style & just one of the many reasons I watch BBC. I'm fascinated by English Cottages & would much rather live in a small stone cottage than a large rambling new home. I adore wood paneled rms. & have plans for our MBR addition to the stone cottage we are moving to, to show exposed stone & the rest wood paneled w/ a fireplace. French doors to be able to wake up & look out over the rolling fields behind us. My FIL is an architect & located a few people that do thatched rooves in the US becuase I'd really like a thatched roof on the cottage & an eyebrow window as a part of the additions to be done.

Here is a pic of the house currently:

I plan on painting out all of the outside trim white just like my favorite one room stone church.

I am planting white climbing Sombreuil roses & white peonies at every window.

I've planted tons of English Climbing & Bush Roses around our current home.

Ttodd - it's absolutely precious! So much charm and character there! When are you moving into this home? I hope it's soon, because I can hardly wait to see pics of the rooms furnished and decorated!

I have the book by Martin Wood on Nancy Lancaster. I find myself picking it up and looking at the amazing pictures often. She also had a very interesting life and the bio on her is great. How do you make a home feel English Country without soooo many florals? My husband would think it over the top!

So what I'm seeing is a lot of pattern on pattern and you can't have fear of color. Also, there seems to be a lot of wall clutter, more than just one lone painting on the wall. Other wall accessories such as plates, sconces, and shelves add to the homey feel. Can't do the wood paneling but I can certainly add more prints onto the sofa and chairs.

I am trying to break down these images posted above into their elements and then mimic that in my own home. I'm beginning to think that what makes a style English has a lot to do with the fabrics and how you pair lots of prints together. And they're not afraid to use florals...yeah!!

Here's my attempt to add more pattern to a floral chair, I grabbed a stripe pillow I made for my patio loveseat (going for the cottage garden look outdoors) and brought it indoors. I think I like it, it livens up the floral. Would you say there is a touch of whimsy in the English style? It doesn't take itself too seriously with all these cheerful prints, which is good because otherwise the look would be too formal.
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Here's something a little less grand.

I love English style. Florals, romantic sphere. Unfortunately my husband is more minimalistic type so we try to compromise. Cause he actually cares about the decoration of the house. Why doesn't he go to watch football? :-)

ttodd...that house is exactly what I want for my next house, all stone! (I never want to paint a house again!)

pattyann...what I am seeing in these photos is that you can compensate for having florals by pairing them with other masculine items in the room. Achieve balance by mixing feminine and masculine together so if one person wants their florals the other person has the ship painting on the wall above it and the non-floral prints next to it. Then the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

ttodd, your stone house looks like it has the kind of stone work you see in the Huguenot houses in the Hudson River Valley, or in Pennsylvania. But the cape style looks much more contemporary. When was it built? The stone work is beautiful, and the house has so much potential. You're going to have fun with it!

As far as English Country goes, I wouldn't be comfortable with the grand style for myself. Maybe it's lower English gentry, not aristocratic. Whenever I've pictured myself in a grand house of some kind, I'm always a servant, not the owner!

I absolutely love English Country style too. I never thought about it, but I read my first Rosamunde Pilcher book when I was a teenager. I've read nearly all of her books once a year ever since. I'm thinking she might have greatly influenced all of the things that I love. I would love to have the cottage that Judith Dunbar purchases in Coming Home.

I've got a happy little mish mosh in my cottage. Some english, some american, some frenchy. It makes me happy to have my bits and bobs on display and to change them out frequently. The only quintessentially English thing that I can't seem to embrace is letting the dog have free reign of the house. He is way too stinky for that, LOL! Too bad he doesn't smell like Twinings Earl Grey Tea...I'd let him sleep with me.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Home

Auntjen, we were supposed to move this yr. but we couldn't figure out, even w/ selling our current house, how we could possibly come up w/ the down payment for both the business & the property (the house & business are all on the same property). This yr. DH came up w/ the idea to sell our current house, purchase the business w/ that & rent the stone house from the owner while collecting the profits from the business as the owners. Then 2yrs or so after that we will have enough to purchase the property that it is all on. The owner & accountants all agreed so fingers crossed we will put our house on the market Spring 09.

Eggandart, the house is in PA & every other house on that side of the street is somehow similar for about 1 mile. I'm not sure of when it was built.

Yummy inspiration pix and Jan...your room is awesome! :)
"The Shell Seekers" IS my most favorite book. I have 3 copies, just in case, LOL!

Ttod: Adorable little cottage!!!!

You may like this blog The Inspired Room for inspiration.
She like to travel around her area and snap pics homes w/ inspirational curb appeal.

Jim

This is one of the area houses she took a pic of - she believes it may have been featured in Cottage Living magazine.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: The Inspired Room - Drive Bys

Beau -- wonderful home -- you've done lots of excellent projects! :)

todd -- LOVE your stone cottage -- can't wait to see the inside pics too!

Jim -- more wonderful photos AND I love that blog too! LOOK at that gorgeous gate!

Jan

Love all the pics and can always find inspiration there. However I think there is often a difference between the North American interpretation of English country style and the actual UK country homes. If you can wade thru that site I posted earlier you will see there are many rooms there that are not feminine, nor pastel, and not at all the shabby chic style some people may mistake for English country. Some use a lot of browns and colors that are faded and muted. I notice fairly often a rose color used altho it may be only a chair in an otherwise masculine room. I'm quite aware of trying for a less feminine interpretation as my DH doesn't like anything frilly or lacey in the main rooms of our home.

I love the blue floral chair posted above by flyingflower and in England the cushion placed there would probably not have any color or pattern relationship to the chair. Not saying that's what has to be done, just that that's often how this style occurs IRL there.

This is the style that my DH's Gran used in her home (she was from England) and I would love to recreate it in my home. Maybe in my next house as it's not easy to do in a multi-level house with a lot of windows, rounded corners, and W2W. I'm attempting tho! :)

Would you guys mind giving me some help? I don't feel confident about picking chairs to go with the other furniture we just bought, since I bombed out once already. I found this chair on the Shabby Chic website. I think it looks like it's right out of an English living room; it doesn't match the sofas or other chair, but that's what I like about this style. The furnishings are harmonious, but don't match each other per se.

The original post above describes my layout. I need two chairs for the corner across the room from the fireplace grouping. Please give me your honest opinions about this chair. And, do you think the two should be the same? I think it'd be better for them to be different, but I don't want things to be too choppy. What do you think?

I'm also wary of buying another chair without seeing it first. However, there doesn't seem to be any alternative with this chair -- no showrooms have it.

TIA!

ttodd, saw your house pic and immediately thought of my old neighborhood in HV, PA. Are you located in a phila suburb? Love that house and those deep window sills. Enjoy your house, it is nice to see people are appreciating the details in the old houses.

luckygal...I'm intrigued by your comment about not putting a print on the floral chair that relates to it. Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong, I'm still trying to match colors. So you're saying I should use something totally different...but what? Can you find an example of a print that you think would suit the print on my chair and show it to me? How do you make two prints work together when they have nothing in common? (you should see me, I'm going around the house pulling every pillow out to see what it looks like on that chair...some pretty wild combinations let me tell you!) How do I train my eye to like something that appears to me to be so mis-matched?

I love English country, too, although I'm not decorating in that style. I tend to like the more subdued type with just a few florals, as in the link that Luckygal posted above (LOVE it, Luckygal! Thanks for posting!)

Ttodd, your cottage is perfect for this style! It's very charming!

If you want more English country eye candy, rent the move "Death at a Funeral." Most of the movie takes place in an English country cottage and it's gorgeous!

When I posted the link to locationworks previously I probably should have posted the page with the various categories. I usually find the best pics in the following categories:

Country homes and cottages
Interiors (various rooms)
Mansions, manors & stately homes

The locationwords pics are copyright so I won't post them but if one looks at a lot of those pics the casual non-matching begins to be apparent. It's quite a large site with many pages per category. I've spent hours there.

flyingflower, what I see in the pics of the real English homes is that they often do not seem to deliberately match things. It's the collected look which occurs naturally over time and they are not as concerned as we tend to be whether the colors really "go". I haven't perfected this by any means as it goes against everything we see here in North American decorated homes. It is, however, a very comfortable look which may be worth more than a staged look. I'm not saying there is never a defined color scheme but often it's not what we know as a planned scheme.

Here is a link that might be useful: categories at site

Bichonfriz,

Yes we are in the Philly burbs!

If we don't do the roof in thatch then I'll probably do a shingled roof w/ the addition being white clapboard.

I agree that there seems to be an American English Cottage style and then the English English Cottage style. Sort of the way we Americanized the French Country Style.

Wow! All these images & style suggestions are so inspiring. Teacats, your bedroom is fabulous! Love the swing arm lamps on either side of your bed. All the details in your room are delightful...very rich, soothing & beautiful. Stinky-Gardener

Wow ! What a great post this has been , thanks for the eyecandy.
Teacats ....if you are out there can you email me ....I was unable to email you and I have a question. Thanks, Kareen

S-g -- thanks for the nice comment! Those swing-arm lamps are so handy -- bought them years and years ago at the Bombay company. I would recommend that style of lamp in a heartbeat!

Kareen -- tried to send an email to you last night -- hope you got it!

Jan

teacats,

Hope it's not bad form to be making this request, but I love your style, & was wondering...would you take a look at my post "pink in my living room...was I crazy?" & tell me what you think? Would love any suggestions or feedback from you. Thanks! Stinky-G

I love English Cottage too. It's so comfy and relaxing. I sure enjoyed seeing everyone's pics.

Beausoleil, please give us the name of the color in your DR. It's so pretty.

Bumping this up

These are pics of the sets from the movie The Holidays - to read about how to achieve this look & see add'l pics goto Cote de Texas a great interior design blog.

Jim

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Yup, me too. I absolutely MUST have the tablecloth in the room that Jim posted on Fri, Jun 6, 08 at 11:47, or one just like it!

Jim,
Thanks beyond for posting the "Holiday" pics. I loved the set and want to move in there. Do you know who the set designer is? Have tried a search and never found it. You were obviously better finding it than I was.

Lucky, somehow missed your link before. Just went to it. What a great resource, could spend hours going through all. Have it booked and this thread too.

emagineer - This is from the blog Cote de Texas that I provided a link to in my post.

Since it's been all about "Something's Gotta Give" I thought that Nancy Meyers' follow up movie "The Holiday" needed a closer look. Just as the star of Something's Gotta Give was the Hamptons house itself, the star of the "The Holiday" wasn't really Cameron Diaz or Kate Winslet, but their two homes, one in Los Angeles and one in the English Countryside, respectively. And in another connection between the two movies, the production team was led Jon Hutman - but Beth Rubino, so wonderful on the set of SGG, was absent for The Holiday. And just as with Something's Gotta Give, Nancy Meyers' personal interior designer has photos of "The Holiday" houses on his web site, but he is not mentioned in the film credits. The Holiday, coming so soon after Something's Gotta Give received a lot of prepublicity hype concerning its premise: two women swap houses for the Christmas vacation and both find love. For lovers of the SGG house, a new Nancy Meyers movie about TWO houses was almost too good to be true !

Jim

Emagineer -- read the blog Cote de Texas -- the author (a gal in Houston who is also a designer) found out lots about this movie AND movies like Somethings Gotta Give too! This blog is SO addicting! LOL! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: James Radin --

Jim - what is the web site address for the site with pictures from the cottage in "The Holiday"?

Here you go Valzone

Here is a link that might be useful: click here and scroll down

valzone5 - click on the link!

Cote de Texas Blog

Thanks!!

This is a great thread!

I love english style!