An elegant Cotswold house cleverly refreshed by Flora Soames

Having inherited a house in the Cotswolds from her father, Clemmie Fraser enlisted the help of her cousin Flora Soames to transform it from a home built for a couple into a less formal environment more in keeping with family life. While Clemmie had fond childhood memories of the house, it had never been her home. ‘I approached the project feeling liberated to make it fit for purpose for our family,’ says Clemmie. The cousins had previously worked together when Flora helped Clemmie and her husband Orlando with their house in London, so they knew each other’s tastes well. ‘Clemmie is the ideal client because she knows what she wants but is always open to suggestions. When new ideas are brought to the table, she is confident enough in her own style to embrace them,’ says Flora.

In the early Seventies, Clemmie’s grandfather, Jocelyn Hambro, commissioned architect Quinlan Terry to design the 18th-century-style house – with formal dining and drawing rooms, and a large central hall – before bringing in renowned firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler to decorate the interiors. Although Flora had visited a handful of times as a child, she did not have a deep connection with the house, making it easier for her to approach it with an objective eye. Work was carried out in two organic stages, as Clemmie, Orlando and their children – Ruby, Christabel, Alice and Kit – had been happily ensconced in London. They viewed the initial move as a ‘toes in the water’ operation to see if full-time country life would suit them (they had previously spent weekends and holidays at Orlando’s North Devon farmhouse).

The first essential was to create a large family kitchen, dining and sitting room. There had been what Clemmie describes as a ‘Marie Antoinette kitchen’ – a small, rather decadent (but impractical) room leading to a library. The more functional kitchen, used on high days only, had been in what is now a triumphantly colourful boot room next door. They decided to demolish the wall between the small kitchen and the library to make the most of four large sash windows and french windows, allowing the cooking, dining and sitting areas to benefit from the light and far-reaching views.

Clemmie is a natural cook and knew exactly what she wanted. She called in kitchen specialist Jane Taylor, who worked with Flora to design an impressive but casual kitchen with plenty of storage, mixed materials and an unpretentious layout that would enhance her collection of artwork and ceramics – and crucially, incorporate a large table for gatherings. ‘Jane is brilliant at designing a one-off kitchen that says so much about the client as a person,’ says Flora.