the List~ in the tradition of Nancy Lancaster

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tis the season, visions of plum pudding, decking the ballroom, etc. etc....

Nancy Lancaster is legend- it took this Virginian to create the English Country House style. Though Nancy Lancaster never considered herself a designer, she simply had the most innate sense of style. Notables were drawn to the lady's sensibility, her warmth and unselfconscious elan.

In reading through articles,revisiting books in working on several posts about Nancy Lancaster- I came across the reminiscences of her grandnieces Jane Churchill and Melissa Wyndham, both designers, who spent much time in her decorated rooms. "Everything was wonderful at Haseley Court. One Christmas there were many guests my sister and I slept in what was probably the worst bedroom, at the top of the house. Most people's worst bedrooms are bleak, but Aunt Nancy's was very, very pretty, with red-and -white-checked curtains and painted Regency furniture." Churchill said , "I can still smell her house today, recall the wonderful foods, things you didn't get anywhere else."

In her address book the elegant purveyors- Asprey, Smythson of Bond Street, Lobb, Fortnum & Mason, Floris and Ardens are noted as favourites. Her bookstore was G. Heywood Hill, 10 Curzon Street- still there- selling books. Another insight from Churchill."Nancy wouldn't buy a painting because it had a big name, more likely it was because the woman had a pretty dress- like her Elizabethan portraits with those great ruffs." Signatures of the Lancaster style- painted furniture,mixed woods, masses of flowers, luxe curtains, marbleized baseboards, needlework, period antiques &  "Pairs- She loved pairs" (Trudi Ballard of Colefax and Fowler).  Nancy Lancaster would add these essential ingredients for her interiors- "a wood fire, candlelight, and cut flowers."

What would Nancy see in today's stylish world of art, design, style & fashion that would strike her?

Follow along in the famed Lancaster English Country House style- Here is your list.

for the house

"A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity but it must be a judicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salade. (I am better at room than salads)."NL

for the desk

 

for the breakfast room

"I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful, a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade because if every piece is perfect the room becomes a museum and lifeless." NL

for the tea tray

for the card table

for every room

for scent

for the dog

"[I like] to preserve simplicity rather than over-polishing. Fashions are changeable. Taste is in realizing the essence of a place" NL

  for the wardrobe

for reading

"I've always liked a formal layout and informal planting," she explained. "First get the structure right, like the bones in a face, then plant it like a crowded shoe. If you have a strong layout, you can let the plants seed themselves all over the place. Haphazard, unexpected... I like to be surprised by a garden."NL


for the garden 
 

for wrapping it ALL

SOURCES
All ANTIQUES for IN THE HOUSE available at 1st Dibs, All leather goods for THE DESK available at Smythson and at Asprey, All antiques IN THE BREAKFAST ROOM available at Colefax and Fowler, china from Charlotte Moss & Pickard, "Nancy" pattern, for THE TEA TRAY, tea set from 1st dibs, tea,preserves from Fortnum and Mason, for THE CARD TABLE, Hermes cards from 1st dibs, for EVERY ROOM, Cire trudon, diptyque, Agraria Charlotte Moss(Virginia). for SCENT, Floris, for THE DOG- all items MUNGO & MAUD, except the wicker dog bed from Hound Hill Design, for the WARDROBE train case-Asprey, all clothes-net a porter, for READING, tomfolio.com, amazon.com, for THE GARDEN,roses from Heirloom Roses, for WRAPPING IT ALL, ELUM

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