If the name Smedmore House doesn't ring a bell, then perhaps the photo of its ravishing pink dining room, copiously adorned with blue and white Fürstenberg china, will. (See above.) Has there been a prettier dining room in recent memory?
I was first introduced to Smedmore House, the ancestral home of British author and historian, Dr. Philip Mansel, in World of Interiors, followed a year later by an article in Country Life. An 18th-century Georgian house located in Dorset, Smedmore is especially appealing to me because, although effusively decorated, the interiors have maintained a comfortable amount of breathing room between objects and furnishings. Because country houses suffocating with stuff disconcert me, I appreciate the fact that Dr. Mansel took a measured approach to decorating his home.
Also enticing is the home's stately environment- not surprising, perhaps, considering that Dr. Mansel is a founding member of The Society for Court Studies, an organization that encourages the study of royal courts. The yellow drawing room is equal parts elegance and coziness, while the dining room, whose dignified shade of pink was chosen by architectural historian Gervase Jackson-Stops, is a picture of refinement.
If you find these photos enticing, you're in luck. According to its website, Smedmore House can be rented for holidays and events.
All photos from World of Interiors, September 2014, Tim Beddow, photographer
I spent an afternoon at Smedmore with the owners, who took us all through the place, opening cupboard doors and showing us faux painted decorations vs. real decorations. They were charming and funny and told us family stories. It was fascinating and lovely and a dream way of spending an English visit.
ReplyDeleteCynthia, You don't know how envious I am of you! (Envious in a nice way, of course.) What a splendid tour that must have been.
DeleteJennifer, it was pretty unforgettable. The setting is so lovely, on the Dorset coast, which is wildly romantic for someone like me, who grew up on Thomas Hardy, Daphne du Maurier and other authors of that ilk. The occupants were so, well, twinkly, in a Miss Marple way. And what really grabbed my attention was the diaries. Those diaries! They opened the drawers of a wonderful 17th century Dutch marquetry cabinet, and there they were. Row after row of small, leather bound diaries chronicling life in the house during the 18th and 19th centuries. And there were other cabinets like that, full of books in beautiful script, with daily entries, carefully logged. Imagine curling up in one of those lovely rooms and escaping to the past in those books. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
DeleteThank you for posting these Jennifer. These rooms are so timeless, elegant and welcoming. I will take rooms like these any day over stark, minimalism, which to me, have no character at all. By the way, I have just started reading your wonderful book, and I'm at the chapter on canopies. I can't wait to read the rest of it, as I think you and I have a close design aesthetic. Thank you so much for writing it. LK
ReplyDeleteLK, Like you, I'm over stark minimalism. I was never crazy about it to begin with.
DeleteI'm so glad to hear that you're enjoying my book. That means the world to me. Thank you!!
I can't say that the pink of that dining room does anything for me - reminds me of the walls in my late MIL's dining room and I didn't like them. But the rest of the house? Swoon! Especially love that green entrance hall and that's a green I usually don't care for. Wonderful house - wish I could afford to rent it!
ReplyDeletesrb, It's a sublime shade of green, and it seems so right for this house. Maybe one day, you will be able to rent it. :)
DeleteI could die over that ravishing pink dining room!! In fact, all the rooms!!!
ReplyDeleteLovely post!!!
Simply wonderful.
ReplyDelete