Interiors

Charlotte Hughes has created a family kitchen that looks as if it has evolved over time

Antiques can maketh a kitchen, discovers Arabella Youens

WHILE working at Christie’s and later for the dealer and TV presenter Paul Martin, Charlotte Hughes has developed a passion for antiques. Today, she weaves them into schemes that successfully blend the old and the new to create distinctive rooms with a timeless feel.

When it came to reorganising her own house in Gloucestershire, the first project was to move the kitchen to the space previously occupied by the sitting room, a job that involved removing plasterboard partitions to take the room back to its bones. ‘The 1980s hadn’t been kind and lots of the original features had been stripped out. I needed to add them back,’ she explains.

To distract the eye from steel joists across the ceiling, Charlotte added oak beams sourced from Timberpride in Tetbury (01666 504436; www.timberpride.co.uk) and chamfered off the edges to soften them. On the floor, she laid a weathered ‘Medieval Bourgogne’ limestone from Boniti (01225 892200; www.boniti.com); it’s covered with an antique rug picked up at a country-house auction.

All the cabinetry was made in oak by her in-house joiner: ‘I wanted a finish that was more unfitted and not too new.’ To achieve that, Charlotte dispensed with kickboards and painted the doors with an undercoat of pale pink and then a top coat of Farrow & Ball’s French Gray, which was then rubbed back and waxed (01202 876141; www.farrow-ball.com).

At the centre of the room stands a 19thcentury charcuterie table from France: ‘I tend to shy away from a fixed island when I want a kitchen not to look too kitchen-y.’ A pair of steel-frame barstools with oversized Champagne-style cork seats adds a playful note. A fender and armchair around the fire provide a convivial space for sitting and chatting: ‘Wherever possible, I like to keep a open fire in an eat-in kitchen—it creates a wonderful ambience.’ Arabella Youens Next month, Sutton House Interiors is launching a new online store (01452 379990; www.suttonhouseinteriors.com)