English Home

40 THE ENGLISH HOMEbedrooms for the family to retreat to on quietevenings. This eminently versatile family home hasnow been the backdrop to almost twenty festivecelebrations, and Katie looks forward to Christmasas a time to gather friends and family around theirbespoke dining table and to enjoy the wonderfulhome they have created together.The renovations were not without their hiccups.Not everything went entirely to plan. “The floor in thedining room was meant to be a pale, grey-toned oak,”Katie remembers. “I popped out when it was being laidand came back to a much yellower floor than I hadoriginally planned. What do you do? Rip it out andstart again? I didn’t want to do that.”Instead, Katie decided to work with the unplanned-for colour, commissioning an impressive dining tablefrom Garden Art in Hungerford and sourcing animposing oriental portrait for the fireplace. Sheremembered some burnished tea jars that she hadoriginally planned to use as lamp-bases, which wouldhighlight the new floor shade perfectly and bring the``````room together. The result is a sumptuous, luxuriousdining space, and the high ceiling provides a perfectspot for the Christmas tree. Decorating the tree is,of course, a family affair, with an abundance ofbaubles and trinkets collected over the years anda selection of home-made creations from thechildren’s school years (although Katie confesses thatshe can never resist a little maternal re-arrangementwhen everyone has gone to bed.)Katie works from home, often on commission,spending up to twelve hours a day in her studio, just astone’s throw from the back door. She paints exquisiteoils of animals – from lions to birds, and mostfrequently the magnificent thoroughbred horses thatpopulate the rolling gallops surrounding her Berkshirehome. In the run-up to her fifth solo exhibition at TheOsborne Studio Gallery, the studio is a riot of canvasesin various stages of preparation and completion. Thereare tables full of tubes of oil paints, jars of brushes, thearoma of turpentine and quotes from Radio 4 scrawledon the wall – this is definitely a working studio.``````ABOVE The ‘GreyRoom’ is a cosy spacewith chairs fromYoulls Antiques. Theneedlepoint rugcame from AnnaManners Rugs.OPPOSITE,CLOCKWISE FROMTOP LEFT Hand-decorated glassbauble from theTanssi collectionat Iittala.The antique bombechest in the GreyRoom is from Youlls.A pretty wreath byTreez & Flowers ofGreat Somerford,adorns the door.A roaring fire greetsguests in theentrance hall.Katie’s home is full of intriguing objects, each onecatching the eye with a wonderful story to tellTEH UK DEC15 HOUSE - O'Sullivan copy.indd 40 20/10/2015 17:09