Wealden Times | WT163 | September 2015 | Education supplement inside

This page: The cool grey master bedroom en suite. A grouping of spiky ceramic sculptures, reminiscent of sea anemones, from Myung Nam An are mounted on one wall
Annette in her understated way. Today the garden is brimming
with seasonal colour, offset by an effective combination
of pebbles, wood and Indian sandstone. It looks very
professional and is packed with an exuberant planting of
agapanthus, allium sphaerocephalon and campanula. So
where did the gardening know-how come from? “I slavishly
watch every episode of Gardener’s World!” she laughs.
There’s a wonderful view of the garden from the
bedroom at the back of the house (which has been sparsely
furnished as a temporary therapy room for one of her
daughter’s friends to use). I notice that Annette has used
the fabric from the curtains to make a lampshade and
that the colour scheme springs from this fabric. Lesson
Three: Find your object first, then match the scheme to the
object, rather than searching for the object afterwards.
Annette’s daughter’s room is beautifully tidy – “but not
when she’s in it!” laughs Annette. The treatment in this
room is simple, but effective. The original fireplace is set off
well in a wall covered with ‘Pavilion Birds’ wallpaper by St.
Leonards designer Louise Body. When we look in the master
bedroom at the front of the house, I notice that the bed is in
an interesting position, tucked into the bay of the window.
The room is more spacious this way and more importantly
it makes space for the en suite bathroom. The scheme in
this room is dominated by a large wardrobe, actually a cloak
cupboard from the House of Lords that was given to her by an
aunt. Annette has painted it bright green. “I was going to paint
the whole room that colour but I chickened out and just
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