Colour BALANCE

Longing to reconnect with the countryside, Amelia Harvey has brought a lacklustre Cotswolds gem to life with love, care and a riot of vibrant colour

- JANET MCMEEKIN

Despite the whistle-stop nature of her first viewing, Amelia Harvey immediately saw how she could transform this pretty Cotswolds cottage into a colourful bolthole. Her London home, with its bleached oak flooring and Crittall doors, ‘has a pared-back, modern look’, she explains. ‘But here, I wanted to be more daring, to complement and enhance the cottage’s charming idiosyncrasies.’

Having been brought up in the countryside, Amelia has happy memories of halcyon rural days, and although firmly settled in the city, she had long-wanted her young son to experience the freedom she had enjoyed as a child. The plan was to buy a second home that she could also let out but, one way or another, life got in the way, and she never had time to explore the idea properly.