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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Architecture -> English Gardener Moves Indoors
 The
English Gardener Moves
Indoors
By Niki Hayden
English country cottages conjure up satiny chintz, worn woodwork, collections
of porcelain teapots and botanical prints. To the Brits, a cottage is cultural comfort food in its setting, where anything loved and tattered is
relished. Like it’s companion, the exuberant perennial garden, disparate items
are thrown together with relish. The elegant and the ordinary enjoy equal places
of honor.
When the last leaves are raked, the pots emptied and put away, the final
row of bulbs interned, Sheila Chaney, who designs English-inspired gardens,
finds her impulses move indoors. The American cottage she calls home
takes on the glow of antiques, fringed pillows, tapestry throws and soft
lighting. Asked to describe English design, Sheila remembers the armchair of a
member of royalty in a castle, the arms threadbare, but still residing in a
place of honor. "Now, that’s English!" she says triumphantly.
"In America you might throw that away. In England, you throw a cashmere
shawl over it."
 Home is a slice of the old country to her, where memories are centered upon
houses and their gardens. "Exposed beams are so English. A few years ago, I
lived in a 400-year-old house in England. Nothing matched in the house--it was
eclectic. To make this style your own, you do have to
search for things. But when I see them, I know them" she says.
Sheila’s cottage, with 2,000 square feet, is small by modern standards. Her
home was built in the 1920s. A glimpse into the front door indicates that you’re
entering the home of a dedicated gardener. A small metal sign that reads, ‘Jardin,’
holds a crumpled garden hat. The enclosed front porch, bathed in natural light
from the high windows, has been transformed into a garden designer’s nook.
Floor to ceiling bookshelves hold a vast collection of garden books.
Gardening magazines are stacked in neat piles. A wide mahogany desk supports
landscape drawings and mail-order listings for bulbs. On the floor is an
oriental rug in a kaleidoscope of colors. "Looking at the rugs is much like
looking at my garden. With the garden I like mixing the silver, white, magenta,
blues. I guess I do that in my house. I have a bright yellow paperweight from
Venice that my daughter brought to me. I wouldn’t bring in more, but just a
bit of yellow. That’s like my garden, too," she says.
 "I’ve made my porch into an office. I’ve got a library in there,
more books than Barnes & Noble. It’s all windows," so that she can
look outside, decide if the bulbs are sprouting, or flowers need deadheading.
Gardeners bask in natural light and the small porch allows streams of sunlight
any time of the year.
 Step into the living room and the light changes dramatically. Here it’s
subdued, with candlelight, flowered lampshades, one lampshade black for drama
and natural light radiates in narrow shafts in-between red velvet drapes. Typical of
English design, she says, is the varied lighting that changes with seasons,
times of day and moods.
 Sheila found the drapes for next to nothing in England, but in Denver, she
spied French chairs from the 17th century that cost a small fortune.
It’s typically English, she says, to mix the fine and ordinary together.
British families pass down antiques, which are prized, but used. They have the
patina of wear from generation to generation. At the same time, if the family
dining chairs are broken up as a set, it’s common to fill in the blanks with
reasonable reproductions.
 This mix and match is the bedrock of English design. Other tell-tale clues
also reveal Sheila’s origins: "flowers everywhere, soft colors rather
than bold, wood floors with oriental rugs, paneled walls, overstuffed furniture,
small tables behind the sofas, fringes and tassels, family photos in silver
frames, blue and white china, library shelves of books, a centered fireplace
with a mantel, china pots in rich colors filled with plants." No matching
furniture sets, no vivid stripes of color. In Sheila’s home, bright color
makes an entrance in a red tulip to attract attention. There’s not much room
for the stark characteristics of white, either.
"The wall color used to be white, but I had it painted ‘Maize,’ a
soft gold. It made everything stand out in the room and look richer. I picked up
all the colors in the rug, the pinks, ivory, blue. The chandelier has amber
shades and casts an amber light. I love gold, amber and raspberry. I wouldn’t
like the couch plain, (an amber cozy couch with a nap) but I like it with the
raspberry tapestry slung over and the pillows. With furniture, I love pieces
that are classic and dateless, but I’ve chosen a new table that looks old to
go with the old chairs. I mix wicker in, too," she says, about an English
touch that traditionally combines woods and wicker.
 Because the room is small, Sheila looked for a long, narrow dining table. It
offers extra leaves for a banquet, but doesn’t take over the room. Vases hold
lilies, tulips and orchids. To add a bit of drama, she uses willow branches for
height and chooses a dramatic single flower, a peony or delphinium for impact.
Woods are mixed—oak, pine and mahogany--and one favorite piece, a 1890s bureau
in mahogany with brass knobs. Wine glasses in colors shine like jewels and large
mirrors rather than paintings take up wall space.
Although Sheila has collected paintings, prints and photos—many of flowers
or the English countryside and photos by her daughter—none is large scale.
Instead, they’re grouped together like a collection. The kitchen, too,
includes collections of teapots, perched on shelves with glass cabinets. Since
the home is at least 80 years old, the basic design hasn’t been tampered with.
The kitchen was intended to be serviceable and roomy, with a wood table and
chairs. It’s designed strikingly in green and black tiles. Copper pots hang on
one wall. Most importantly, the large window looks out to the garden, a yard
with mature trees, a pond, perennial beds, a vegetable garden and flagstone
patio seating.
 The garden is
an extra room or two in a traditionally English setting.
Sheila’s garden, enclosed with shrubs and ringed around a large old
cottonwood, looks as settled and mature as the cottage. Her garden defines her
home—as she remembers in her British childhood. It’s no coincidence that she
hosts garden tours to England most summers. When she returns to her homeland,
she takes notebooks to sketch both gardens and historic homes. She says English
style is divided between the polished and the cozy. Both are equally lovely and
stamped in the imagination of British design. High style can be found in formal
settings.
 "There’s England’s newest castle. Americans don’t usually like it
because it’s too new, built in the early part of the 20th century.
But I love the romantic moat and whimsical topiary. Even if you think you can’t
relate to it, you can—on a small scale. And there’s an elegant English look,
too. I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Kent.  The settees were pure white with
dark mahogany tables behind and beautiful crystal decanters filled with
gin," she says.
On a drizzly day, Sheila’s porch is alive with flowering plants, even if
they spring from books and magazines. The living room is ready for tea,
surrounded by a soft amber glow of light as the afternoon sunlight dwindles. So,
if the garden shows only the bones of trees ready for winter, roses and iris are
blooming in vases. The best of summer has been captured in photos. In Colorado,
Sheila’s cottage is ready for snowy or blustery days, a cozy setting for poring over seed
catalogues and reconsidering an annual bed come spring. For anyone who has left
their childhood home behind, a house becomes license to revisit the style and
ambience of years long gone, but still remembered.
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See our story on Sheila's gardens: