WELCOME TO MY CASTLE!

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

This book could well have been called At Home in the Castle because it’s a huge, very castle-like manor house set in sprawling grounds that Cath Kidston and her husband Hugh move to after 15 years in another beautiful property in the English countryside.

This one is upsizing on steroids and Kidston, described as the queen of print, actually calls one of the rooms, the Castle Bedroom! She personalizes the home, turning it into a light-filled space where her design esthetics are on glorious display.

The book is a tour of that home, with decoration tips to show how to create a home that is both cosy and beautifully stylish.

But not break-the-bank expensive.

As she writes in the introduction: When we first moved in, of course I was thinking about decoration and how everything would work, and my main thought was that I wanted to settle in a house that would stay the way it was for our lifetime. I didn’t want it to be marked by what was fashionable that year. For practical and financial reasons, I wanted to accommodate as many of the belongings that we had brought with us as possible. But I also knew that we would have to buy some new things and get rid of some other things. That is how I started to think about it, as if I were putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Isn’t that exactly how it is when we move to a new home? We place this couch there, that cherished art there. And then decide they look better in other spots in the house. And then reconfigure a few more times until everything fits in just right. Until everything is at home.

Kidston is also oh-so-practical. In this house, I knew we had to keep the garden very simple. There is nothing worse when you are old than fighting a complicated garden.

With this, the scene is set and I embark upon the tour.

Which begins at the entrance with dhatura (Devil’s trumpets) planted in giant tubs. A woman after my own heart!

Inside, it is homey, welcoming and cosy. With shaggy dogs curled up on rugs in front of a fire and on couches and chairs. Chairs that are mismatched, but look like they belong, like they grew in that space. Perhaps it’s because there’s no evidence of “designer” stuff purchased at big box stores. Here, artwork inherited from her favourite aunt and her brother and furniture from her parents occupy pride of place throughout the home.

There’s a jar of Quality Street chocolates on a counter in front of a brightly coloured picture. This is what the caption for this vignette says:

It’s a tradition for us to have a full jar of Quality Street at home. My friend Jess gave me the wonderful picture made from their wrappers that sits behind the jar. Such a great present!

There’s an elephant lamp that she writes is Italian but I would swear is made in India going by the way it is caparisoned. I am sure she purchased it in Italy, but I recall the men selling embroidered jackets – very obviously Indian embroidery and mirrorwork – outside the Colosseum in Rome that tourists were buying and posing in, convinced they were wearing genuine Italian fashion!

Her collection of “endless vases and jugs... many from car boot sales and charity shops” is artfully displayed and gives me an idea for what to do with my own modest collection of ceramics.

I’d have said I’ve outgrown those paper lanterns that were all the rage many years ago but seeing them in Kidston’s home, I am reinspired.

I used three large classic paper lanterns grouped like a bunch of balloons. They hang on red cord and add a sense of fun to the hall.

And then there’s the way she uses colour.

My sister gave me a wonderful piece of printed cotton from Pondicherry, which is pinned over the headboard.

There are dozens of other brilliant ideas that encourage one to dream big and go bold with colour and pattern, even those of us who don’t happen to live in estate homes.

For then, when  we have family and friends over, we can welcome them home with, “Mi casa es tu casa!”