After retiring from an illustrious career as principal decorator of Colefax and Fowler, Imogen Taylor took on a personal project – transforming a house for herself in a picturesque Burgundy village. Taylor left Colefax in 1999 and subsequently operated independently for a few years. She was dreading her imminent retirement, but then she found her little house – the former presbytery for the village curé – in a quiet village in Burgundy.
“When I walked into the sitting room, I said ‘Yes, I think I’ll have it.’ My friend replied, ‘Don’t be silly, you haven’t seen it yet.’ But it was exactly the sort of place and the sort of room that I had in mind: high ceiling, beams, a stone floor and a big open fireplace – very French. Never mind about the rest of it,” said Taylor. Taylor was ready to begin her new life. Accustomed to running up to 12 projects at once – from Chelsea to Chicago – with the help of four assistants, she had never done a house for herself from scratch.
Taylor sold her London flat, put its contents into storage, and began her quest on “perfection road.” She drove round the area taking pictures to get ideas for the new architectural design. “I wanted the door hinges and handles, the plaster and especially the woodwork to be decent,” she said. Taylor worked with local architect Guy Cabaut for structural changes including two spare rooms and bathrooms in the attic. Artist Lucinda Oakes (daughter of George Oakes, the head of Colefax’s textile design studio and a director of the company) painted a wooden trompe l’oeil cartouche for the fireplace. And the furniture from Taylor’s London flat, much of it left to her by her former boss and mentor John Fowler, fit perfectly into the new sitting room.
“That this most English of designers has cast her spell over this simple French house is proof of her adaptability and her ‘eye’, acquired over her long professional life at the pinnacle of decorating,” wrote House & Garden. Pictures below by Gavin Kingcome and captions by Elfreda Pownall for House & Garden.
Imogen Taylor was drawn to the medieval town of Semur-en-Auxois on the banks of the Armançon river. Her house, a former presbytery, is in a hamlet nearby.
Imogen limewashed the walls in a soft apricot colour. The oak vendange table is surrounded by nineteenth-century English chairs with cushions in a Colefax and Fowler fabric. Another check by Pierre Frey was used for the curtains. The plates on the wall were a gift from a friend.
Imogen fell in love with the house the moment she saw this room, which she refers to as the salon. The Kingcome sofa and matching armchair are covered in a wool fabric from Colefax and Fowler. The trompe l’oeil cartouche on the chimneypiece was created by the decorative painter Lucinda Oakes. Imogen inherited the green velvet-covered slipper chair on the left from John Fowler, whom she succeeded as head of the firm he co-founded. The nineteenth-century German commode with ball and claw feet also belonged to him. Above it, two Japanese ceramic cockerels sit on gilded brackets – one antique, the other carved to match it by Imogen’s father.
Imogen mixed a putty colour for the woodwork throughout the house, including doors made by a local joiner. The eighteenth-century bergère chair has needlepoint upholstery.
A discontinued Colefax wallpaper provides the backdrop for the desk that was a present from the firm on her retirement – John Fowler sat at it for 20 years, Imogen for 30. A trellis needlepoint rug made in Lisbon picks up the green of a velvet-covered chair.
The plaster pink limewash was very thinly diluted and then brushed out to give a varied finish. Imogen had designed the bedcover and tester many years ago for a former client, who offered them to her for this house, along with the pair of eighteenth-century painted chairs. A Greek flokati rug beside the bed softens the sisal flooring.
A toile de Jouy wallpaper and matching fabric from GP & J Baker create a strong impact in Imogen’s bedroom, which opens onto the garden. The French marble-topped secretaire was a present from John Fowler.
To read more of this charming story, please visit House & Garden. I also highly recommend Imogen Taylor’s autobiography On the Fringe: A Life in Decorating, published in 2016. And if you don’t already own the books John Fowler: Prince of Decorators and Colefax and Fowler: The Best in English Interior Decoration, they are must-have additions to any interior design enthusiast’s library.
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I can’t believe no one had anything to say about the crazy feet on the armoire in the salon. How fun!
Beautiful home in a picture postcard setting. I believe I’d have it, too.
Hi Jill,
LOL, I hadn’t even noticed! I love this home too… it makes me want to move to the French countryside 🙂
Xx,
Andrea
Lovely place! As far as further reading is concerned, I would add Martin Wood’s “Nancy Lancaster” – published before the Fowler book and obviously with many cross references, and also the advantage of better photography. Fowler (and many of his clients) were publicity-shy, whereas Nancy Lancaster’s properties (some co-decorated with Fowler) were frequently photographed.
Hi Toby,
Oh yes, a wonderful recommendation! I should have included this one as well, thank you!
All the best,
Andrea