Where Murals Meet “English Country House Style”
The other week I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion celebrating the release of Salvesen Graham’s debut book, A New English Style. If you haven’t encountered their work, Salvesen Graham is an English interior design firm headed by Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham. They are part of the simultaneous preservation and reinterpretation of the “English country house style,” as they take inspiration from iconic past interiors and mold the ideas to fit modern needs.
The other week I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion celebrating the release of Salvesen Graham’s debut book, A New English Style. If you haven’t encountered their work, Salvesen Graham is an English interior design firm headed by Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham. They are part of the simultaneous preservation and reinterpretation of the “English country house style,” as they take inspiration from iconic past interiors and mold the ideas to fit modern needs.
The panel also included interior designer Meta Coleman, and interior stylist Mieke ten Have, two Americans who have deftly translated the principles of English style on this side of the pond. The conversation, deftly hosted by Emma Bazilian of Frederic Magazine, was a lovely reflection on the lasting charm and appeal of English interiors, and how the principles of design that inform them might be interpreted in an “American accent”.
I meant to simply corral some thoughts from this experience into a post, but, to no one’s surprise, I had too much to say. I have been meaning to create a journal for Anne Meredith Design anyway, so here we are—a blog is born.
As a muralist and decorative artist, I have time and time again been enchanted by English interiors. Not just because of their coziness and playfulness, but because murals and decorative painting play a key role in those spaces. The decorative use of paint has been kept alive and well in England, and so many rooms are graced by expressive squiggles of paint and the scattered personality of brushstrokes. So, we’re going to approach the principles of English design, as embraced by Salvesen Graham, from this paint-forward perspective, and discuss how murals and decorative paintwork actually play an integral part in the things that make this style so lasting.
For the love of layering
One of the main charms of English style is the focus on layers. With cushions and curtains, rugs on top of rugs, art on the walls and hanging from the bookshelves, English spaces wrap you in a welcoming embrace of layers. As Mary says in the book, “Layering is the thing that turns the two-dimensional into the three-dimensional.”
In the estimation of some, these spaces would seem antithetical to murals. If a mural is in a room, should it not be given space to breathe—to be the main event? Perhaps in grand public spaces this can be the case, but I am a firm believer that murals in interiors work beautifully as just one of the many layers that bring a space to life.
Nothing feels more magical than being able to lounge in a chair that is tucked in a painted corner. Or to walk up a staircase where painted elements peek out from behind art hung on the walls. If layers help a space to feel cozy and fully realized, murals can provide a truly unique base layer for a room. Not only that, but adding painted decorative details on successive layers, like furniture, sprinkles in further touches of humanity to the space.
The delight of decorative details
A New English Style remarks that, “perhaps more than any other, decorative details are a subject at the very heart of classic English decorating.” Decorative details encompass “the world of passementerie and fabric, specialist finishes, murals and trompe l’oeil” among others. They are “arguably interior design at its most artistic, and it carves out a space for the delightful in a room.”
The beauty of murals and decorative painting is that they not only can add these delightful and artistic details to a space, but they can also highlight the personality and story of the inhabitants. They allow for the inclusion of shapes, symbols, landscapes, and other elements that are meaningful to the people living in the spaces—and the inclusion of meaning in spaces is a huge part of what makes them appealing and lasting.
I have a lot more to say about how murals can add elements of storytelling that turn rooms into heirlooms, but that’s for another post.
The possibilities of colo[u]r and pattern
Color and pattern form sustaining pillars of English design, and Salvesen Graham are no strangers to their use. Their work is often described as colorful, but they emphasize that “it is possible to be colourful without being overly bold.” Citing that being colorful should not necessarily “conjure images of bright technicolour spaces,” but that there are myriad palettes to use to fit any space and taste. They also believe in “the power of pattern to transform any room.”
I had to restrain myself from cheering when the panel conversation turned to the complexity of color. I have frequently encountered pushback against murals by folks whose understanding of a “colorful” space still very much conjures “bright, technicolour spaces.” Being colorful does not mean a space needs to look like a crayon box (though there is also nothing wrong with that). We need to be better at understanding that there are unlimited versions of “colorful.”
Murals can be earthy, murals can be muted, murals can be tone-on-tone—the advantage of a custom mural is you can make something that serves as a complement to the color and pattern story of the space.
I very much view a mural as part of the pattern story of a space. And decorative painting even more so, as it tends to be very pattern-driven anyway. I frequently start with patterns as my inspiration points and love to work with designers to create something that works in tandem with the patterned fabrics and finishes they have chosen for the space. Custom paintwork can form a beautiful bridge between the patterned elements and “fine” art in a space.
Both beautiful and useful
Finally, it wouldn’t be English design if it didn’t have a healthy dose of practicality. Throughout their book, Mary and Nicole emphasize that the details they focus on “don’t feel frivolous—because there was a reason behind them.” We are just lucky that practical things can often also be beautiful. It’s as though the quote from William Morris about having nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful has melded together and we find things that are both beautiful and useful.
I believe murals sit in the beautiful and useful category. Murals are a durable wall covering, and hard-wearing paints can provide a fully cleanable surface. Murals and decorative painting can also be used strategically to hide awkward architectural elements, to blend together disparate spaces, or to highlight standout features.
But above all, it is useful for us to be surrounded by beauty and to put care and craft into our spaces. In this time of virtual reality and AI, it is increasingly important for us to have the slow and tactile touches of humanity around us. And the preservation of the human hand through brushwork on your walls and furniture is a delightful way to do this.
Bringing these principles to life on this side of the “pond”
Meta Coleman and Mieke ten Have added important perspectives in this panel about how to apply the principles of English design in an “American accent.” How to make spaces that are not just imitations of English ones, but that fully embody their own individuality. As we have done here, they focused on the principles that make English design so appealing, rather than on the strict recreation of the specific elements.
My major takeaway from the panel was a clear reminder of why I return again and again to English design. The playfulness, personality, patterns, layers, and imagination utilized in English spaces create a look that is equally as livable as it is iconic. And I want to make sure that Anne Meredith Design adheres to the same principles. I want to bring craft, humanity, and character to spaces. I strive to make spaces that feel lasting and to turn rooms into heirlooms. We need not leave lasting interiors filled with custom paintwork on the other side of the pond. I’m open for business. Let’s do it here.