The Flower Loft that adjoins Trereife, an 18th-century country house near Penzance, has been home to designer and decorative artist Lyn Le Grice for the past 25 years. Lyn and her late husband, Jeremy, first met in Cornwall and the county was the backdrop for many happy and creative years together. ‘We did settle in the Cotswolds for several years but, having grown up in Cornwall, Jeremy was always happiest living near the sea, which was the focus of much of his work, so back we came,’ says Lyn.
His paintings, ingrained with the emotional pull he felt for Cornwall’s landscapes and dramatic coastline, hang in every room alongside works by Cornish friends and contemporaries such as Roger Hilton, Romi Behrens, Karl Weschke and Peter Lanyon, as well as numerous pieces by local potters.
‘After our children had left home, we felt it was time for a move,’ says Lyn. ‘Trereife has been in the Le Grice family for some 200 years and now belongs to Jeremy’s cousin, who suggested the Flower Loft.’ The name comes from the daffodils that were grown on the Trereife estate, which were packed in the loft prior to being transported by train from Penzance to London.
‘Although the loft hadn’t been used for anything other than storage for decades, we realised its potential as an interesting home with plenty of room for hosting.’ A doorway from the loft section leads through to three rooms on the first floor of the main house; these became the couple’s main bedroom, bathroom and drawing room.
‘They are south-facing rooms with high ceilings, fireplaces and original 18th-century plasterwork – a complete contrast to the rustic style of the loft. We made two additional bedrooms and a shower room at the far end of the loft, with the bookroom and main living area in between.’
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Lyn, who studied at Hornsey College of Art, built a successful career creating interiors for both private and commercial clients, becoming renowned for her skills as a stencil artist. ‘During the late 1980s I created the Stencilled House in Penzance, which became a popular visitor attraction and the subject of a book,’ she recalls.
‘I stencilled every room of this 18th-century building in a different design, and furnished it in keeping with the period. It was a labour of love that kept me very busy. Since then I’ve worked for clients all over the world, but Cornwall always draws me back.’
Lyn’s creative skills were put to good use when designing the interior of her new home at Trereife. ‘There were few constrictions planning the space, as there were no internal walls to speak of. Rather than build walls, we sourced panelling from reclamation yards and worked out how to use it to organise the space into rooms.’
The couple already had a fair amount of furniture from their previous homes but sourced everything else they needed locally, and Lyn cites her father as a big influence on her buying habits: ‘The first item I ever painted was a wooden chest that my father bought me. He had skill and vision when it came to unearthing bits and pieces in bric-a-brac shops, and that has spurred me on.’
Stencilling the loft floor in a bold chequerboard design of black on natural wood was a master stroke, helping to establish a domestic scale in a living area the size of a small warehouse. Much of the panelling was painted in a moody teal shade, contrasted on the ceilings and walls in the kitchen and other areas by roughly applied pink paint that echoes the look of traditional thistle-plastered walls. Lyn chose a similar, but paler, shade for the light and airy main bedroom with its outlook across the lawn and fields beyond.
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The three rooms on this side, with their elegant proportions and original architectural details, needed little in the way of decoration – just luminous colour to accentuate the feeling of light and space. The shade of lavender in the sitting room came from a set of plates given to Lyn by a cousin.
‘They were a wedding present to our mutual grandparents who had died, and he thought I’d know what to do with them. They were much too pretty to hide in a cupboard, so the walls were painted lavender to highlight a detail in the design – but it’s an excellent backdrop for Jeremy’s paintings, too.’
Throughout the home are pieces brought back from trips abroad, such as a rocking horse that came from a shop in Paris. ‘Jeremy put it under his arm and carried it home on Eurostar. It was gratifying to have someone beside me who shared my enthusiasm and encouraged me in the search for interesting decorative pieces.’
The wing chair in the bookroom belonged to Lyn’s mother and was recovered in a vintage paisley quilt found in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence, while the blinds in the bookroom were made using a fabric bought in the Calico Museum in Ahmedabad.
‘The beautiful pattern is a constant reminder of the inspirational design to be found all over India. Not that Cornwall doesn’t provide endless inspiration; for both of us, the dramatic quality of light and unique landscape made it a difficult part of the world to leave.’
is one of the rooms that dates from when Trereife was remodelled during the 18th century. On the wing chair is a cushion gifted by
David Tang, with whom Lyn worked on several design projects. - Andreas von Einsiedel -
