It puts a new spin on the term “show home”. The rose-framed door of the
18th-century Box Orchard Cottage, in Oxfordshire, is opened by Lee, its
apron-clad housekeeper, who offers coffee and biscuits after he shows you
into a sanctuary-like living space. The room is cosily warm on a wet June
day, its cream walls, comfy armchairs, casually arranged objets d’art
and scent of essential oils instantly soothing.
The living room, kitchen and two bedrooms are all similarly styled, with
Gustavian furniture and antique vases throughout, and views over fields and
downs beyond. It is a cleverly contrived, seductive portrait of country
life. Look closely, however, and you realise everything is for sale. Every
last bedstead, candlestick and knickknack has a handwritten price tag on it
(the cottage is on the market for £595,000; the whole lot is for sale for
about £650,000).
“It’s all about buying a lifestyle,” says Felicity Loudon, who is selling the
property, on the edge of her 700-acre estate near Faringdon. “It means you
could throw a dinner party on the night you move in.” Once you’ve removed
all the price tags, that is.
For Loudon, 59, a self-taught interiors stylist, selling such a lifestyle -
think City chap, with a glamorous wife and young kids, in need of a country
bolt hole in a similar style to their Maida Vale townhouse –has become a
cottage industry. She uses the barns and period outbuildings on her farm as
shop fronts for her complete interiors service, The Private House, where
clients visit by appointment only to view and buy her hand-picked range of
home furnishings.
Last year, she sold Keeper’s Cottage, also on the grounds, for just under £1m,
after negotiating a price for some of the products on display in situ.
This gave her an idea: as Box Orchard was becoming her new showroom on the
estate, why not put it up for sale with the entire contents on display and
available for purchase?
Could this be the solution for cash-rich, time-poor househunters? Or, more
pointedly, people who have no sense of their own style - or any taste at
all? “Well, it’s a no-brainer,” says Loudon, a Cadbury heiress who got her
first makeover commissions when friends admired her then-daringly designed
white and Perspex-smattered Chelsea flat back in the 1970s.
Although it has its own entrance, Box Orchard is very much part of the Pusey
estate, which Loudon owns with her second husband, John, 72. “This would be
great for a London couple looking for a lock-up-and-leave weekender -
although they would have to get to grips with having a cesspit in the back
yard. The words ‘sewage system’ seem to strike fear into the heart of any
Londoner.”
The immaculate interior might be similarly off-putting to anyone with small
children, pets or messy husbands. Everything at Box Orchard is pale, classic
and expensively underSwindon stated. The cottage has lashings of cream
tableware, dressers and tongue-and-groove panelling - and lots of white.
Even the perfectly landscaped garden, small at less than a quarter of an
acre, features all-white floral planting.
“It’s about complete luxury,” says Loudon, who has managed - no doubt to the
envy of her London girlfriends and Cotswold neighbours to turn her love of
shopping into a career. She says she gets much of her inspiration from
magazines, and has runners on call to go to contemporary arts and antiques
fairs: “I just love sourcing and styling.”
Loudon started out as a buyer for the fashion designer Piero de Monzi when she
was 17. She went on to own textiles shops in west London and has completed
whole-house makeovers “for hedge-funders who can then say their wives did it
all: I am very discreet”. She won’t reveal any clients’ names, only that
they include political and show-business personalities. She says she is
happy to talk small or large budgets, and charges between £200 and £300 per
hour, depending on the client and their requirements.
Loudon describes the decor at Box Orchard as traditional with a twist: in the
living room, for example, a giant ceramic pear (£600) rests surreally on the
cream carpet; glass vases (from £20) and antique alabaster urns (£950 a
pair) sit on Gustavian sideboards and half-moon tables (£2,250 for both).
Great balls of white silk roses perch on antique hurricane lamps (£350 for
four). In the country-style kitchen, a reconditioned Aga sets off
hand-painted mugs; in the attic bedroom, a walnut-framed bed (£3,300) lies
under a round silver mirror (£250). The bathroom shelves are lined with
creams and toiletries (from £7), as well as silver starfish and shells (from
£3).
So far, so girlie? “Not at all,” Loudon insists. “Men come down here and love
it. London bachelors - many of them heterosexual - pick out candlesticks and
linen for when they throw parties.” The most indulgent (optional) touch,
however, has to be the glossy black miniature caravan (£15,000) on the
gravelled yard. With a pot-bellied stove, small-scale faux-leather
furniture, toys and a flatscreen television, it’s the ultimate playroom. And
you get the feeling that, until now, the cottage has been a plaything - the
ultimate doll’s house.
Loudon, who lives a few minutes’ drive up the road, admits that she is sad to
be selling up, but says she needs to free up some cash for a hush-hush
venture - although she may pop down for a cup of tea. “I love it here,” she
says. “And it would be so lovely if someone really nice moved
in. I often come down just to escape.”
Looking at her own home, a 14-bedroom Georgian mansion at the heart of the
estate, it’s hard to credit that this lady of the manor ever needs to run
away - or, for that matter, free up cash. An immensely grand affair, Pusey
House is a showcase for Loudon’s sumptuous English country style, as opposed
to the restrained, cottagey creams of Box Orchard.
The house - all tapestry-hung salons, crimson walls, chandeliers and roaring
fires in the middle of June - is staffed by a female uniformed butler and a
full-time chef. Its rare-book-lined study (the domain of John, a Dutch-born
nondom), acres of bold, patterned wallpaper, cream drapes and racks of
hunting boots make Pusey seem the perfect country house, a real-life Gosford
Park.
“I’d redo it all if I could,” Loudon says. “I’d like to get rid of all this
clutter.” Piles of cushions, books and antiques are found at every turn,
much of it dog-related. Loudon is animal-mad - and quite barking when it
comes to dogs. Her four canine charges, Samba, Beetle, Betty and Wee Wee,
are allowed to roam freely inside, happily relieving themselves on the
ancient, faded Aubus-son carpets that are spread around.
In the fields, she has her own herd of prize-winning cattle, and at mealtimes,
she shares her plate with Lil, a white cockatoo. “You’ve got to keep your
eye on her, though,” Loudon says. “She can pick the sapphires out of guests’
Cartier watches.”
Which says it all. Although Loudon says she prefers styling commissions for
those on a budget, as they are more fun, she is really catering for those
with more money than original ideas. Her latest enterprise, The Private
Wedding List, for example, has “items that you don’t necessarily need, but
have always wanted”. These include giant ceramic vegetables (£450), a
Thermos flask in pink ostrich leather and stainless steel (£995), and a rare
19th-century marble bust of an Native American (£8,400).
Of course, whoever buys Box Orchard may have a style ethos of their own, or at
the very least some personal possessions. In which case they can go around
the property, choosing what they want to keep, then Loudon will cart away
all the furnishings and fripperies to one of her barns or to her Chelsea
showroom, to start again.
Box Orchard Cottage is for sale for £595,000 unfurnished or about £650,000
with interior furnishings, through Butler Sherborn; 01993 822325 www.butlersherborn.co.ukwww.theprivatehouse.com
