Eleven years ago, if you’d told Cheney Fairchild that one day she’d be serving up Christmas lunch for her family in a very English farmhouse on her own design of china plates, and surrounded by the fabrics and wallpapers she designed she wouldn’t have believed you. It’s been quite a journey to get to this point.
A Victorian farmhouse in need of a makeover was the perfect testing ground for a designer's own wallpaper and fabric designs and makes an idyllic backdrop for seasonal celebrations with her family.
Decorating a rental home
Cheney, her husband Aaron and their family, having returned to Devon after 10 years in the Middle East, had been looking for somewhere to live near the children’s schools until they could find the right property to buy.
‘So soon after Covid, there weren’t many houses around, to rent or buy,’ says Cheney. ‘When we saw this old farmhouse, even though it was in a tired state, I thought it was a beautiful place, so we decided to take the plunge.’
Signing a long lease wasn’t just about putting a roof over their heads, however, since Cheney, new to the interiors world, had been looking for a classic country home where she could showcase her wallpaper and fabric collections.
Having established that the owners would agree with her decorating plans, Cheney set to work transforming the house one room at a time. For the festive period, she has chosen Christmas colour schemes to complement the decor throughout.
Changing rooms
One thing Cheney was keen to put right straight away was the flow of the downstairs rooms. ‘The living room was opposite the kitchen at the front
of the house, while the dining room was in a larger room at the back,’ she says.
‘We knew we’d spend more time in a living room, so it made sense to swap them over to enjoy the gorgeous garden views. Instantly the house felt better.’ It soon looked better, too, once the living room wallpaper and curtains were up.
She decorated the living room wall with her Country Charm wallpaper from her Toile collection, and reupholstered an antique armchair in a linen fabric in the same design.
As a Christmas decor idea, the festive decorations, a mix of natural foliage, pretty baubles and bows, cleverly pick up on the colour themes in the room.
In the living room she has combined vintage finds, such as the 1960s leather chair, the mirror, footstool and lamp base, with a new sofa from Loaf. The curtains are in her Sage Grace design, which has a subtle pattern on pure linen.
Pattern in the kitchen
Cheney was keen to put her new wallpapering skills to the test with some kitchen wallpaper. ‘I painted the kitchen cabinets and the tiles, then papered the wall around the Aga with my Field Flowers design,’ she says.
‘People can be a bit afraid of using wallpaper for a kitchen or bathroom, but I love seeing pattern in these rooms. We chose this design because it has a joyful, wild, country feel to it, and it really complements the rich-green shade of the Aga.’
Cheney likes to create a dramatic natural arrangement using fir branches around the kitchen-diner’s huge inglenook fireplace. ‘It’s more of a Christmas sculpture than a garland,’ she says. ‘It evolves from whatever I can forage outside, and I keep adding to it until I get the effect I want.’
There is also plenty of space for an extra Christmas tree in the family-friendly kitchen-diner; Cheney has decorated this one with faux pink peonies from Floralsilk to complement the colourway of the wallpaper design and the tableware from Cheney Penrose Designs.
At the far end of the kitchen-diner a huge inglenook fireplace deserved an impressive decorative touch, so Cheney created the sculptural fir swag, and trimmed it with ribbons cut from her own fabrics as a Christmas mantel and fireplace idea.
Christmas dining room
Colour is everything to Cheney, and returning home from the Middle East has only heightened her awareness of the British countryside’s many hues.
‘We got back to Devon just as autumn arrived,’ she says. ‘Everywhere I looked I noticed the depth of colour in the countryside. I’d be driving along the lanes on the school run, grinning from ear to ear, immersed in nature and enjoying the muted greens and warm autumnal colours.’
Gradually, Cheney translated the colours of the hedgerows and woods into a series of designs for tableware, and more recently into fabrics and wallpapers.
This year, Christmas lunch will be served on her Wild Winter plates, with a Christmas table centrepiece of natural greenery complementing the design.
Cheney and her daughter made the fireplace wreath. The tree and table decorations pick up on the green and blue hues in her the brand’s Potted Tree Garden in Olive wallpaper.
Festive bedroom
A Victorian brass bedstead, a bargain from Facebook Marketplace, takes centre stage in this guest bedroom against the elegant backdrop of Cheney’s Garden Waltz wallpaper in Light Olive.
Even in the bedroom, festive decorations are not forgotten and a small potted tree and wrapped gifts add Christmas style.
The beautifully decorated farmhouse will be the perfect backdrop to all the festivities. Alongside Cheney’s pastoral wallpapers and fabrics, there is fresh greenery aplenty and complementary glistening baubles filling her home with seasonal cheer.
