French Normandie Tudor

The public rooms keep their quartered oak panelling and a limestone chimneypiece, and everything set against them is French: a carved giltwood table under glass, Aubusson carpets in rose and cream, bergères in faded stripe and needlework, swagged silk at the casements, girandole sconces flanking an oval mirror. A grand piano stands in the corner of the panelled room with flowers on the lid. The dining room turns lighter, glazed parchment walls and banded silk curtains under a brass chandelier, with a demilune commode inlaid in satinwood on the far wall.

Upstairs the house relaxes and the craft work takes over. A domed ceiling is painted with sky and four baskets of flowers; baths are laid in limestone with cobalt relief borders, an arched stone shower, black diamond insets around the tub. The children's rooms are their own worlds: pink harlequin walls and a princess dog bed, a boy's blue bath with sporting knobs, and a tiled floor set with painted flowers like a carpet that cannot be moved.