Desiderata – things I’d like to make

There are many things I would like to make but have not had the chance.

First among them, the thing that above all makes me think ‘I wish I’d made that’ is the white drawing room at Blackwell House on Lake Windermere (National Trust). It is an Arts and Crafts house by the architect Baillie Scott.

There is an inglenook fireplace of exquisite grace; two seats, bookshelves, a fire surround and a small display cabinet are all framed with slender columns rising to foliated capitals.

The motifs are repeated around two window seats.

I cannot provide you with a stone-mullioned window, much less a view of Windermere, but a window seat or ingle in this style is certainly a possibility.

Another thing I would like to make is a four- poster bed.

It needn’t be as elaborate as this Carolean example, which would certainly keep me busy for a while.

In fact I have a design in mind for such a bed based on the Baillie Scott designs above: much lighter and more airy than the usual ancient, blackened oak.

All I need now is a customer. Silver wedding present anyone?

Elsewhere on this site there are a number of bookcases of a variety of shapes and sizes. However none of them quite match up to this extraordinary library at Strawberry Hill.

Gothic designs have a reputation, undeserved in my view, for heaviness and gloom. Gothic, or ‘Gothick’, is the style of choice for dressing the sets for The Hammer House of Horror.

But Vincent Price would be out of place in this room: it is light, uplifting, beautiful and joyously over the top.

Can I tempt you to something Gothic?