An apartment in the wing of a grand 18th-century Derbyshire mansion is brought to life with plenty of light and artistic Iberian touchesWhen Isabel Cordero Padilla began decorating the spare bedroom of her home, set in a wing of an imposing Georgian house in Wirksworth, she made a discovery. Buried beneath the lurid sandwich of woodchip and patterned wallpaper, she uncovered the original paint colour. Once her new wallpaper, a flower-festooned design, was up she gingerly peeled off a section to reveal the faded green pigment. Now past and present sit side by side in a palimpsest of time and texture.It’s a new-old approach that Isabel, a gallery owner, has applied to the rest of the Derbyshire home she shares with her husband Ed Pugh and two children. Built in the 1770s by lead magnate Philip Gell, the neoclassical mansion (whose previous tenants included Alfred Arkwright, grandson of spinning water frame inventor Sir Richard) was converted into apartments in the 1950s. Its rare Grade II* listing means that nothing – handles and floorboards included – can be changed without permission. But when it came to decorating, they had a free rein. For Isabel, who grew up in southern Spain, it was important that the interior reflected her “wilfully” warm Iberian style, so in came modernist wallpapers, futuristic lights and contemporary craft. “I believe it’s important to respect the architecture of a building,” she says, “but in Spain we do some things differently.” Continue reading…
Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Bring me sunshine: the Derbyshire home with echoes of southern Spain
