English Houses is the latest book from architectural and interior designer, Ben Pentreath. The interiors in the book are not about fashion or fads but classic English house style.
 
Two of the homes featured in the book are Ben and Charlie's. The properties are both very different. One is a Georgian rectory based in Dorset. The other is a flat in Bloomsbury. The homes, though very different, are both filled with colour, beauty and comfortable style.
 
Ben explores another ten English homes in the book. These range from a 1930s pied-a-terre in London's historic St James to a Palladian Temple folly in Suffolk and a 16th-century stone manor house in north Oxfordshire.
 
The homes are a mix of old, antique, vintage and modern creating their own character. The book is divided into three sections: London, Country and Country House. The interior features range from antique fireplaces to squashy old sofas complete with colourful accessories such as mugs of flowers and candlesticks from 1970s Marrakesh.
 
So many favourite rooms … but the images I have chosen are the unfitted kitchen from Ben's own house, soon to be painted buttercup yellow, the flat hallway with Peter Hone plasters, a guest bathroom with an old cast iron bath tub surrounded by framed engravings and who could resist sitting in that faded armchair by the warmth of a real fire.
 
A good tip from Ben is that rooms will evolve and change over time. 'It is fun to shake things up, to move things around, and to make space for a new picture or pieces of furniture from junk auctions that you have no room for but couldn't live without. It's wonderful to pick up a paint brush and start testing new colours on a familiar wall … It allows for mistakes and experiments, for shifts in mind and mood and change … all this makes life interesting!'
 
A common theme in these English houses is timeless comfort with the creation of personal spaces in which to appreciate everyday. Ben reminds us of the importance of small moments in his blog post 'The joy of everyday'. Ben and Charlie like many others couldn't wait to just enjoy being at home.
 
English Houses by Ben Pentreath
Photography Jan Baldwin Published by Ryland, Peters and Small