This English Countryside Manor Blends Georgian Architecture With Victorian Flair
For many, the perfect English countryside home is equal parts comfortable and eclectic. Annoushka Ducas, founder of luxury jewelry brands Links of London and Annoushka, had the same sentiment after purchasing a historic home in West Sussex, nearly 50 miles south of London.
Designer Ducas started her company in the 1980s in London. Her mother had a business in London selling fish to restaurants, and one year, Ducas was tasked with finding a holiday gift for the chefs her mother supplied to. She then found a silversmith that designed fish cufflinks. After gifting cufflinks to each chef, she presented her additional samples to a buyer at luxury department store Harvey Nichols. The rest, they say, was history. In the 2000s, Ducas sold her successful company to Greek jewelry brand Folli Follie, and three years after the sale, she created her eponymous jewelry brand Annoushka, motivated by the desire to find jewelry she liked for herself that she couldn’t find on the market.
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While Ducas was expanding her business, the jewelry entrepreneur, her husband, John, and their four children relocated to West Sussex in the English countryside. The creative had a distinct vision for their historic Georgian manor home. To bring that vision to life, she tapped London-based designer Juliette Byrne to re-envision the property with her singular modern taste, while paying homage to its storied past.
“Annoushka and her husband, John, decided to move from London and make the countryside their main residence and therefore invest in the restoration of the house,” Juliette Byrne tells Robb Report. “She asked me to become involved in the improvements. I have a good knowledge of listed building restoration and found the project fascinating and very rewarding. We moved from room to room deciding what we would need to do to add back the elegant features and architectural elements that had been either removed or needed repair. We then began to realize that it was a long-term project rather than a short-term fix.”
One look at the home and it’s evident that there was immaculate restoration implemented alongside thoughtfully designed contemporary fixtures and furnishings. For instance, the main drawing room was part of the original building, and Byrne and her team reinstated the delicate dentil molding and restored the original fireplace to perfection.
When asked which room she’s most proud of, Byrne says: “The drawing room is a wonderful room, as it has all the scale and elegance of the original Georgian manor house, but we have given it a modern twist by adding in a mix of antique items, such as the decorative cabinets.” Complementing those age-old features are large-format contemporary artworks, tinges of brass and gold metal, and pops of vibrant color on the pillows and rug. Ducas was keen on incorporating antique art, furnishing, and decor, as her father was an avid collector, and many antiques are mixed in with contemporary pieces for a nice duality.
“The interiors were done over a long period of time,” Byrne says.“It was very much a labor of love, as every fabric was individually sourced, antiques were restored, and many auctions were attended to achieve the elegant country eclectic style you see today.”
Other key rooms in the home include the library, which boasts antique oak-paneled walls, a large fireplace, and a bar area. One of the most used rooms in the home, the library is outfitted with a sentimental painting of the owners’ children, low-level lamps, and window cushions to conceal the radiators.
Byrne didn’t shy away from color, which was partly inspired by Ducas’s love for precious and semi-precious stones as a jewelry designer. “We had a preference for strong bold colors, especially in the dining room, which is used for formal dinner parties and large family gatherings,” she explains. “The walls are paneled with elegant gold wallpaper, and the room is quite spectacular at night when the table is set for 25 guests at dinner,” she says. Byrne also explains that Ducas’s parents, both of Russian heritage, inspire much of her personal style and her design taste; for the home this meant including items such as antique mirrors, wall sconces, gilded furniture, aubergine taffeta curtains, velvet dining chairs, and the antique Georgian mahogany dining table.
While the home has a cohesive feel, it doesn’t feel sterile or monotonous from room to room, and no two rooms are the same as you pass through the house. The light-filled kitchen is both commodious and inviting and acts as the hub of the home. Above a kitchen counter is a gallery wall that depicts various painted fish, likely an homage to Ducas’s mother. There’s a charming breakfast nook, custom shelving for books, and prep space for lovely meals that the family likely prepares for loved ones. Upstairs are the four bedrooms, which each feature whimsical patterned wallpaper and large windows that let plenty of natural light flood in.
“Annoushka has enormous flair and style herself and a love of pattern and color,” Byrne says lovingly about their years-long collaboration. “Her husband has a large private 20th-century art collection, which we integrated into the designs. It was a fit from the very start.”
The home also has a pool in the backyard surrounded by a patio and manicured landscaping.
Click here for more photos of this countryside Georgian manor.
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