Layers ofhistory

When garden designer Posy Gentles arrived at her mid-Victorian terraced house in Faversham in 2008, with four children between the ages of eight and 15, plus a vanload of inherited furniture, she entered a different world: a well-mannered interior of stripped pine woodwork and a kitchen embellished with pale blue and yellow paintwork. She could have let sleeping dogs lie and settled in with her family but, instead, she decided to shake things up. ‘I love my surroundings to have an edge and a sense of humour with splashes of surprising colour,’ she says. ‘I needed to imprint my personality, so I immediately bought masses more vintage furniture and accessories on impulse.’

Posy has always loved interior design and has written books on quick and easy upholstery, table settings and unearthing flea-market finds. All of her children are creative, too, and have contributed to the house’s character. They helped Posy with the renovations, including decorating the circular window above the dining table – a clever replacement for a leaking roof, painted with gold-leaf embellishment by Posy’s daughter, Minna, and her friend, Max Candeland.

Items are regularly bought and sold. Some are distributed among Posy’s children, who in turn deliver their own artworks. ‘I’m a maximalist,’ Posy says. ‘I started young, as a child, and I buy a lot: online, from Faversham markets, from local dealers, from friends... But I buy too much, and I never seem to have time to edit. I’ve also inherited furniture from both my parents and it’s impossible not to integrate these memories, too.’

Posy inherited a love of fabrics from her grandmother, who was a decorator and lived surrounded by vibrant colour and astonishing pattern in nearby Broadstairs. She encouraged Posy to collect embroidered cushion covers, quilts, vintage curtains and clothing. From her mother, who bought and commissioned the stunning figure paintings by David Lloyd RA that now hang in nearly every room of Posy’s house, Posy inherited a love of art.

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