New order

A comfortable living area has been created in the dining hall, anchored by a bespoke rug and an ottoman whose sides are upholstered in Pierre Frey’s Budapest fabric. A club fender, and drapes in Lee Jofa’s Ardley print, add cosy appeal. Sofas, in Claremont’s Straub Twill, are finished in Samuel & Son’s Rouen tassel fringe.

‘Little by little’ was the mantra behind the transformation of this Cotswolds manor house, whose schemes were reimagined with verve over a period of six years. In that time, its owner, Hugo Gibbs, met and married his wife Steph, and had a daughter, Alma, now one, while his friend Cath Beckett, who brought these interiors to life, joined forces with Liv Wallers to start interior design firm, Yellow London. “In that sense, the project has been the backdrop to our own evolution,” says Hugo. “Both of us learnt on the job, grappling with the unique challenges of a large-scale project. We each see this home as a kind of cornerstone in our lives.”

Part of a large estate, which includes a working farm, the manor house is Hugo’s childhood home, bought in the 1950s by his grandmother, who grew up in nearby Miserden Park. Believed to have originally been owned by the church, the building has early 16th-century origins, and served as both a tithe barn and almost certainly a friary over the years, before being extensively reworked in the 1850s. “You can see where successive generations have each had a stab at adding to it with various wings and a main portico,” says Hugo. “But at its heart, the interior architecture, with its huge fireplaces, elm floors, a church-like front elevation and plenty of stonework and scalloped doorways, nods to the ecclesiastical.”

Returning after a career in London to take over the estate, Hugo began to feel the need to imbue the manor with a sense of homeliness and to relieve it of its “1970s chintz” feel. “The avocado carpets and pale blue baths had a kind of dated charm, but I wanted to create a comfortable, polished home, whose interiors offered a new take on classic English decor,” he says. The challenge was to incorporate some of the existing furniture, such as the huge table in the dining hall, in the process. Many sentimental objects included family portraits and artwork – Hugo’s grandmother was a friend of arti