Friends and colleagues are always ringing me up to tell me they have spotted something I might like!” says interior designer Leigh Courtnage. As a consequence, Leigh’s converted barn and stables – located on the edge of the enchanting village of Churt in Surrey – has proved to be the perfect backdrop to an eclectic collection of art and objects, sourced from vintage fairs, auctions and shops across the country. “I’m always on the lookout, as somebody else’s rubbish might in fact be your treasure,” she says. The house, which Leigh moved into over 20 years ago, is inspired both by the layered interiors of the stately homes that she loves to visit and partly by her own love of colour, pattern and quirky design.

As head designer at Miscellanea of Churt, an emporium of interiors, Leigh has been offering her advice and interiors skill for customers and clients for over 24 years. Leigh bought Butts Barn to create the perfect family home. Surrounded by a wonderful walled garden, brimming with plants and shrubs, the former agricultural building and accompanying stables have almost become an extension to the showroom of interiors that she manages, an homage to Leigh’s skill in creating drama and narrative, yet always with a nod to practicality.

A keen horticulturalist, Leigh’s magical garden wraps around the barn, which she adds to every year. “If there’s a space,” she laughs, “it gets filled!” Perfectly positioned wrought iron furniture and elegant sculptures, an old chandelier, a tin bath, an antique haywain and various wooden mushrooms are dotted around the area, each piece offers both visual interest and a story, giving just a hint of what is to come inside.

Entering the house via a wonderful hallway with exposed wooden beams, a sense of Leigh’s style instantly delights you. There are antiques, expertly chosen, contemporary art, deftly hung, there are sculptures and Persian rugs and needlepoint cushions that all instantly add texture and a story to the space.

Leigh’s love of the outdoors is also apparent, with plants and architectural flowers dotted around, bringing the outside inside. She has dressed the hall’s low window with a pelmet and curtain in an Arts & Crafts style floral motif fabric, a contemporary bronze sculpture stands effortlessly next to an ornately carved Victorian leather wing back chair. “To me the ability to combine something from the 19th and 20th centuries with a very contemporary item is what I love to do, as they bring both excitement and depth to a room,” says Leigh. “It’s what historic houses have always done with their interiors, as families have added to them over the decades and it’s what I love to do in my home, so you get that sense of the travel of time, but in an entirely organic way.”

Off the hallway Leigh has created a comfortable snug with a large inglenook fireplace. There are an abundance of textural cushions and throws, a large colourful rug from Ruggable and yet more greenery, with a sizeable potted tree fern. A substantial leather Knowle sofa and a pair of leather armchairs are accessorised with an array of cushions, next to which sit polished wooden tables and plenty of art books which have been collected over many years. Above the fireplace is an antique stag’s head, again a nod to Leigh’s love of the country house style, which she has mirrored on the opposite wall with two gilt antler wall lights and an antler table lamp. An artfully arranged display of pictures behind the sofa offers a glimpse of things to come in the open plan living area that comprises the main body of the house.

For many people it can be intimidating to live with the soaring open ceilings and original wooden beams of an old barn structure, but Leigh has embraced the architectural oddities of the original building. In the snug she has wrapped one of the main overhead beams with lichen covered branches and added fairy lights to which she has hung small ceramic birds and pinecones. “I did it originally as a Christmas decoration,” says Leigh. “But I loved it so much that I kept it and just updated it with the birds, so it’s now become an art installation in its own right.”

From the cosy snug, a door leads to the main double height living area, that contains a dining area, several seating areas and the open oak staircase. Off the main space is the kitchen and the lower-level bedrooms and bathrooms. Exposed structural timbers in the walls and roof have been kept visible throughout the building, and the oak staircase leads to a first-floor minstrel’s gallery that breaks up the height of the space. Leigh has kept the plaster of the walls to a neutral pale colour and has used the clever addition of rugs, furniture, decorative accessories and artwork to zone the living areas, with pops of colour, texture and pattern giving a sense of cohesion to what could be a complicated space. “It felt like the best approach was to keep the background as plain and natural as possible and then to use furniture and textiles or art to add colour and texture. I knew I needed to create smaller living spaces rather than think of it all as one space,” says Leigh.

The dining area has been separated by a pair of antique early 18th century hand-carved Chinese bone panel ‘tusks’ (not ivory) with a polished Sia wood dining table, turned wood hurricane lamps and vase. Pale grey fabric upholstered dining chairs from Miscellanea add a sense of comfortable formality. A cheeky pair of Italian 17th century antique cherubs – that Leigh found at an antiques fair – have been cleverly hung from above, seeming to float in the air, which must provide a conversation topic for guests as they sit down below the flying duo. A set of glazed French doors, with subtle tied-back damask curtains, open to the walled garden outside. Again, Leigh has joined the outdoors to the interior with the large potted fig plant and a shaggy green carpet from Rug 2000. A giant ceramic lamp from Red Mud sits next to one of her collection of 20th century artworks.

On the opposite side of the room is a formal seating and TV area, with a deep L-shape red sofa, also from Miscellanea. Patterned textiles, antique furniture and stunning coloured glass from Czechia add yet more colour and texture. The area overlooks the vast double height glazed windows that occupy the former cart entrance to the barn. “It’s a wonderful area for the summer, when you can throw open the windows into the garden,” comments Leigh.

“We are lucky, the house seems to work in different ways depending on which season it is, with each space coming to life as the weather changes.” A group of Chinese writing and painting brushes, discovered at auction, have been hung from a nearby beam, between the sofa area and a seating area that Leigh has created in another nook. Under the staircase a leather tub chair with vintage throw and textile cushion sits next to a vintage tripod camera surrounded again by some of her collection of British art.

Off the main living space is a wonderful country style kitchen, to which Leigh has added her unique touch, hanging a collection of kitchen paraphernalia: antique whisks, moulds and sieves to a cross beam. Also downstairs are the three generous double bedrooms, each in a distinct colourway: ruby, amethyst and apricot. Each room is filled with Leigh’s collectables as well as more pieces from her art collection, many of the nudes having been kept to the more intimate of spaces. Each of the rooms provides an essay in maximalism, texture and comfort. A large family bathroom, which Leigh created from a second kitchen/scullery, offers a generous stand-alone bath and a large walk-in shower, bathed in light via a wall of glass bricks where the old back door was once located. Pops of driftwood sculpture give the space a distinct nod to the seaside.

Upstairs, Leigh has kept her own sanctuary with a main bedroom and bathroom suite. It’s accessed via another wonderful set piece on the landing: a green leather sofa and leather armchair sit opposite a stunning Arts & Crafts cabinet, an oil painting rests on an easel above a large Asian-style pot. A huge decorative frame mirror is positioned in the corner of the area, next to a free-standing antique fireplace. Leigh’s skill as the manager of Miscellanea again making its mark on her home, with her ability to create little corners of fun and escapism all over her house.

The main bathroom is Leigh’s place of relaxation. As well as a generous free-standing bath, cranberry glass bottles and jars have stylishly replaced any plastic and yet more stunning classic and contemporary nudes are dotted around the walls and artfully stacked on the floor. Greenery has been added thanks to a large flouncy potted fern which has been placed next to the bath, giving a sense of tropical escapism for any bather who is lucky enough to use the room. A vintage Persian rug sits atop the wooden floor, whilst Leigh’s love of reading is catered for with a pile of art books on a vintage bent wood chair that acts as a portable bookshelf.

Leigh’s bedroom again shows her managing to adapt to the unique double height open ceilings and beamed nature of the upstairs of the barn. Using colour she has anchored the room with pops of red in various rugs as well as pieces of highly individual furniture, that she sourced in France. Always practical, Leigh has used a series of deep red curtains and a black out blind to ensure that, despite the windows that drench the room in sunshine during the day, at night-time the room remains a place of rest in the large leather bed.

Leigh’s skill as the manager of Miscellanea of Churt has made its mark on her home, with her ability to create little corners of fun and escapism all over her house

Leigh has created a world inside the barn (and also in the adjoining stables where she has made an office area and a seating zone) that tells the story of her life. Twenty years of sourcing, designing, planning and creating. Each wall and each surface offers a narrative to her personal interests.

However, although the house and Leigh are so intertwined, now with her children grown up, Leigh has decided the time is right to search for a new project. “It’s a house that has meant an awful lot to me,” she says, “but things have to change. I don’t think of it as something to be afraid of, I like to think of it as a new adventure and I cannot wait.”

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For more information on interiors projects, see the Miscellanea of Churt
website miscellanea.co.uk