Wonder walls: inside a colourful Kent cottage
Look out for my car, it’s quite unusual,” says Lizzie Montgomery, giving directions to her home in a village in Kent. The designer has a knack for vivacious, colourful textiles, so I’m expecting, at the very least, a fuchsia pickup. The reality is more interesting. Montgomery’s runaround is a curvy Nissan, custom printed with one of her cheerful, polychromatic patterns.
There’s an equally exuberant feel to the house she shares with her husband, Patrick, and their Bengal cats, Oscar and Hilda. Montgomery, whose clients include the Victoria & Albert Museum and Brabantia, bought the Arts and Crafts-style house in 2017. Since then, this self-confessed “pattern obsessive” has steadily transformed the interior, layering print and texture with intense colour, like a collagist tweaking a composition.
Built in 1906, the property was once a lodge for a grander house. “When we moved in it had wall-to-wall carpets and cream walls. But all surfaces deserve to be richly decorated,” says Montgomery, a classically trained pianist who had a career as a composer in her native Australia. She did the “fun” decorating – woodwork, smaller rooms – herself. “I see the finished room in my head pretty quickly, and don’t deviate from that idea.”
Nothing in this kaleidoscopic house matches, but that’s the appeal. A guest bathroom dazzles with walls of garnet Persian travertine. In the hallway, black and white wallpaper is the backdrop for family photos. Panelled doors blaze in shades of ginger and spice. In the kitchen, Montgomery took her cue from the original stained glass in the house, painting the walls green and adding glinting blue glass handles. It all adds to the feel that you have wrapped yourself in one of her folkish, hand-knitted throws.
At the back, previous owners had built the oak conservatory. In summer, the giant Sequoia tree throws a green shade over the bright space. “It was one of the reasons we bought the house,” she says. The 1980s sitting room, with its austere brick fireplace, was a less successful extension. “It was a challenge,” she says, pointing to the low ceiling and UVPC windows. The solution was the panoramic wallpaper – all swaying palms and strutting flamingoes – which adds wraparound exoticism to the space.
The furniture is a mix of Heal’s and midcentury classics, such as the reproduction Kai Kristiansen chairs. Antique Chinese and Japanese cloisonné wares were amassed over the years “for their incredible craftsmanship”.
A Bach fugue is open on the piano. She composed her first piece of music when she was just seven. In 2000 she founded Zephyr, a collective of musicians and vocalists from across the globe, signing her first music publishing deal a year later. Her albums, Zephyr and Flame, feature regularly on Australian radio.
Hands-on creativity has always been part of her life. At 20, she was asked to illustrate a book of Arthurian legends. She also started painting furniture, murals and silk handbags. Like William Morris, she believes good design stems from an appreciation of the past, “infused with your own style”. One of her favourite commissions was for the V&A when she was asked to design a scarf based on the museum’s collections. Montgomery was given free rein to roam the lesser-trodden galleries, picking details that caught her eye. “I focused on the 18th century: paintings, textiles, architecture. It was a synthesis of everything that inspired me.”
Through her popular Instagram account, Montgomery has discovered makers and artists who share her rainbow-hued aesthetic. “Every week I do a designer spotlight post. I’ve discovered so many talented people across the world.” Inevitably, she can’t resist the odd purchase, like the folkish cushions by Jan Constantine or pottery by Lucy Burley. The new finds sit well with antiques: suzanis from Uzbekistan, Iznik tiles from Turkey or the Chinese Qing dynasty silk panels, adorned with dragons chasing clouds, which hang above her desk.
Montgomery has found social media, for all its irritations, a source of companionship and inspiration during lockdowns. She has painted furniture and crocheted candy-coloured blankets for online charity auctions. Pattern and colour have, she says, been just the thing to combat moments of Covid gloom.
