How to design a country house interior for your home

A new style of country hotel, THE PIGs aren’t just famous for their glorious stays—the hotels don charming interiors too.

Exuding a classic country aesthetic, the look was spearheaded by Judy Hutson, and she has been behind every design detail since the first PIG opened in 2011.

The mastermind behind all the spaces, from the bedrooms to the bars and cosy lounge areas, Judy shares her tips for adopting this timeless, forever-elegant look.

The aim of the country house aesthetic is for rooms to feel a bit lived-in­­—not too glossy or matchy-matchy.

Achieving this look takes lots of visits to car boot sales; I might look through 100 flowery plates to find the five I want. I’m a bit like Burglar Bill, “I’ll ‘ave that!”.

It’s always worth walking around car boots or markets twice as I almost always find things the second time around. 

You can pick up design ideas from anywhere and, with a bit of imagination, there are always new ways to recycle and repurpose things.

Try using small terracotta flowerpots as chip bowls and old milk churns as umbrella stands.

One of our carpenters was getting rid of an old workbench and we asked if we could buy it from him—it’s now the bar at THE PIG near Bath!  

Use a lot of textures, like soft velvets, linens and woollen rugs. When styling a new room, I like to start with curtain fabrics because it’s much easier to find a paint colour to match a fabric than the other way around.

I’m influenced by the architecture of a building and what you can see when you look out of the windows. I want the fabrics and furniture and paintings to connect with that. 

Lighting is a tricky area to get right, but it’s essential for setting the right mood. Add both floor and table lamps with characterful lampshades—I love the ones that are made using reclaimed fabrics, like our pleated designs, which are made from vintage sari material. 

I like to create dining rooms that feel more like conservatories. This is an easy trick you can pull off with decorative tiled floors, nicely worn, unvarnished wooden tables, lots of terracotta and masses of potted herbs.

In the summer, you can reverse the whole “outside in” idea and turn your outside space into living and dining rooms with long rustic wooden tables and parasols.  

Another trick is to create mini collections of similarly themed things on a shelf, wall or a mantlepiece. It could be anything from kitchen garden inspiration to a little grouping of old tools.

What we find works well is to decide on a theme for a blank wall and build around it—like 1950s flower paintings, old oil “ancestor” paintings or prints with a seafaring theme.

If you find something you like but it’s in a dodgy frame, buy it anyway and get it reframed. 

Fireplaces play an important role in creating the overall character of a room.

Do you want it to make a real statement? If so, go as grand as you can and keep everything else in the room relatively plain and simple.

If something more modest suits the room, go for plain wood and repaint it in a colour that works with the rest of the colour scheme.

You could even paint the fireplace the same colour as the walls or add some dado-height panelling and paint the fire and surround the same colour.

When in doubt, you can paint the walls white and put your money into one really stand-out piece—like an over-the-top lampshade or a beautifully framed mirror leaning against a wall.

I always want our interiors to feel lovely and comforting but never too intrusive. It’s a bit like theatre, really.