House Style with Caroline and Marcus Hoggarth
After showing us around their modernist home in St Albans, Caroline, an upholsterer specialising in mid-century furniture, and her husband Marcus Hoggarth, the president and chief creative officer of Native Design, share their house style.
You’re happiest at home when…
Caroline: The house is full.
Our happiest times are when we have friends over, with kids scattered around the house; we cook together, drink and listen to records – made all the better if there’s no school the next day.
If you could save one thing, what would it be?
Caroline: My Hans Wegner ‘Papa Bear’ chairs. Marcus bought these for me at an auction years ago. They are utterly beautiful, incredibly hard to upholster and almost too heavy to carry out of the house on my own – but I’d give it my best shot.
Marcus: Apart from helping to carry out the second ‘Papa Bear’ chair, I’d raise the stakes and try and carry out the Gio Ponti wardrobe. It’s nearly five metres long and super heavy, but my dad showed me a technique of putting soap on the floor to help it slide easily – it really works.
What is your favourite living space around the world?
Caroline: We stayed at The Landmark Trust’s Anderton House a few years ago.
It was designed by Peter Aldington in 1969. I loved its simplicity; the open-plan living area, and the huge sliding glass walls framing the Devonshire landscape. I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere quite so relaxing.
Marcus: Finn Juhl’s house in Copenhagen.
It’s quite a modest house on the outskirts of Ordupgaard, but it’s incredibly homely and eclectic. It’s filled with beautiful furniture including his ‘Judas’ dining table, so-called because it is inlayed with 30 pieces of silver.
You’re having people over for dinner: what do you cook?
Caroline: Marcus is the one who cooks for gatherings.
You’ll find him in the outdoor kitchen. I’d be hoping for a forerib of beef cooked on our Big Green Egg grill with some of his secret recipe for salsa verde. I’d then add my honey and miso roasted aubergine and whole roasted celeriac.
What does Sunday here look like?
Caroline: Reading the newspapers in bed looking out into the garden; family dog walks; long Sunday dinners cooked outside – if possible – and panic that the homework hasn’t been done.
What are the best things about the neighbourhood?
Marcus: St Albans is a beautiful Roman city steeped in the most fascinating history.
It’s small enough to retain a real sense of community and kindness. We are only 20 minutes from King’s Cross, yet we can walk to the end of our road and be in the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside. For us, it strikes a perfect balance between metropolitan and rural living.
What was the last thing that you brought for the house?
Caroline: The great thing about being an upholsterer who is married to a designer is that we have a constant revolving door of beautiful furniture.
I spend a great deal of time trying to wrestle new pieces out of Marcus’ arms and onto the website, the latest being a pair of Ole Wanscher rocking chairs. We were contacted by a lovely couple whose 90-year-old mother had bought them in the late 1950s – she had lived a life with them and they now wanted us to find someone to love them as much as she had.
Top three coffee table books?
Marcus: We definitely don’t have enough coffee tables for the amount of coffee table books we own. We could have listed about 50.
Watercolours by Finn Juhl. A collection of watercolours of the most beautiful chairs in the world – the care taken over the designs is extraordinary.
William Eggleston, compiled by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain – a stunning collection of Eggleston prints from across the years.
And finally, if you want to break the coffee table, the huge and extremely comprehensive visual biography, Le Corbusier Le Grand, published by Phaidon.
If money was no object, what changes would you make?
Marcus: The house was so beautifully considered by the retired couple who commissioned it in the 1960s, it’s hard to think of much else it needs – apart from maybe a sound force field for Caroline’s naughty beagle.
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