House Style with Sandy Suffield
After showing us around her converted engine house in Suffolk, creative director and set designer Sandy Suffield shares her house style.
You’re happiest at home when…
The sun’s out, music’s on and I’m making breakfast with friends and family.
How would you describe the interiors of your house?
Barely contained clutter! Or, as my sister Victoria described my attitude to home – ‘aspirations to contemporary sparseness but too obsessed with tut to manage!’. She’s right!
I love the simple frontage of the original building and the Habitat kitchen chairs I sat in as a kid, but I also love an extravagant Georgian vase or the nuttiness of a PVC covered armchair (homage to my mum and dad who had a purple plastic-covered Chesterfield in the 70s). All of these things can coexist, and their juxtaposition means you end up seeing each of their characteristics more clearly.
I recently read a quote about an empty room being furnished with light. Sun comes through the east window and projects a series of arches onto the beams. In the late afternoon, light through the opposite window rakes along the wobbly white bricks in the kitchen and as the sun casts through the laurel hedge it makes these little dancing circles. The light is beautiful all day.
If you could only save one thing, what would it be?
…But I can probably carry more than one thing! A painting by my dad under one arm and, under the other, the bentwood chair I found on eBay.
What was the last thing you bought for the house?
A slightly weird but lovely end-of-day glass pedestal thing by Stevens & Williams found on eBay; some 1950s/60s sun loungers from Paul’s Emporium and a well-worn, brilliant Joe Colombo chair bought from Chris at Dudley Waltzer.
Top three coffee table books?
Colour Atlas, George Hardie; A Way of Life: Kettle’s Yard, Jim Ede; The Democratic Forest, William Eggleston
If money was no object, what changes would you make?
I’d have someone to teach me about plants and which ones would be happy in the garden. I’d like it to look good year-round and to always have something to put in a vase.
When I bought The Engine House, the interior walls were covered in pencil calculations dating from the 1940s, I think they were totting up sales of fruit and veg that grew in greenhouses out back – it would be nice to get a garden extension to grow more than the odd herb!
You’re having people over for dinner: what do you cook?
In the winter, borlotti bean and rosemary risotto and in the summer, pissaladière or a big Thai noodle salad with lots of mint, coriander and peanuts.
What does a Sunday here look like?
I’m normally up early-ish because it’s so bright. I put the coffee on, then, in summer, there’s the ritual of watering the garden. I love a slow breakfast, with friends and family coming to the table in their pajamas, just whenever they wake.
If my sisters are with me, they might head out on their bikes. Maybe a walk on Knettishall Heath or a longer trip to Kettle’s Yard or Covehithe beach. If we’re lucky, a car boot sale or some junking on the way. Then home for tea. If folks are staying another night, we’ll pull down the screen in the snug and watch a film.
What are the best things about the neighbourhood?
It’s really peaceful, and any noise there is comes from wildlife – stupidly romantic. In the summer, I can go for a walk and come back home with a dozen or so different wildflowers and pretty weeds.
I also love having a city nearby, Bury St Edmunds is beautiful and it’s three miles down the road. Its architecture spans close to a thousand years, from St James Gate which dates from the 1100s to the city’s Art Deco cinema, Abbeygate.
I love Smoking Monkey Antiques run by Marcia who always finds great stuff, next door is Vinyl Hunter for good tunes and coffee and a few doors up is Wright’s Café for more good coffee and Scooby-Doo sandwiches.
There’s my favourite local restaurant, Pea Porridge and Wooster’s Bakery for fantastic morning buns and bread, then there’s a proper fruit and veg market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There’s also a great café, Folk, within walking distance of The Engine House, run by lovely Ali.
How long will you be here for?
I love it here more and more, it’s hard to imagine ever giving it up.
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