Photography by Alexa Hotz.
My favorite places to visit when traveling are biographical museums, the original homes or workplaces of architects, artists, or writers.
Before Kettle’s Yard was conceived, Jim Ede worked as a curator at the Tate Gallery during the 1920s and 30s, during which time he and Helen befriended artists such as Joan Miro, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, and Pablo Picasso.
There, with the help of architect Rowland de Winton Aldridge and the University of Cambridge, Ede combined four dilapidated cottages into a single house.
The gallery of Kettle’s Yard, part of the 1970 modern extension by Sir Leslie Martin and David Owers, is outfitted with Windsor chairs, various rugs, sculpture on pedestals, and carefully placed artwork on every wall.
1. Be democratic.
On the back console table, made of two pieces of wood and a slate top, the Lucie Rie Conical Bowl (far right) and John Clegg’s Fiddle Fish sit alongside a single coupe glass and dried flowers.
2. Let the artwork guide the palette.
A white-painted corner hutch with blue, gold, and red china meets Helen Frankenthaler’s Abstract painting from 1960-61.
The alabaster Forms by George Kennethson from the 1960s and 1933 (musical instruments) by Ben Nicholson inspire the selection of surrounding furniture.
At top, the Helen Frankenthaler painting communicates with the colorful china dishes housed in the hutch to the left, and while maybe it’s not intentional, the undone quality of the linen sofa almost mimics Frankenthaler’s brush strokes.
The artworks above include Ben Nicholson’s 1924 (bertha no.2). As in the rest of Kettle’s Yard, nothing matches for the sake of matching.
3. Frame artwork according to the work, not to the room.
4. Create a moment.
To the left of Bird Swallowing a Fish is another Gaudier-Brzeska piece,. In the gallery extension, sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s bronze Bird Swallowing a Fish from 1914 sits on a polished piece of driftwood surrounded by large round beach stones.
A pair of mismatched armchairs, both with green upholstered seats, are positioned in the gallery extension for guests to view paintings on the opposite wall.
5. You can never have too many chairs.
Three slipcovered armchairs are scattered down the length of the second floor modern extension.
The furthest chair is tilted for viewing the low-hanging painting beneath the small window, and from the middle chair, the viewer can see Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s Caritas sculpture on the round dining table.
The Henri Gaudier-Brzeska brass Door-Knocker sits on the dresser. Echoing the second point on our list about letting the artwork guide the palette, all of the objects in Ede’s interiors have precise relationships to one another.
6. Precise relationships.
7. Home-as-gallery and gallery-as-home.
Propped on the shelf next to the twin bed is the Ben Nicholson 1941 (abstract). Throughout the property, paintings pop up in unexpected places—a nook in the bathroom, beside the bed, or even propped on the floor at shoe level.
8. Devise a plan, and keep a record.
On the table: a vase (always with fresh flowers from the garden), shells from the beach, a green glass sphere, the Torpedo Fish (Toy) by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and a spiral of round stones.
It’s a concept that could be adapted to the average home for documenting the stories behind specific objects in the house (for future generations to read) or the correct positioning of furniture and artwork (for housesitting friends or short-term renters).
9. Value the unvaluable.
A collection of round stones gathered by Ede (most likely on the beaches of Cardiff) are arranged in a spiral pattern, with the largest stone at the center and the smallest on the outer edges.
10. Design as meditation.
The first room as part of the original Kettle’s Yard cottage, converted in 1956. Here, Ede positioned the armchair to face the window (just beyond the frame here to the left) into the garden.
A dining room corner in the original cottage includes a slender table and a textile-draped bench.
11. The high/low approach.
The upstairs bedroom has a basic mattress and frame with a large linen sheet tossed over the top and barely tucked in at the bottom.
It’s clean, well preserved, and chock full of art; there are quirky antiques, common objects, well-loved chairs and sofas, and often, a random blanket thrown over the bed or a bench or a sofa, in a decidedly laissez-faire fashion.
A view of the second fireplace and reading corner in the upstairs level of the old cottage.
12. A way of life.
Designer Cassandra Ellis explained it best: “The magic of Kettle’s Yard is that it isn’t officially interior decorated, it is instead a long and rambling poem revealing someone’s life.” If you ask us, the secret to a great interior is simple: it takes personality.