As the days become lighter, winter recedes and spring is just within reach. With a need to keep warm, refresh one’s surroundings, how about spot of redecoration? Perhaps nothing major, but something like a few walls to refresh, a new ceiling can do wonders. For myself past visits to less intimidating interiors come to mind. Chartwell is one of those country properties that is extremely well known to the traveller as the home of the Churchill family. The indomitable Winston Churchill was an impulsive character and no easy husband. He had secretly bought Chartwell without his beloved Clemmie’s knowledge, (his wife), much to her annoyance. However it was the retreat he had dreamed of. A large country escape with a sizeable acreage with which to nurture his stressful public life with all its extreme demands.

City and suburban homes get battered by modern family life only too easily, but it has always been a joy to study interiors that offer modest solutions. A new colour can do wonders for a room, new accents, cushions, getting rid of old furniture, rearranging things. Painting a bookcase.

On the domestic front at Chartwell, Clemmie was a practical person who knew how to economise. She had beautiful ideas about the decor, and in spite of an extremely precarious financial situation, somehow managed to create a wonderful balance of casual elegance. Keeping Winston’s erratic spending under control was no easy task! (I can recommend the book ‘No More Champagne Mr Churchill’). Visiting the house in the last few years, one can see the mix of luscious and contrasting fresh tones, which would no doubt please a masculine eye. The lemon chintzes and browns in the living room, balanced with terracotta and aquamarines in her own bedroom. Further feminine touches show leafy green wallpaper on the upstairs landing.

Just because someone likes painting, does not mean they have an eye for decor. But Clemmie is the star of Chartwell. She managed to balance the man/wife, formal/casual demands of design with a busy family life. In the dining room, green is a wonderful ‘binder’ colour: plain green silk curtains, with metal windows, raffia floor. This seems quite modern for the times, more like a garden room or conservatory, no formal dining room as one might expect. She had the confidence to stay plain when needed and not dance pattern everywhere if not suitable. Today you can buy the fabric used for the chairs from the shop.

Deeper into Sussex at Monk’s House, Virginia and Leonard Woolf painted their living room walls solid arsenic green including the woodwork. She didn’t take to decor particularly but with her artistic sister, Vanessa, nearby at Charleston, the Woolfs cottage managed to look stylish. Charleston of course, was much more adventurous, benefitting with a house full of artists who could decorate as well. Back with Clemmie at Chartwell, lemon and brown feature in the living room. Practical for pets and pleasing to the masculine eye. Femininity came with magnolia flower chintz on dark aubergine floral curtains in the library. Plain heavy red ‘boxy’ chairs are very cosy and anchor the room. Of the many interiors I study, it is often the plainer schemes that outlast the transient patterns of the day.

Today’s decorators have a mass of choice, bewildering actually. More and more paint companies are offering endless choice of test pots and designs for many a modern home. The magazines favour period homes, which is not helpful to anyone dealing with a postwar space with few if any period features. Then it’s all about colour and texture. Refreshing even two of four walls can make a substantial difference without considerable outlay. Agatha Christie had a number of period properties, but she also owned a hyper minimalistic modern flat, in Lawn Road, Camden, North London and travelled around the middle east in tents.

We also have the battle of maintaining the original metal ungalvanised windows which invariably rust and have long since been replaced with the modern PVC, spoiling the sight-lines. Chartwell is lovingly preserved with its green metal windows. The famous hotel on Burgh Island has also navigated this great task. Clemmie may have had a certain privilege but she certainly knew how to cope with limited means along with high levels of stress. Clemmie was a woman I’d like to have known better.