Antiques dealer Jenny Cook has lived a well-travelled life, calling far-flung places, such as Panama, Costa Rica and The Bahamas, home. But when the time came to leave the tropics behind, she was drawn back to the familiarity of Suffolk, where she grewup. She initially moved into a quaint, comfortable cottage but, after a while, she began craving a new challenge, which she discovered in this Grade II-listed Georgian house.
It was ‘tired but with good bones’, she says. ‘I loved its elegance, its beautiful, original features and wonderfully proportioned rooms.’ Although requiring complete renovation, it was rich with potential, so, when Jenny moved in four years ago, she hired a team of contractors and work began immediately. The renovation was entirely top to bottom, from repairing rotten roof rafters to installing a hand-built kitchen.
A labour of love
Along the way, Jenny found the house was infested with moths, which forced her to
move out while it was fumigated. The biggest challenge, however, was living here while it was a complete building site. ‘It’s not for the faint-hearted,’ she says. ‘When we opened up the old chimney breast to create space for the range cooker 300 years of soot came down. There were sooty foot and paw prints everywhere!’
Built by renowned clockmaker George Suggate (1751–1844), a prominent local entrepreneur, the house was designed as his personal residence, with a sunny courtyard leading to an old stable and gig house to accommodate his horse and cart. Jenny’s vision was to breathe new life into the historic space and, after nine months of dedicated work, her team – fondly dubbed ‘the dream team’ – left her with a beautiful blank canvas, ready to receive her cherished collections of art and antiques.
Inspired by colour and craft
Describing her interiors style as ‘colourful maximalism, with a plethora of curated artefacts and antiques’, Jenny combines bold colours and patterns with pieces from different eras and continents, to striking yet cohesive effect. For colour inspiration, she turned to nature, drawing on her springtime and autumnal walks. Deep aubergine and vibrant green hues became the foundation palette: ‘I had a tapestry-seated chair in these colours and began collecting vintage kantha quilts with similar tones. Once you find a favourite textile, rug or piece of furniture that speaks to a room, it becomes the catalyst for everything else,’ she explains. An ardent textile collector, she has a rich archive to source from.
When it comes to artistic influences, the Bloomsbury Set has been her primary guide over the years. ‘Twentieth-century British art is my period,’ she says. ‘I’m most drawn to still lifes, portraits, naïve art and modern British works.’ It’s no surprise to hear that her favourite artists include the likes of Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry. ‘I also have great fondness for more contemporary artists, such as Tessa and Mary Newcomb, Margaret Mellis and Francis Davison, who all lived nearby and were friends.’
A collector's treasure trove
Her home feels like a lived-in cabinet of curiosities: shelves are lined with delicate pink Sunderland lustreware and antique majolica cabbage-leaf plates; mantels are filled with Staffordshire dogs and whimsical animal figures; and walls are hung with art. In the kitchen, an 18th-century Welsh dresser groans under the weight of a brood of 17 antique hens on nests, and Jenny admits she finds them impossible to resist when she spots one. She loves the synchronicity of unexpected finds: an old sofa ‘free to collect’ one day, followed by some chintzy vintage linen, perfect for reupholstering, the next.
‘My collecting means I’m constantly running out of space, so I’ve had to adopt a one in, one out rule,’ she laughs. It helps that she can offload pieces to her online shop, No.6 Southwold. Jenny’s love of antiques stems from a belief in the quality of old things – their superiority to modern-made equivalents. But it’s their stories that truly captivate her as each object carries its past: ‘the houses it’s lived in, the conversations it’s heard’, she says.
The thrill of the hunt
One particularly cherished piece is a chest of drawers with a carved front that is now tucked into a sitting room alcove. It arrived with a letter detailing its extraordinary journey: beginning life in a Scottish castle, it was given to a departing servant, travelled the length of the country, survived a flood, and finally settled here with Jenny in Suffolk. ‘Collecting is a never-ending hunt for something you haven’t come across before,’ she explains. ‘It’s the continual researching and learning that keeps me interested.
