A Victorian terraced house in Faversham

When garden designer Posy Gentles arrived at her mid-Victorian terraced house in Faversham in 2008, with four children between the ages of eight and 15, plus a vanload of inherited furniture, she entered a different world: a well-mannered interior of stripped pine woodwork and a kitchen embellished with pale blue and yellow paintwork.

She could have let sleeping dogs lie and settled in with her family but, instead, she decided to shake things up. ‘I love my surroundings to have an edge and a sense of humour with splashes of surprising colour,’ she says. ‘I needed to imprint my personality, so I immediately bought masses more vintage furniture and accessories on impulse.’

Posy has always loved interior design and has written books on quick and easy upholstery, table settings and unearthing flea-market finds. All of her children are creative, too, and have contributed to the house’s character. They helped Posy with the renovations, including decorating the circular window above the dining table – a clever replacement for a leaking roof, painted with gold-leaf embellishment by Posy’s daughter, Minna, and her friend, Max Candeland.

Items are regularly bought and sold. Some are distributed among Posy’s children, who in turn deliver their own artworks. ‘I’m a maximalist,’ Posy says. ‘I started young, as a child, and I buy a lot: online, from Faversham markets, from local dealers, from friends… But I buy too much, and I never seem to have time to edit. I’ve also inherited furniture from both my parents and it’s impossible not to integrate these memories, too.’

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Posy inherited a love of fabrics from her grandmother, who was a decorator and lived surrounded by vibrant colour and astonishing pattern in nearby Broadstairs. She encouraged Posy to collect embroidered cushion covers, quilts, vintage curtains and clothing. From her mother, who bought and commissioned the stunning figure paintings by David Lloyd RA that now hang in nearly every room of Posy’s house, Posy inherited a love of art.

‘Pattern, texture and colour, especially colour, are all important elements in my home,’ says Posy. ‘Those particular shades of 1930s pink and leaf green, with Farrow & Ball’s Tanner’s Brown, look good with antique furniture. And I like to use Farrow & Ball’s Fowler Pink, a shade favoured by decorator John Fowler, which has an orangey, terracotta tone. But I don’t like anything too tasteful. I like to surprise as well.’

Her eye-catching use of mosaic mirror tiles on the stairs up to the attic probably fits into this category. She was inspired by her creative plumber and kitchen designer, Nick Kenny, who worked on the bright orange bathroom and used zinc panels recycled from Parisian rooftops on the side of the bath, and geometric patchwork tiling to spell out her children’s names in Morse Code along the top edge of the wall. These creative touches also encouraged Posy to venture on her own tiling journey in the kitchen, using cheap tiles arranged in a patchwork.

On close inspection, there are collections to be found on almost every surface and shelf. Posy collects animal decorations and is often given stuffed, china and wooden animals, as well as fabrics and cushions featuring animals. ‘I feel I need to rescue them,’ she says. She also has a collection of old postcards featuring volcanoes that she had framed and then hung on the landing, and she always buys cheap round mirrors if she spots one at a car boot sale.

Floors, meanwhile, are covered with old rugs, a lifetime of books are piled around – and read – and chairs are fat and comfy: everything in the house creates a restful backdrop. This backdrop also gives Posy the perfect opportunity to be as creative inside as she is outside, at work in her clients’ gardens. posygentles.co.uk