John McSwaney started off with a goal shared by many who undertake renovations. As he explains to Architectural Digest, he and his wife, Christine, "wanted to create something the original owners would have been proud of." It just so happens that the original owner they set out to impress was Daniel Finch, the second Earl of Nottingham, who began construction on Burley on the Hill in the late 1690s, possibly serving as his own architect. The manor stayed in the family for about 300 years, until it was bought by a Turkish businessman looking to turn it into a resort. Eventually, restoration expert Kit Martin acquired a portion of the estate that he converted into six apartments, one of which the McSwaney's bought, and hired designer Mark Gillette, a specialist in country-home renovations, to do something with. On turning the mansion's former dining area into a drawing room, Gillette notes that "with a room of this scale you have to be bold with certain elements," presumably referring to the bold blues and pinks on display.
The master bedroom takes after the drawing room color-wise, with blue carpeting by Stark, armchairs upholstered in Brunschwig & Fils fabric, and an eighteenth-century four-poster bed with a canopy of Zoffany silk. The portrait on the wall is a seventeenth century Daniel de Coning.
Pictured above is the guest room, in all its post-renovation glory. For more on the project, check out the feature at Architectural Digest, with extra before and after shots at Daily AD. · An Exquisite Apartment in a Historic English Country Estate [Architectural Digest]
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