‘I don’t have green fingers, but I tinker’

KELLY HOPPEN, 63, interior designer

Where is your garden?

At our home in the Cotswolds, which my partner John and I have had for about two and a half years. It’s one of a collection of old barns that were rebuilt piece by piece, with all the original stone. It was the lambing barn, which I really loved: the fact that it was about births, rather than something awful. When we got it, there was a courtyard and nothing else; no landscaping. It’s the biggest garden we’ve had.

How did you change it?

I called up the landscape designer Stephen Woodhams, whom I’ve worked with a lot, and he initially designed the whole garden. We got pots for the courtyard and I ordered furniture, then put the lawn down and started creating these beautiful evergreen walls.

I’m not a gardener, but I knew what I wanted it to look like, and he made it happen. It’s really grown since then: all of the wild grasses at the back now look amazing – it’s all about the movement.

How much time do you spend here?

In the first lockdown we were stuck in London because the barn wasn’t finished. Once it was ready, and as we kept going back into lockdown, we spent more time here. We’re here every single weekend now, and there are times when I come here to work on designs because it’s so quiet and I can sit and look out; I find it very creative.

Do you have a gardener?

Yes, my gardener Tom Carey is amazing at keeping the garden looking good. Occasionally I’ll say I want to cut something back, particularly as it’s starting to look a little bare and depressing now the leaves have gone, and he’ll say, “No you can’t; it’s got to stay like that” and explains why. He knows I’m an instantgratification sort of person, but I listen to him, because I have to: he’s in charge.

At first the planting was all very green and white, because I love white flowers. Tom has encouraged me to introduce some other colours, which is different from what I’d normally do. I’m taking his lead on it, because I love the way it’s looking and how it’s evolved. I particularly love the dahlias – they’re one of my favourite flowers. The more mature the garden becomes, the easier it is in a way to add more things to it.

Do you do any gardening yourself ?

I do tinker in the garden – probably to the detriment of the garden. I don’t have green fingers, but having said that, I never used to cook and I taught myself how to cook during the lockdowns.

What I love about working with Tom is that he really explains things to me, so it’s a learning curve. I did start my own veg patch: Vicky, a very dear friend I’ve known since I was about five, sent me a kit with all these amazing vegetables to plant, and John made some planters for me. He would laugh because at first I planted everything in these neat little rows, and he’d say: “Kelly, you’ve got to leave the right amount of space between them.” As I said, it’s a learning curve.

We had tomatoes, spinach, runner beans, lots of lettuce… It was amazing – I’d never done that before. There are certain vegetables that I know I’ll use a lot – we had unbelievable courgettes, for example – so I now know what I want to grow there next year.

Did you have a garden growing up?

My grandmother had an amazing home in Constantia, a suburb of Cape Town in South Africa, and I used to go there every Christmas. She loved gardening and had a hydrangea garden. It was her home that I think inspired my passion for design. The house itself was the complete antithesis of my style, but it was more about the way I felt when I was in it.

We would always go and pick hydrangeas and other flowers and create displays on the dining table for dinner on a Friday night. So the garden was very much a part of my upbringing, which is why I’ve got hydrangeas all around the barn. I love to pick flowers in spring and summer and put them in vases, because it reminds me of my grandmother and how we used to do that together.

Do you have a favourite part of the garden?

When we first came here and my grandson was a bit younger, he would get on his little tractor and go around the field at the back, so I would spend a lot of time there.

In the winter I like to be in the house looking out at the courtyard, because it’s a really lovely outlook, and on summer mornings we’ll be in the courtyard. But sundown is always on the sundown deck that we designed at the back, where we’ve got scaffolding planks and these big Gervasoni chairs. That’s where we’ll go for a sundowner and it’s just wonderful; the sun literally goes down behind you. They are two very different aspects of the garden.

How does it make you feel when you arrive here?

There is a point, driving down the motorway, when I know I am near, and I can feel myself begin to relax. I get so excited when I’m going down the lanes to get here. I just love it.

Normally I’m an indoorsy person – I want to get into the home and feel that environment – but the garden looks so beautiful, it draws you out.

I often talk to Tom about plans for the garden, and each week I’m excited to see what he has been doing. I’m surprised at myself, because when I get here, the first thing I do is walk around the grounds. It gives me a huge amount of comfort and makes me feel really good. It’s very calming; I like the way I feel when I’m here.

How does the garden relate to the interior of the barn?

Even when you’re inside, you’re always looking out, so the interior and the garden are kind of one. A London home and a country home obviously have very different landscapes, as is the case with the interiors, but you can have a twist, too. The interior of the barn is not at all twee, it’s a bit of a mix: modern, but with a lot of vintage pieces. It’s quite Belgian, in a way, with lots of creased linens.

Similarly, the garden has this wonderful clipped topiary, but then there are old dolly pots filled with daisies, beautiful olive trees, lavender and clematis, the wild grasses – and of course, all the hydrangeas.

I like to mix old and new, and I think that sense of contrast works the same way in the garden. It’s not all perfect. It’s a real departure from my usual style, so it was a learning experience to have something rather wild. But it is quite a neat wild.