Nestled on the banks of the River Thames, this home is full of treasured handcrafted accessories
Textile artist Emma Cassi has created a charmed world in a secluded Edwardian gardener’s cottage, tucked away beside the Thames. This London home is filled with Emma's exquisite botanical textile designs and collections of handcrafted accessories. Take a tour...
Emma and her husband Bertrand painted the house black and replaced the uPVC windows with steel-framed ones. A wisteria-covered pergola and beds with swaying grasses, perennials and annuals with mown paths now give the house a hidden quality.
In a corner of the kitchen is a collection of treasured handcrafted accessories, including an esparto grass basket from Spain, vintage stoneware marmalade jars and a large marble mortar from Normandy.
The wooden chopping boards are from Emma's grandfather's sawmill in France. Cork-lidded glass jars contain her homemade tisanes – another of her passions.
The kitchen also features unfitted furniture pieces, including a stainless-steel catering workbench with a poplin curtain made by Emma.
Neutral decor and natural finishes create a calm and tranquil dining area, while enamelled pendants hang above a trestle table.
The house had few existing architectural features, so a plaster partition wall was removed in the living room, leaving two brick pillars and creating a large open-plan space. Some of the walls have been replastered and finished by hand with beeswax. Emma, who works in various media including jewellery and botanical textile collages, made the sculpted bean bag using fine organic poplin.
As a textile artist, Emma loves to collect vintage homeware, such as these maps, along with treasured handcrafted accessories.
A pure white room not only helps to bounce natural light around but makes an ideal gallery to showcase Emma's handmade coiled pots and framed herbarium and collages.
In the subtly lit bathroom, dark floorboards and a textured lime paint from Maitland & Poate surround a steel bateau bath from The Cast Iron Bath Company.
In the ground floor back bedroom, neutral-coloured linens, a lampshade Emma made from crinoline found at a vintage fair and a Ptolomeo bookcase create a simple, Zen-like calm.
In son Anton's bedroom, chalkboard paint creates a very different mood to the rest of the house.
Emma enjoys foraging for grasses and wildflowers on the banks of the River Thames, just a stone's throw from her garden.
• For Emma’s work, see emmacassi.com; @silkbyemmacassi
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