BEHIND THE SCENES OF
THE MAKERS ROOM AT GLADWELL & PATTERSON
In celebration of the contemporary British interior
IN CELEBRATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY INTERIOR_
THE MAKERS ROOM
This summer, Notswolds was invited to take over the first-floor drawing room at Gladwell & Patterson in Stamford.
It was an invitation we were very happy to accept.
The antique campaign bed from Claire Langley Antiques, and the mini plant pot by Jess Ellis Ceramics.
Founded in 1752, Gladwell & Patterson has a long history of dealing in fine art, with galleries in London and Stamford and generations of experience in bringing exceptional paintings into people’s homes.
For The Maker’s Room, we brought something new into the mix: furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles, sculpture and decorative objects made by artists, designers and craftspeople working across the Notswolds today.
The idea was to create a room that felt collected rather than exhibited. Contemporary pieces amongst the paintings. Things made a few miles away alongside works that have travelled through generations. And, above all, things you might actually want to live with.
Artichokes - Composition VI by Le Blanc Fine Art, part of the Le Manoir Collection. Dramatic boards in Blackened Oak and Walnut from Flavell Trading.
Setting the scene
We began with the room itself.
The first-floor gallery has the proportions of a drawing room, rather than an exhibition space, and we wanted to keep that feeling.
On one wall went our Notswolds x Bruce Fine Papers Oakleaf wallpaper in Fired Clay, block printed by hand and chosen for the warmth it brought to the paintings already hanging there. The rest of the room followed from it: terracotta, timber, rush, linen, ceramic and stone.
Then the pieces began to arrive.
Some were existing works we had admired for some time. Others were made or commissioned especially for The Maker’s Room.
Summerfield + Scott made a bench from ash grown on the Boughton Estate and rush gathered from the River Ise, the two materials originating within little more than a mile of one another. JC+CO made a set of fumed oak shelves with cotton-reel turned uprights. Alongside them came ceramics, upholstery, sculpture, lighting and smaller objects from workshops across the region.
The common thread was simply good work, beautifully made.
Bespoke handpainted dolls houses by Laura E Jekyll and the hugely popular faux bamboo fender with pleated upholstery by Sedere & Co.
From the windows in
The room was only part of it.
For the windows, we returned to Adam Dant’s Welcome to the Notswolds map. Figures from across its six counties — historical, folkloric and occasionally rather strange — were lifted from the map and scattered across the glass, looking out over Stamford.
At street level, we wanted something that marked the entrance without feeling like conventional exhibition dressing.
We had recently visited Tiffany Arntson’s Make-wise exhibition at The Basement in Stamford and loved the physicality of her work. We asked her to make something for the gallery entrance, and conversations soon turned to thresholds, portals and the idea of stepping from one world into another.
The resulting work was made especially for the space.
Malton Leaf from the Bruce Fine Papers x Notswolds collection. Antique egg prints given a modern twist, framed in charming art paper, from Hall & Wall.
Putting it together
As with any interior, much of what makes a room work happens in the final few days.
Wallpaper goes up. Furniture arrives. A vase moves six inches to the left. Something that looked perfect on paper finds an entirely different place once it is in the room.
Gladwell & Patterson gave us considerable freedom with their gallery, while their paintings remained part of the picture throughout. That was important. The Maker’s Room was never intended to sit apart from Gladwells, but amongst it.
And perhaps that was what we enjoyed most about the finished room.
A contemporary ceramic beneath an oil painting. A hand-painted lamp beside an antique piece of furniture. New upholstery, old frames, rush, oak, stone and canvas.
No hierarchy. Just very good things, made and collected with care.
DISCOVER CHELSEA’S FAVOURITES IN STAMFORD THIS JUNE
You’ll find these pieces, along with many more from makers, artists and craftspeople across the region, at the Notswolds Summer Makers Market this June at Claire Langley Antiques in Stamford.
The Notswolds Summer Makers Market | 19-28 June 2026
Claire Langley Antiques, Hallidays Yard, Radcliffe Road, Stamford PE9 1ED
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