It takes a certain skill to design a retirement village combining colours of Chelsea Football Club and the regency palette of Jane Austen
As part of the Audley Villages development team, Bernard Interiors has been working on Audley’s new scheme in Surrey due to complete later this year.
Jen Bernard, MD and founder of the award-winning practice talks us through her ideas.
Located on Fairmile Lane in the leafy village of Cobham, Audley Fairmile’s design and style reflects the exclusivity of its location in the heart of Surrey.
The village will consist of 76 retirement properties as well as an Audley club housing a bar bistro, restaurant, library and spa.
The brief for Audley Fairmile was to create a unique hospitality interior for the Audley Club which lies at the heart of the village.
“Audley Fairmile is an entirely new and urban development so inspiration for the interiors has been taken from the history and surrounding area of Cobham,” explains Jen, whose company specialises in creating interiors for integrated retirement communities (IRC’s).
Cobham is a charming village lying on the banks of the River Mole in Surrey, an area well-known for its exclusive private estates and celebrity residents.
Within close proximity to London, it’s also home to Chelsea FC’s training ground and boasts beautiful countryside including Painshill Park, an award-winning 18th Century landscaped garden regarded as one of the finest examples of the English Landscape Movement.
“The design for Audley Fairmile is sophisticated and elegant,” Jen explains.
“Classic and contemporary styles have been blended to create a striking and impressive interior for both owners and visitors.
“We drew upon Painshill Park as a starting point for the colour palette in the bar bistro. Painshill is well known for its Serpentine Lake and eye-catching daffodil displays each Spring so a blue and yellow colour palette are representative of this. This is also a very subtle and coincidental nod to the Chelsea FC colours.”
The blue theme is continued on throughout the scheme, becoming the linking colour between the different spaces.
The entrance is clean and crisp, setting the tone for the rest of the interior, with accents of blue in the soft furnishings.
“The restaurant and private dining are very striking spaces, with a rich navy blue used for the walls and furniture upholstery.
Subtle hints of yellow feature in the artwork within these areas, linking them back to the bar bistro and creating flow and unity throughout the building.
“We drew upon Painshill Park again for our lounge scheme,” Jen adds.
“One of the park’s main attractions is the Crystal Grotto – a magical cave with rough rock and stalactites covered in sparkling crystals. When researching this we found beautiful images of the cave lit up at night. The crystals looked almost pink and there were hints of blue reflecting from the water. We translated this into a relaxing and calming scheme for the lounge and library.”
For the communal areas in each of the residential buildings, inspiration for artworks and accessories have been taken from different aspects of Cobham’s rich history.
One of the buildings is inspired by motor racing and the famous nearby Brooklands racing track, the birthplace of British motorsport.
Another building is based on Jane Austen, after discovering a letter she wrote to her sister, Cassandra, detailing an overnight stay in Cobham where she notes that the local attraction “Painshill Park” as particularly pretty. Cobham is also mentioned several times in her 1816 book, Emma.
The health and wellbeing facilities at an Audley Village are second to none, and the spa at Audley Fairmile is no exception.
Located in the basement, a coffered ceiling and feature LED lighting creates a halo effect to create a tranquil sanctuary for owners.
Bespoke wall art and planting will bring an organic and natural feel to boost feelings of positivity and wellbeing.
“After working on this project since 2019, it’s been so exciting to see it come to life in the fly-through and CGIs,” says Jen. “The construction is well underway now and we’re looking forward to completion at the end of this year.”
Led by Jen Bernard, Bernard Interiors works across the UK and abroad providing interior architectural design, consultancy and procurement services for the high end later living, residential, and commercial markets.
The award-winning practice has specialist knowledge in the interior design of five-star new build care homes, extra care apartment complexes and retirement villages.
The practice has delivered five projects for Audley since 2018, including Nightingale Place in Clapham and Cooper’s Hill in Surrey.
Recent residential work has featured in Country Homes & Interiors magazine and House & Gardens The List.
For more information visit www.bernardinteriors.co.uk/+44 (0)1661 821 427/enquiries@bernardinteriors.co.uk
