Inside a tiny Cotswold cottage embraced by nature

Slightly more glamorous than a normal country cottage

and is definitely opposite to the general Cotswold look.

[bright music]

My name is Joshua Hale, I'm an interior designer and artist.

We're currently sitting in my cottage,

which is part of Ham Court in Bampton.

It's owned by Matthew Rice

and it's a beautiful 11th century gatehouse

that was once a castle.

My cottage isn't quite as fancy

and it's just a little tiny worker's cottage,

but it's been fun being able to put my own stamp on it.

I took it as an opportunity to no longer live

inside a white box, so I wanted every single room to connect

with each other, but be an explosion of color and comfort.

I got into decorating when I met Emma Burns,

managing director of Sibyl Colefax over a glass of rosé.

I had possibly the best job interview I had ever had,

and she took me under her wing.

Having a limited budget

for this project was a great opportunity for me

to be creative.

It pushed me to make cost saving decisions.

One example here is that I would love

to have Dutch tapestry wallpaper,

but that was not in the question,

so I painted the trees myself.

I only ever sit in this room in the evening,

so I had no problem whatsoever with going dark.

I chose to paint the walls in a bronze green color.

When I first moved in, there was a vent in this wall.

Buying and installing this open fireplace

was the most important change I think I've made

in this house.

The tiles that I designed with Matthew,

which we had made in Stoke on Trent

and above it are three of my favorite things.

They're paper cuttings by Roger Banks-Pye.

I am obsessed with Menorca.

I've been there many times

and I absolutely adore the island.

The painting behind me is inspired by their fiestas

that they have in September time.

It's all in the main squares and they have rutting horses

and people are mad enough to get up and underneath them.

One of my great passions is collecting ceramics

or pottery from all over the world.

I love the pottery from Sifnos.

I love my Sicilian head.

Down by the fireplace I've got my little guard dog,

Oat Cake, that made her way down from Stoke on Trent,

and it's one of the old Bridgewater shapes

that's sadly not made anymore.

[bright guitar music] [door squeaks]

Decorating a client's

or my own bedroom I think is the hardest room

to decorate in your house.

It's incredibly personal, so you really have to think about

how you use the space.

I have stuck to the dark color scheme.

I have painted all of the walls in London clay,

which is my favorite Farrow & Ball color.

The main painting above my bed I found in a skip.

It's one of my favorite skip finds.

The painting behind me was the last painting I did

when I was still at university.

I based it on my idea of rush hour in Venice,

and I think it's so full of color

that it worked perfectly on the dark background.

This is a good example of high and low spending.

This is a good chair that I bought at auction,

which is covered in Fortuny,

and this is another decent piece of furniture

from a very different auction house

that was 75 pounds.

The painting's one of mine.

I describe this as a perfect example

of post-honeymoon period. [breathing heavily]

[bright guitar music]

My friends and family thought I was absolutely mad

when I wallpapered my bathroom,

but I think it's actually my favorite splurge

of the entire house.

It's leopard stripe by Sybil Colefax and John Fowler.

It gives so much character, it gives so much look,

and I think everyone should do it.

I love the two lights in here on the walls.

They frame what is actually quite a small mirror well,

they fill the space

and they were a bargain from Jim Lawrence.

I would've loved to have put stone in this bathroom,

but I couldn't afford it.

So instead you have my Italian Palazzo Terrazzo

but it's actually lino that's 19 pounds a square meter.

One of the great lessons I learned from Emma Burns

was to decorate a bathroom.

It shouldn't just be a kind of hotel or clinical space.

My beautiful chair that sits next to my bath

is not only handy for a drink or your clothes,

but it's absolutely beautiful

and came from a Sybil Colefax and John Fowler sale.

[bright guitar music]

I wanted my guest bedroom to feel special.

My friends would come down for the weekend

and I feel like even though the room's small,

it should have still been a lovely place for them

to down tools and chill for the weekend.

This is my box bed. It's squeezed in.

It's a little single.

The lining is all Ikea,

but the curtains and valance and pelmet are Pierre Three.

I took my scissors to the pelmet

and followed that lattice design,

giving this deckled edge finish.

The watercolor painting in this bedroom is by Matthew Rice.

It's my favorite way that he paints,

and that's without any pencil or pen line.

It's just a process of pulling washes of watercolor

across the paper

and slowly building up the painting.

I hope that when my friends come to stay for the weekend,

they enjoy this little space that I've created

and that it feels more than just a little room

at the back of my cottage room.

[bright guitar music]

I love to cook and I use this space I think

most of all in the house.

I love this color called Wet Sand by Farrow & Ball.

I prefer a kitchen that has pictures on the walls.

Above the cooker's a painting that I did.

It's based on a trattoria that I love in Rome.

It kind of captures the general hustle

and bustle of a proper home-run Roman kitchen.

My dresser has Staffordshire pottery that I love.

It's got my favorite pottery,

which is Royal Crown Derby Unfinished.

It's the Imari pattern

before all of the wild gilding is applied.

It's a country kitchen and this is definitely far too grand

a piece of furniture for it,

but I think I'd just about get away with it.

[bright guitar music]

When I moved in, Matthew had a pew leftover

from where he used to have a big barn

where he did his entertaining.

We had a local craftsman cut the bench down

and fits quite neatly into this little alcove space.

This came from my mom's house.

I used to do school prep at this table

and it's been with me for quite a long time

and I still work at it today.

The snakes were a late night impulse after a glass of wine,

and I'm very glad that I did it.

The lobster is one of my favorite purchases.

It came from Lisbon where I was traveling.

It's a beautiful pottery shop right in the middle of town.

I believe it was cast by about 15 individual pieces

by a guy who is now reaching his late eighties.

When entertaining,

this mini bar-come-pantry cupboard is my secret weapon.

I think everybody needs a place to dump things out of sight,

and this doubles up absolutely perfectly

as well as keeping all nice bottles of white wine chilled.

[gentle music] [birds twittering]

I designed and planted the garden myself.

When I moved in, there was a driveway

that went straight through the middle of the garden

right up to the back door

where the previous tenants would park their car.

Now it's borders and walkways through my garden.

[gentle guitar music]

When I come home here after a day of work

or from being away,

it's nice to walk into a home that feels like home.

I know that it's just a rental,

but when you walk in, it does feel like me.

[bright guitar music]