Craft works: ‘We both make things – it was important our home reflected that’

Salvaged wood and friends’ art make this old malthouse a warm family home

Wirksworth has always been a place where people make things,” says Esther Patterson. The Derbyshire market town is where Richard Arkwright opened the world’s first steam-powered mill. During the 1800s they churned out actual red tape for Whitehall. In the 21st century production workers have been replaced by craftspeople and factories have been turned into studios for the ceramicists, metalworkers and designers… People like Patterson, who give Wirksworth its Bohemian edge.

“This is a friendly place, too,” she says, whose business, Curiousa & Curiousa, specialises in colourful, contemporary lighting made by hand in the town. “It can take me 20 minutes to walk down our street, because there’s always someone to chat to.” Patterson’s home, which she shares with her husband Paul Carr and two grown-up children, feels equally sociable. In the 19th century, the red brick building was a malthouse, filled with pungent piles of grain fermenting for beer. The couple have preserved its industrial, open-plan architecture, adding rugs, art and bright wallpapers so that it feels like a cross between an urban loft and a country house.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2CFud1W
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