The rustic look has a classic and enduring appeal but it can be a challenge to find good country house film locations, because all too often such places are too tiny to make really strong location houses. That’s what makes our Sussex location house ‘Black Lamb’ such a winner.
Just a short distance from London, it has country-style features a-plenty including beautiful oak floorboards and beamed ceilings – in many pleasing variations – but all on an impressive scale.
You might expect that a house like this, which started life as a 17th century coaching inn (hence the pub-like name), to have been a labour of love for its owners, particularly given their creative backgrounds. Sally, now freelance, has worked for Laura Ashley and the Conran Shop, while husband Mark heads up the creative side of The White Company.
But the couple were lucky enough to stumble upon this place already sensitively restored, ‘With young children, we’d been looking to move out of London, but hadn’t considered this area, then Mark bought me a copy of Country Life, and this was the first property advertised inside. We loved the wonderful old fixtures and the reclaimed fireplaces. And there was nothing to do but decorate and move in.’
The couple decided to opt for a neutral colour palette, ‘we wanted to introduce colour via our art collection so decided that the walls should be a blank canvas.’ Because the walls are lime plaster, ‘which has a lovely textural appeal’, the pair decided to enhance that with chalk paint by Earthborn, as well as moody shades of grey by Farrow & Ball. This neutral approach also helps to make it a wonderful addition to our shoot location library.
In the older parts of the house, the couple left the beams untouched, while those used in the rest of the house are carefully sourced reclaimed pieces, many coming from a nearby Sussex barn, ‘there’s a good mix of different finishes throughout the house, which make it a very versatile shoot location, some have the patina of age and others are painted to lift the ceiling.’ Meanwhile the pine floors had an orange tinged which the couple knocked back with a white waxed finish.’
Both Mark and Sally love antiquing and furnished their home through many a happy purchasing trip, including frequent forays to France, ‘we both love French antiques and because there’s a really good bright light here, it creates a Provencal holiday feel.’ The beautifully landscaped romantic garden continues the theme and is also a popular part of our locations library.
Once they had things looking good, it was a no-brainer for the couple to register their house with Fresh Locations, ‘I’ve worked in so many location houses during my career, so I knew what to expect,’ smiles Sally ‘and I knew Fresh Locations to be a lovely friendly location agency with lots of experience.’
The couple’s sharp eye for interiors makes this a wonderful location for interiors shoots, but it’s also a perfect space as a fashion film location, ‘I think people like to buy into that Ralph-Lauren like vibe that we have here’, says Sally. She can sort out catering via a couple of wonderful local caterers, including Flint Bakery – that have lots of beautiful salads and fresh juices, and great vegan options too and Lewes itself has a multitude of great cafes.’
Great food options, an effortlessly relaxed country-style look, good-sized rooms and lots of them. As a country shoot location close to London, Black Lamb delivers the whole package.