Inside Edward Bulmer’s smallest room: a colourful country house WC

At Court of Noke, Edward Bulmer’s Queen Anne home in Herefordshire, even the smallest room has a story to tell.

When Inigo visited Edward’s family home, rather than revisiting its much-photographed drawing rooms and bedrooms, the conversation turned to a rather less conventional space: the downstairs WC.

Filled with artwork, collected objects and a wonderfully detailed fabric wall covering, the room reflects Edward’s belief that no part of a house should be overlooked when it comes to decoration.

Three centuries of history in one small room

Court of Noke has undergone numerous transformations since it was built in the early 18th century, and the downstairs WC is a particularly interesting example.

What is now a small, richly decorated room once served as a back entrance to the house, opening from the galleried hallway.

When Edward and his wife Emma renovated the space, they wanted to create a room that acknowledged the building’s history without feeling constrained by it.

Edward chose an antique piece rather than a conventional modern WC enclosure, installing what was historically known as an ‘incontinence chair’, found in an antiques shop in Hereford.

The result is an unexpected combination of historic furniture and everyday practicality.

A decorative fabric wall covering

One of the room’s most striking features is its wall covering, which is often mistaken for wallpaper.

In fact, it’s a fabric by Rubelli, discovered by Edward and Emma during a visit to a château in France.

They had seen the fabric hanging along a grand first-floor gallery and were captivated by its elaborate pastoral imagery, depicting a carriage travelling through the countryside among villages, flowers and rural scenes.

Its price made covering a large room rather impractical, but the downstairs WC offered the perfect opportunity to use it on a smaller scale.

The fabric transforms the room into an immersive decorative space, with something new to discover in almost every corner.

Navy Blue: an unexpected choice for woodwork

Originally, Edward painted the skirting boards in an off-white, but later decided that a stronger colour would be more interesting.

He chose Navy Blue, picking up the blue of the horses depicted in the fabric.

It’s a small detail that makes a significant difference. Rather than simply framing the walls, the painted skirting becomes part of the decorative scheme, drawing out a colour that might otherwise go unnoticed.

As Edward explains in his conversation with Inigo, his approach to choosing colour is always informed by the building itself, its history and the objects within it.

The result demonstrates how even a small amount of paint can bring together different elements of a room.

A collection of curiosities

Beyond its richly patterned walls, the WC is filled with objects collected over the years, each with its own story.

Among them are a miniature plaster figure of Michelangelo’s Moses, a Staffordshire footbath and drawings by Edward, including designs for the family’s bed, garden buildings and a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales at Althorp.

A large Jacobean-style oak coffer has also found a home in the room. Once used by Edward’s daughters to store their dressing-up clothes, it now holds an assortment of family possessions.

These personal details make the room feel less like a carefully staged interior and more like an extension of the family’s life at Court of Noke.

Decorating a small room with confidence

The downstairs WC offers a useful reminder that small spaces don’t have to be decorated cautiously.

Rather than trying to make the room appear larger through pale colours and minimal decoration, Edward has embraced its proportions, filling it with pattern, artwork and objects that invite a closer look.

The Navy Blue skirting boards are a particularly good example of how a considered colour choice can make a small room more interesting without requiring a complete redesign.

Whether it’s a downstairs WC, a compact hallway or a small study, spaces that are often treated as purely functional can offer some of the best opportunities to experiment with colour.

Read Inigo’s original feature on Edward Bulmer’s home or explore our natural paint colours for inspiration.