An English Country Christmas at a Charming Historic Estate | House Tour

We're in the heart of the beautiful English countryside visiting the incredible stately home of wallpaper designer Mia Rae. This estate is filled with generations of family history including some remarkable heirlooms and some chairs from the In 1952 or 3, I think. coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mia has been preparing the house for Homeworthy's arrival, making sure everything feels warm, inviting, and perfectly festive for the holiday season. Last night, we're in slight panic, but we got it together last minute. As we explore the rooms, we're surrounded by her signature wallpapers, luxurious fabrics, and carefully curated Christmas decor. A true reflection of her creative world. Even the Christmas decorations, a lot of it, we've sort of, the only thing I was, the team trusted me with this year, this year was tying bows, so for example, I was tying bows with all sorts of, you know, for berries and for the Christmas trees, and it's just a very simple look, but it's quite a natural, lovely look. Welcome Homeworthy. I'm Mia Rae and I'd love to invite you to have a look at our very English Christmas decorations and festive feeling for the season. Come on in. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. Hello this is Mia Rae. I'm a wallpaper designer and a fabric designer and we are at our country home in Lancashire in England called Whittington Hall. So my personal style is all about timelessness When I make wallpaper designs or fabric designs or any designs it's got to be a design that stays and doesn't date so I like going to a room where you can take a photo of it and it'll still look good in 100 years time because I think good design just has staying power generally whether it's modern or old or whatever else if it stays and it's good with the test of time it's good design. So because we inherited a lot of things you can't blitz a room in this kind of house so you just have to add to it and you don't want to lose the character either so for example the room that we're sitting in now has my Utopia wallpaper in but it's there with these old Colfax curtains. And it just goes because, Basil, do you mind? And it just goes because the colours are very broken, sort of gentle colours, so you just layer it on. The thing I love most about this home is the fact that it comes alive when there's people in it. So when we have weekends full of children, teenagers, adults, grandparents, I mean, the whole shebang, that's when it comes alive, and that's when this kind of house really is at its best. So we are in the white drawing room where we normally come after dinner to have some chocolates or tea or drinks. Incredibly comfortable room where you can chat and relax. Thanks. And I guess the things to mention here are the wonderful 18th century bowls here with the crest of the Mackays. My husband is the clan chief for the Mackays, Scottish clan chief. And so there's a lot of Mackay things around. And that is the crest. And then here we have... The bridge corner, of course, lovely to play around before dinner or after dinner or whatever. But just again, very comfortable seats. So a lot of bridge tables don't have very comfortable seats, but those are, which makes it a wonderful sit at. And marble fireplace. Oh, our Christmas tree. Again, very natural decorations from the woods, from our own woods, and smells delicious. And all the decorations are very sort of, I guess, Nordic Scandinavian Finnish. So very, very simple, a bit of berries, a bit of sort of wooden bowls and ribbons. And the Scandinavian piglet at the bottom, but we haven't really got to the present bit yet. And all of these grown in our own greenhouse, as are the Christmas cacti. I adore textiles, and there's old embroidered cushions here, which have been around for a long time, but my favourites are all the old... Susanese or Susanese however you want to pronounce them but they're sort of beautiful Uzbek hand embroidered antique fabrics. I absolutely adore them and there's another one over there because I am Finnish and we actually and most of Europe as I think does the royal family too they celebrate on the evening of 24th so we don't do presents in the morning we do them after dinner. Or just before dinner on Christmas Eve. So this is all sort of dark and cosy with Christmas lights on. And that's when we do the opening of the presents with a glass of champagne. So there's some fun pictures of my husband's grandparents here from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, I think it must be. Oh, no, these might even be from an earlier coronation. But they are... Rather wonderful with the coronation robes, which we still have in the house, but they're now so moth-eaten that there's actually more holes than there is coronation robes left, but they are rather wonderful. I'm originally from Finland, I was born in Finland, and of course Finland is the home of Father Christmas. So Christmas has always been important in terms of just making it feel very Christmassy and having the real Christmas trees around. I think we've got six in the house at the moment, which would be fun, I'll show you around those. So it's just creating this atmosphere, and for me it's all about... Creating an atmosphere where family can come together and friends can come together and feel festive. Next we move into the Green Hall, a central gathering spot where everyone comes together before dinner, enjoys a drink or relaxes by the fire. So we have some more Christmas trees here, not going to mention the boughs again because I did spend a lot of time on them but all very natural, all from our woods. We've got some branches, that is the original main entrance to the house and so this in the olden days used to be an entrance hall where you would, the butler would take your bags and take them somewhere But now it's our sort of cozy get-together, have a drink. Read newspapers room and again the fireplace, all the decorations straight from the garden. We've got some dried oranges and we've got all sorts of things and then we have this wonderful greenhouse where we keep flowers and it's a heated greenhouse, it's a rather large one and we bring the flowers and the trees here when we've got guests which is quite fun. So a lot of the furniture is family things. A lot of it is inherited. The room was, and a lot of the house was done up by my father-in-law and his wife, Troy and Hugh Ray. And they worked together with Pierre von Westenholz, who is a fabulous interior designer and has obviously done a lot for the king, et cetera. But so it's a lot of the lovely fabrics and the curtains are from that time. And a lot of the furniture is just put together. I have rehung about 300 to 500 pictures here, but it's all old things, really. Just a lot of entertaining, and we can start by everybody coming down before dinner, and it's so many memories of so many weekends and so many weekdays and so many festive seasons. It's really lovely. And, of course, it's overlooked by... A lot of rather ugly relatives, if you look around, they're sort of everywhere, sort of done in the Dutch style, where they have an enormous nose and an enormous forehead and eyes are really close to each other. But I'm hoping that people didn't actually look like that. But there's, yes, there's plenty of them around on the top and they're all overlooking us. So I'm sure they're part of the fun. So here is the dining room, festive dining room. Everything apart from the fresh roses are, everything's been collected from the garden or those lovely, now I can't remember the name of course, the Latin name, but those lovely dried flowers we did last summer in the garden and we dried them up in the wood chipper storage. And it's got, I know it's England in the winter, middle of the winter, but it has a rather wonderful view, this room. If you can see, normally it's full of sheep, but they might be too cold or not like the rain, as is happening. So the dining room has my husband, Aneas, on the wall. And before Aneas, there was someone called Eric. And Eric gambled about sort of half of Northern Scotland with a throw of dice and of course lost that game. So Eric went to the billiard room and my husband came in. This place setting is ready for Christmas. We have... We have a... A whole load of us, we've got the children, the smaller children and the teenagers and my parents coming and a few friends, so we're sort of ready to go. Well, the pots, the beautiful old Chinese sort of pots from... It's 18th century, 19th century. But the fireplace is the original when the house was built. And I'm not sure I can tell you anything more about it, I'm afraid. So yes, there are a few Christmas trees cut from the woods. Bows, I might add, is my Christmas sort of, that was my handcraft from last night. I was given the job to do a lot of bows. So I'm afraid I can't take credit for much else apart from the bows. This house was built in early 19th century, 1830s, and my father-in-law lived in it before my husband inherited it. So there is a lot of family stuff around that's been around for hundreds of years and a lot of wonky lampshades and wonky candles and wonky everything, but it's a great fun place to live in. Welcome to the library which is very much the room that we watch TV in and just relax and lounge and we do a bit of you know family games here too and this is the room where the wallpaper started so I was sitting here a few years back and it was especially painted in the 60s or 70s by someone Probably on something else apart from Coca-Cola because it was beautifully painted but it was the most depressing colour and I sat here for about 10 years thinking what should I do with this room and then I thought well how hard can it be to make wallpaper so I started finding out everything about wallpaper making and and became rather obsessed and so this was this room was the inspiration to making wallpaper and I really made it for this room. with my amazing creative partner Graham and then that's when the whole thing started you know friends were asking if they could have some and I thought well actually this is the most brilliant outlet for the creative things and so this room has a lot of special meaning for me because it's almost like bringing the outside in and it just feels like there's no window especially in the summer between inside and out and this fireplace here came from the family castle in Holland And it's 18th century, with the old Delft tiles from Holland underneath it too, which I painted with Graham, and it actually has about four different shades of grey, but it just probably looks like one shade of grey, but it's a wonderful piece. So this is our sixth Christmas tree this year and again it's just very natural with berries and bells and a little twinkly light and pine kernels and an owl at the top, rather like owls if you can see it. And again the garlands at the top. I was up on the ladder last night putting up the bows again but they look rather festive and wonderful. All from the garden. And all made handmade. So what's quite nice when one designs anything at home, be it festive or not, but it's the colours. So if they're broken colours, if they're mixed colours, they just go together. You don't need to worry about which colours you know your necessary layer up etc. So for example here those curtains are very old Colefax and Fowler curtains and and they go beautifully together with the Utopia wallpaper not because they were planned to do so but just because they're very similar colors and they're broken colors and they just blend and a lot of people think that it's the same sort of material or fabric but it's completely not it's just the soft colors. I wanted to go to fine art school And I got into Cambridge and my parents said, well, you should really go to Cambridge instead of Fine Arts School. So I did, and I ended up in a completely different trajectory to what I actually was planning, which was being an accountant and being a banker and all sorts of things. Anyway, then ended up doing marketing for luxury goods companies like Hermès and Asprey and Garrard. And then I headed marketing for Selfridges department stores and then had lots of children at a little bit of an older age. And quite quickly, so I lost the plot for about 15 years. And then went back into the art after that, which was wonderful because it was only when I started designing wallpaper, which actually the idea came about in this room, my completely random career path made sense the first time. So the finance and the marketing and the creative bit. So I never stopped painting since I was 12, but just not in the formal way. So didn't have formal education in that. But it's yes, my current work just brings it all back together. Welcome to the side entrance to the house. So this is the entrance that we actually use the most, which goes straight to the kitchen, but it's not the main entrance. But we sort of like it the most because it's very cosy. And of course, it has my Baccarat wallpaper on the walls, which makes me happy every time I walk in. So quite selfishly, I like this entrance. And there's a sort of old Mackay banner from some wars. Mackay clan banner which is quite fun and this one is a great one it's there was a grandfather or great-grandfather who was about I don't know six foot eleven or something two meters ten centimeters whatever that is um like those sort of American basketball players so his walking stick is about the height of me and I'm not very tall but I'm not very short either so you can tell it's quite it's a fun bit of uh fun bit of kit um and I will take you through to the kitchen The kitchen, as always, is where it all happens. As you can see, I did sort of say, let's tidy up, but it didn't quite happen. But fun things to talk about here is those wonderful plates around the kitchen here. They came from the family castle in Holland. And during the Second World War, the Nazis took over the castle as their base. And so Aunt Pussy, that's what she was called, and I don't even know her real name, had all those white plates and all the silver dug into the ground, and it was hidden during the First World War. And when the Nazis left the castle, it was dug up again. So it's got a fun story, those plates, and they're rather beautiful, I think. And then my favourite item of the house. My very old Ikea stackable chairs that I've put cushions on, the most comfortable kitchen chairs you could ever get. So this house has a rather lot of rooms and bedrooms and everything. But this tiny little snug here, which has three chairs in it, is the one that everyone argues about. Who's going to get those three armchairs? And it is the smallest little TV room. But this is where... This is where we all hang out which is rather ridiculous and this has my little wallpaper pattern called linen stamp on it too so I rather like this little room. There's a little guest cloakroom here near the kitchen with all the original tiling from when the house was built and the original floors and My Peshwai Lotus wallpaper in antique gold and it actually weirdly enough again goes with whatever was there. It's a charming combination and again some Mackay men in the middle. The idea for all the Christmas decorations really this year is that it's all homemade so Everything that you see around us today is from the estate, from the woods, from the garden, except for a few of the fresh flowers, which we sadly couldn't grow here. But even the Christmas decorations, a lot of it, we've sort of, the only thing I was, the team trusted me with this year was tying bows. So, for example, I was tying bows with the All sorts of, you know, for berries and for the Christmas trees and it's just a very simple look but it's quite a natural, lovely look. This is the main hallway. the way. And there we have the Birds of Paradise flowers, which we thought would be quite a mad addition to Christmas, but it ties in with all the orange things. Things. But all again, homegrown, homemade, home put together. Last night, we're in slight panic, but we got it together last minute. So this gothic chandelier is rather fun, and it was made in about 1820s, and it was brought here by my father-in-law. But it looks... It looks quite appropriate in that stairway. I'm rather proud of the team for having made these beautiful garlands going up and the flower arrangements. And some chairs from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 or 3, I think. What do you think? So let's come on through. Now please don't fall on the steps. So this room here It's one of our guest rooms and the house has a lot of big windows but it is covered in my queen's necklace wallpaper and it has rather wonderful story because this pattern, Graham who I paint with and who is my creative partner in crime, he was given a piece of fabric by John Fowler of Colefax and Fowler and the fabric was that pattern, it was navy blue. And it depicts, it was printed in the 1780s, just before the French Revolution. And it depicts this immensely valuable diamond necklace that Queen Marie Antoinette was trying to procure herself. Before she had her head chopped off before the French Revolution, so it was actually sort of printed to tell a story. And then Alexandre Dumas, who wrote Three Musketeers, etc., wrote a book about this whole thing called The Queen's Necklace Affair. So it's a rather fun story to have on your walls because it actually means something. But it looks like a very modern pattern, but it was printed in the 1780s. So this is it. Yes, very comfortable. Comfortable room and and can you imagine needlepoint rug of this size. Some ladies I presume would have sat there for years making these things. I would not have the patience but they are rather amazing. Again these are very old Colfax and Fowler curtains and completely by an accident they again go with the wallpaper because of the colours just being mixed soft colours and so I never thankfully needed to start changing them. So the view, the area around here, the light changes constantly so it's a wonderful, it has a lot of artists living here because the light is just beautiful and of course you're filming at Rather a rainy day but it is very lovely the undulating hills and if you go a little bit further up there it starts almost looking like a moorland in Scotland. So there's a lot of beautiful landscape around here and sort of dry stone walls, very Beatrix Potter who originally lived near here too up in the Lake District which is about 15 minutes from Lake Windermere. I mean, so... Really wonderful, unspoiled England, which makes such a nice change to being in London half the time. So I adore just not seeing anything but these hills and some sheep and just quietness. So this room has my Bezel Iris on the wall. It's one of the hardest colours to get right because that kind of, I call it tobacco, this colour, but it either comes out too orange or too red or too yellow. It's a rather difficult colour to get right, but it is very calming when you're with it and when you live with it. And again, completely... Random curtains. Well, not random. I mean, nice curtains, but random colour to go with it. But it just sort of goes. So nothing was changed here. This is all sort of old fabrics together with very wonky pictures, I just realised. It sort of makes it feel a bit wonky. I think I need to fix those a bit later. But a very comfortable room again and with the really beautiful view of the hills and the sheep when they're out there. Let me take you to another room. So another fun guest room. Now, I'm afraid there was a bit of a flood up here, but you get quite fit going up and down these stairs. No need to go to the gym. So here is our wallpaper again, and it's little Scottish men going to the Thirty Years' War. So it's a rather charming little pattern, good for corridors or libraries or children's rooms or... Studies or whatever and here this is a fun guest room and it's just we're having a visit here because it's a great optical illusion what you can do with just wallpaper in the ceiling for example so this is what we call the tent room but coming in it's wonderful because it feels like when you're lying here it feels like you are actually looking at a tent but anyway and it makes the room very It's very cosy. And it makes it special because it was just a very square room beforehand. Thank you. And again, here, old Colfax curtains put together, well, not put together, they were here, but they just sort of go with our Pico stripe wallpaper. Not, you know, again, accidental match, but those are quite often the best. So the sort of imperfection makes perfection, if that makes sense. So it is what we call the tree bathroom. And it has our Drottningholm tree wallpaper on it. But it is rather wonderful because it has a bath in the middle of it with windows, all three sides. Thank you very much. So you can, when it's nice weather, you can just look around and hopefully wave at someone in the next turret whilst you're in the bath. But it's a great bathroom to relax in. It's very nice, especially in the summer when the trees are out and the flowers are out. etc. So welcome to the billiard room where there's a lot of teenage games and or sometimes the adults get dragged into playing Frida. I don't know what you where they Anyone knows that. But it's a silly game around the pool table, which normally gets played post-dinner, and it's very silly. But it's a very sort of teenager hangout room, as you can tell, because there's my son's sort of gym weights on the floor, and it's always a mess, and there's a violin that no-one's played for at least ten years. Yes. And, of course, there's a lot of relatives again everywhere. And this one is, he was called Alexander Mackay, and he is wearing the Mackay tartan. I was putting up some pictures here, and I put that up there, and my children looked at me and said, Mum. Why is there not like a cool plasma screen there? I can't bear another relative. So anyway, I got my way and there was not going to be a big plasma screen here and now they're sort of okay with it, but it took quite a while. And here we have the naughty Eric who I talked about in the dining room who gambled. Now, I can't remember how many hundred thousand hectares of land in Scotland, but it was quite ridiculous. Thank you very much, Nicholas. playing with the Duke of Sutherland, so Eric has come to the corner in the billiard room and he will probably stay there. I think for someone like me who's lived in lots of different countries when I was growing up etc home is particularly important because it's the sort of base that you come back to and it's the base where all the children can come back to and you know my parents and everyone else so it is really home is where family And friends gather and that's, I guess, the most important thing for everybody just, and the dogs and, you know, whoever else is around. But yeah, it's just getting family together and getting friends together and having a lovely time. Thank you so much for coming to have a tour of Whittington Hall. It was fabulous having you here. And I am wishing you all an amazing festive season and happy holidays.