Footstools With Country-House Charm

Footstools With Country-House Charm

Low-lying ottomans like those found in Chatsworth House can be a surprising, multi-purpose addition to a contemporary interior

By Alexa Brazilian in the Wall Street Journal

ONE OF THE BEST things about living in England is that you can visit, and even sleep in, centuries-old estates that grace the moody, romantic countryside. Chatsworth House, the nearly 150-room family seat in Derbyshire, is among the most popular, and when Deborah Cavendish—Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the last of the high-society Mitford sisters—died in September, I felt compelled to travel to the place she called home for 46 years. What I discovered was a magnificently eccentric abode with a diverse collection of furniture, art and talismans accumulated by every heir since the 1550s.

My favorite find: a pair of small, square footstools nestled beneath a striking green settee that abuts a canopy bed in the Wellington bedroom (named after the victorious Waterloo general who slept here in 1843). “The set was upholstered in matching French silk in the 1830s,” said Matthew Hirst, the house’s head of arts and historic collections. Since the stool duo had suffered wear and tear, the current Duchess recently refurbished them in a needlepoint pattern that mimics the original silk. These tiny perches are certainly not the room’s grandest feature—that would be the hand-painted floral wallpaper imported from China in the 1800s—but they lend the space a unique charm.

Clockwise from top: Daisy and Delilah Green Wool Contrast Footstool, $695, bouf.com; 18th-Century Painted Aubusson Stool from Country French Interiors, Inc., $2,400 for two, 1stdibs.com; Du Long et Du Lé Footstool, $584, pentreath-hall.com

That’s the beauty of a footstool. It can add old-fashioned quirk and coziness to any setting, whether there is a seat to accompany it or not. And while properly small footstools like the Chatsworth pair are a rare sight in more contemporary homes, they look surprisingly bold—even subversive—when placed in a sparse interior. (Try it.) “I think they should be looked at as little pieces of art,” said the Fairfield, Conn.-based wunderkind decorator Sam Allen, a 22-year-old lover of footstools who’s known for giving traditional interiors youthful twists. “Mostly, I grab antique ones that have unique legs.”

The online marketplace 1stdibs has a wide selection of such footstools from the 18th and 19th centuries, while Belgian brand Du Long et Du Lé offers handcrafted styles upholstered with ancient kilim rugs. These petite pieces are more versatile than you’d think: Use them as an offbeat spot for a stack of favorite books, a potted orchid or a particularly young visitor. And, of course, you can always simply put your feet up.