Warkworth Cottage, Trent Hills, Ontario
Private residence + Residential RENOVATION PROJECT.
An 1880s church turned country house and a very colourful guest cottage.
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”In a leafy corner of rural Ontario, Warkworth Cottage stands as a romantic ode to the English countryside—not in replication, but in spirit. This private residence, captured with moody intimacy by interiors photographer Brooke Stephenson, is an intricately layered composition of pattern, colour, and storied objects. Every room hums with character, as though the walls themselves have tales to tell. Color here is confident and considered—walls are drenched in rich, saturated hues: rich reds, soft blues, and warm ochres that shift with the light and the seasons. Statement wallpapers and fabrics, including a notable nod to House of Hackney, create enveloping atmospheres that play between the theatrical and the romantic. It’s a cottage that celebrates drama in quiet ways, and never at the expense of comfort.
Throughout, the styling is injected with a sense of play—personal, curious, and delightfully unprecious. In the red twin bedroom, a corkboard layered with postcards, pressed flowers, and old snapshots feels like a window into the owner's inner world. The blue living room, with its overflowing bookshelves and tangle of collected curiosities, exudes a kind of elegant chaos—inviting, tactile, and lived in. Meanwhile, the ochre sitting room tells its own tale: a room of gathered memories, where antique finds—stacked, propped, and layered—whisper stories of faraway markets, antique fairs, and well-loved homes past. There’s no formula here. Instead, Warkworth Cottage embraces the freedom of intuition: a stack of dog-eared books teetering on a footstool, movie set foam columns given a new lease on life, and acquired antique portraits once residing in their 1880s church. The charm lies in the quiet irreverence, the refusal to edit too much or match too closely. Everything belongs because it means something to OWNERS, COLIN, MATT, AND CASPER (THEIR very cute black french bullDOG)
This is not just a cottage —it’s a portrait. A home that favours soul over symmetry, and narrative over novelty. Through Brooke Stephenson’s lens, we are invited into its world—where every vignette feels like a page from a well-thumbed World of Interiors Magazine, where beauty lies in the joyful layering of time, texture, and memory.”-Photography and Words by Brooke stephenson
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