Picture a converted farm barn in the English countryside and you likely think of a Shaker-style kitchen, flagstone floors, and sage green accents.

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But there’s no sense of deja vu in this former granary building decorated by Maddux Creative. Deftly redeveloped by a local cabinet maker and bought by a London-based family, the slatted ceilings and slick staircase already leaned mid-century over cutesy cottage, so co-founder Scott Maddux leaned into the modern mood rather than fight it.

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Snapped up by returning clients as a weekend retreat from their city life, the home required a budget-conscious approach. One of the owners being Canadian meant a less traditionally British expectation of what such a country retreat should look like. To help offset some of the costlier pieces, Scott cleverly called on quintessentially 1970s accessories, such as macrame wall hangings, a tile-topped coffee table, and glazed lamps. “I’ve always loved those heavier, ‘ugly’ ceramics,” he says.

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The Expert’s primary mission was to cozy up the ground-floor open-plan area. “Because the space is so big, we had to bring in textures and layers,” he explains. “If it were straight-up Scandi mid-century, it would be a bit dull; it needed warmth and interest with pieces that were a little more extreme.” His piece de resistance: a generous pair of curved sofas based on a vintage design in a dusky pink bouclé. Fostering easy conversation around the fireplace, they inject softness and tactility. The equally exaggerated proportions of the sculptural rattan floor lamps and Fred Rigby Studio’s circular coffee tables made for perfect partners.

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The building’s large expanses and high ceiling pitches create dazzling proportions, but Scott found the original crisp white walls a distraction. So he switched them for a creamier shade and matched the entrance’s walls to the staircase’s wood tones: “That way when you walk in, your focus is straight on the windows in front of you” (or the trio of fuzzy sheep—a playful ‘just because’ addition the kids love).

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Scott is especially pleased with the patterned drapery, another custom move. Layering abstract, blocky shapes was inspired by a mural in a previous project: “Having a pattern of that scale on a sheer fabric is quite unusual, but it breaks up the long window expanses,” he says.

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In the TV room, it was the zoomorphic print on the curtains that inspired the installation of masks by artist Elodie Blanchard above the woven sideboard. “It’s one of my favorites,” says Scott of Pierre Frey’s wonderfully rich fabric. “This is a more kid-oriented room, but everyone uses it, so the colors and patterns are a way of being childlike yet sophisticated,” he explains.

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Working with repeat clients means inherently knowing what they love (and don’t) from the get-go. Scott recalled their enthusiasm for color and expressed this through a palette of nature-inspired tones in the bedrooms. The primary bedroom is decked in Samphire by Paint & Paper Library, which provides a calming contrast against the raw edges of the salvaged elm headboard carved by woodworker John Alfredo Harris.

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Scott’s preference with pitched spaces is to wrap color all over: “Wallpaper has a similar softening effect,” he says. In the kids’ twin room, Paint & Paper Library’s Divine Brown makes for a cocooning spot—somewhere you’d happily retire to count sheep (a fitting activity for the Cotswolds).

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