Inside Samantha Cameron’s lavish £1.5m Cotswold cottage… complete with a £1,200 rug and a 40-inch flat-screen TV
The 46-year-old businesswoman says the idyllic country pad, which she shares with former Prime Minister David Cameron and their children, is her “family nest”
SAMANTHA Cameron has flung open the doors to her lavish £1.5 million Cotsworld cottage.
The 46-year-old businesswoman told that the idyllic country pad, which she shares with former Prime Minister David Cameron and their children, is her “family nest”.
AT HOME WITH SAM CAM
- Rosedale 10-skin sheepskin rug from OKA, £1,200
- Rattan Mattaban log basket from OKA, £256
- Panasonic flat-screen TV, 40-inch, £479
- Portrait believed to be by 18th-century French master Jean-Baptise Greuze, whose work is displayed in the National Gallery
- Sofas, both from OKA, from £1,800 each
- Table lamp from OKA, £150
- Stripey faux-fur throw, £225
The luxury pad's living room is kitted out with a £479 Panasonic 40-inch TV, a £1,200 sheepskin rug by high-end homeware line OKA, and a portrait by 18th-century French master Jean-Baptiste Greuze, whose work is displayed in the National Gallery.
Despite these posh touches, Sam told the glossy magazine that the house is “slightly falling down” and “rotting”.
The Camerons bought the hideaway in 2001 when David became MP for Witney, Oxfordshire.
They paid £650,000 for their constituency home, but decided to keep it after he stepped down as an MP last year.
It is now worth a staggering £1.5million.
Sam told the publication: “To be honest, the house is slightly falling down.
"The windows are rotting, the roof needs replacing, but it’s lovely and it’s where we brought each of our children home from the hospital. It’s our family nest.”
Sam has opted for a laid back, neutral colour scheme, and added scatter cushions and faux-fur throws to create a relaxed atmosphere.
She calls the cottage her “sanctuary” and says her children, Nancy, 13, Elwen, 11, and Florence, six, all love spending weekends there.
For the glamorous 'at home' shoot, Sam has posed for portraits wearing clothes from her own fashion label, Cerfinn.
Property essentials
She is seen drinking tea in the garden wearing a £210 off-white blouse, and posing on the family’s £25,000 “shepherd’s hut” in a £390 cashmere and textured voile dress.
Sam told Harper’s Bazaar: “I wanted to be an artist or a designer from an early age.
"In fact, my earliest memory is having the most terrible tantrum aged three when I insisted on wearing a beach dress to nursery school in the middle of winter, when it was snowing outside.”
Sam, who used to be the creative director of upmarket stationers Smythson, took weekly pattern-cutting lessons while living in Downing Street.
“I bought a basic sewing machine and then an overlocker (which joins seams) and a dressmaker’s dummy, and over a couple of years I shouted and screamed at the sewing machine and spent my time trying to hone those skills,” she said.
Sam revealed that the bold navy-and-orange dress she wore when her husband quit Downing Street after losing the Brexit vote was actually her “winning” outfit.
She said: “I’d actually bought it for winning the election because it was upbeat, along with another for losing, but I ended up wearing the wrong one.”
She added that former American First lady Michelle Obama is one of her fashion idols.
“Michelle is brilliant because she’s so confident and she’s got such dignity and intelligence but she embraces fashion and isn’t scared of her femininity,” she said.
In June, Sam revealed that she couldn't afford designer clothes because she has children and a mortgage.
The full interview appears in the September issue of , on sale August 4