Architectural Digest goes inside the English mansion of supermodel Claudia Schiffer and film director/producer Matthew Vaughn for this episode of “Celebrity Homes”.
Claudia Schiffer—member of the original supermodel club, iconic Guess? girl, magazine-cover star times a thousand, and savvy businesswoman—is well versed at navigating runways. So 15 years ago, when the Teutonic bombshell and her now husband, English film director Matthew Vaughn, turned into a half-mile-long driveway—unannounced and on a whim—to inquire whether the owners might consider selling the historic house at the end of it, Schiffer naturally won over her audience. Months later, the couple, having closed the deal, were married there in front of 120 guests.
The 14-bedroom Tudor mansion on 530 acres now serves as the full-time residence to them and their three children, Caspar, 14, Clementine, 12, and Cosima, 7, plus a menagerie of dogs, cats, sheep, pig, and tortoise.
It’s said that the 1574 house—built in the shape of an H in honor of King Henry VIII—owes its name to Queen Elizabeth I, who was nonplussed at being served cold ham when she stayed there and thus christened it Coldham Hall. It served as a safe haven for Catholic priests during the Elizabethan purges and still boasts a few priest holes—cubbies below the floorboards—which today make perfect hiding places for the kids. The property was also a meeting point for the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and remained in the original family for some three centuries.
The furniture is a mix of comfortable upholstered pieces, antiques, and family heirlooms.
The walls of nearly every guest bedroom are covered in traditional motifs—tree-of-life fabric in one room, an orchard-print wallpaper in another. One bedroom, per Schiffer’s insistence, was wrapped from floor to ceiling in Galbraith & Paul crimson lotus wallpaper to create a tentlike effect.
If the furnishings lean traditional, the art that fills the walls acts as a wonderful juxtaposition. Avid collectors, Schiffer and Vaughn have amassed an array of impressive works by such contemporary masters as Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, and Candida Höfer. Recent acquisitions are some of David Hockney’s iPad drawings of the English countryside, which Schiffer was attracted to because they “look like they could be on our grounds.” Schiffer began poking around galleries as a young model in Paris living in the Marais.
The study’s walls are covered with Lelièvre fabric and adorned with works by Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha.
Ashkan Sahihi lenticular photos of each child, an Adam Fuss photogram of Cosima when she was a baby, and a pair of Ed Ruscha paintings.
While Coldham Hall initially served as a weekend getaway from London, the family moved there full- time several years ago. These days, after dropping the kids at school (not a single paparazzo in sight), Schiffer and Vaughn retreat to their study with a cup of tea, where they work at desks alongside each other. They often take creative meetings here. In addition to her own projects, which include Claudia Schiffer (Rizzoli), a coffee-table tome on her spectacular three-decade modeling career, coming out next month, Schiffer also acts as an executive producer on her husband’s films. The latest, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, is due out this month.
Coldham Hall is purposefully designed to be kid- and animal-proof. Much of the furniture is upholstered in sturdy, practical fabrics like corduroy and moleskin.
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Inside Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn’s Mansion | Celebrity Homes | Architectural Digest
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