The flowers at Coworth Park have found some unexpected places to settle. They are suspended in resin tabletops, pressed into clay for bathroom reliefs and drawn across linen-covered walls. For the redesign of the Berkshire hotel’s stable rooms, suites and cottages, Martin Hulbert Design has made the estate’s wildflower meadows a recurring presence, down to the dried specimens gathered from its grounds.
Set within 240 acres of parkland near Ascot, Dorchester Collection’s country retreat offers Londoners an appealing change of scenery, with polo fields, a spa and Adam Smith’s exquisite culinary proposal at Woven. Its latest renovation marks a homecoming for Hulbert, whose studio was established during the creation of Coworth Park’s original interiors over 15 years ago. Returning alongside design directors Jay Grierson and Emma Webster, he has approached the project with an affection for what was already there.
Martin Hulbert Design revisits Coworth Park’s stable suites and cottages
‘The brief was clear: build on the legacy of Coworth Park’s past, while shaping it for the future,’ says Hulbert. That continuity is evident in the rooms, where existing oak floors and freshly painted wardrobes accompany new joinery details in storm-fallen walnut. Much of the leather upholstery has also been reused, its saddlery associations particularly apt for an estate with an established equestrian life. Hulbert describes the interiors as ‘a palimpsest where traditional craftsmanship and modern tools exist, and the previous eras are still subtly visible’.
Against this familiar backdrop, the new furnishings introduce the colours of the changing seasons. Spring yellows and autumnal shades run through mohair upholstery and handwoven wool rugs, while fabric-lined walls lend the bedrooms an enveloping country-house warmth.
Floral drawings made in the studio have been translated into block prints for linen wall coverings and curtains, carrying the botanical theme across the rooms. Elsewhere, the references become pleasingly particular: dried blooms are held within resin tabletops, while bathroom reliefs record the delicate impressions of flowers pressed into clay.
The art collection broadens this study of the grounds. Curated and commissioned by MHD, it encompasses equestrian life, hedgerows and seasonal cycles, with contributions from artists including Miles Cole, Catherine Reynolds and Hannastina Crick. Intricate botanical drawings sit within a varied repertoire of impasto oils, woven textiles and hand-forged steel flowers.
Beyond the interiors, the landscaping takes on a newly intimate scale. Coworth Park’s garden designer and horticulturalist Terri Crow is among the renovation project’s collaborators, with cottage gardens combining wild and cultivated woodland species above an understorey of spring flowers. In the stable courtyard, sculpted yew hedges divide the space into garden rooms, their edges softened by tall grasses.
Private terraces make room for breakfast outdoors or a drink before dinner, with the wider parkland waiting beyond. And when the season’s last flowers disappear from the grounds, their counterparts in linen, clay and resin will remain in residence.
Coworth Park is located at Blacknest Rd, Sunningdale, Ascot SL5 7SE, UK