JOURNAL | HOUSE CALL

Melanie Giles is an in-demand hairdresser who runs her eponymous hair salons in Bath and Frome, while Tom Calver is the talent behind traditional Somerset cheese maker, Westcombe Dairy. If you’re wondering how his cheese tastes, let’s put it this way – his cheddar won Best Cheddar at the Royal Bath and West show this year, and he was featured in Jamie Oliver’s latest book, Jamie’s Great Britain.

Melanie’s rustic sensibility in interiors has long been showcased in her salons, and is the kind of sought-after style that can’t be bought. She makes, paints, constructs, sews most of the decorative elements that we covet. And this country-chic look translates perfectly into her and Tom’s lovely Georgian home in Bath, where every nook and cranny has been styled and decorated to their tastes. 

From the row of hanging Converse Chuck Taylors by the entrance and the wood-fired oven that Melanie and Tom installed themselves, to the tree branch dressed in fairy lights above the AGA, we are smitten with their warm, bespoke abode. 

Here’s what Melanie and Tom have to say about their home and their foodie preferences:

Name: Tom and Melanie Calver

Hometown: Evercreech (Tom), Sherborne (Melanie)

Occupation: Cheese maker (Tom), hairdresser (Melanie)

Must have kitchen item: Large table and chairs

Go-to recipe: Courgette carbonara

You love the taste of: Summer

Coffee or tea? Coffee… however, it has to be jimmy's skinny iced

Beer or cider? Both – we make our own

Five people you’d invite to your dinner party, dead or alive: Author of Fifty Shades, E.L James, Rachel Khoo (chef and author of Little Paris Kitchen), Anthony Bourdain, Vidal Sassoon and James Corden

The look of your kitchen in three words: Layered with stuff

Kitchen uniform: Anything with converse trainers

Preferred midnight nosh: G&T's and Westcombe cheddar toasties

Your kitchen is awesome because: We have so much stuff! We still find things that we never knew we had!

What’s on your cooking/baking playlist? Alt-J, Little Roy, College and Electric Youth

What are you going to cook/bake this weekend? Butterfly leg of lamb cooked in the wood fired oven

Unexpected item in your kitchen cupboard: Kaffir lime leaves (in the freezer)

Most prized item: Our wood fired oven!

You can’t live without: A decent wooden spoon

Favourite condiment: Redcurrant jelly

If your kitchen could talk, it’d say: Welcome 

If you think your home would make a great subject for our House Call series, please email rosa.park@mediaclash.co.uk

 

By Rosa Park

Images by Rosa Park

Melanie’s rustic sensibility in interiors has long been showcased in her salons, and is the kind of sought-after style that can’t be bought. She makes, paints, constructs, sews most of the decorative elements that we covet. And this country-chic look translates perfectly into her and Tom’s lovely Georgian home in Bath, where every nook and cranny has been styled and decorated to their tastes.

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