House Notes #11
A round-up of my month – from a trip to Venice to the return of the podcast, as well as design discoveries and a favourite room. It's long, so dive in or take a dip as you fancy.
HOUSEKEEPING: My month this month
We were able to spend a couple of weeks at the house in Italy and, having missed the wisteria, we caught the hydrangeas. I’m going to have to cut them back hard in the autumn, aren’t I? Or that path is going to be unusable.
I’ve just found a picture from the day we went to visit the house for the first time:
Hidden behind that is a stronger pink variety which inspired the ceiling of the bedroom below. The paint is called Ortensia (Italian for Hydrangea) and it’s part of the 12-colour range I created with Graphenstone. The colour looks especially bright here as I took it when the sun was streaming in, but it’s very pretty in all lights.
A trip to Murano:
While we were there we travelled to Venice at the invitation of Illumina Murano, a lighting company that was set up in the 1970s and is now run by Sebastiano and his Irish-born wife, Orla, who are keen not only to show people the real Venice away from the tourists, but also to bring a sense of modernity to Murano’s famous traditional chandeliers. Their factory is at the far end of the island where few tourists ever venture, as they all tend to congregate where the water bus stops.
I will write about them and the work they are doing in more detail soon (when, in fact, our finished chandelier – below – arrives and is hung in the hallway). Access is past the overgrown hydrangea in the top picture, so there is a real imperative for getting out the pruning shears. Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the idea of autumn fruits rather than the more traditional crystal beads.
And talking of seeing it (and the giant hydrangea) there are a couple of places left on each of the three Autumn design retreats so if you fancy coming along, seeing how the house is gradually being coloured in and the finishing touches applied, as well as drinking cocktails and enjoying the best food in Turin alongside a full programme of workshops, then all the information is at the link.
I was also thrilled to receive this write-up on the glossy travel site Gloobles which called the new wave of “learning-led trips” an “exciting new way to travel” for the “creatively wired”. Again, if that’s you, then come along….
In other news, the Podcast is back! For those of you who are new around here, in 2018 I set up The Great Indoors Podcast with my friend, television presenter and interior designer Sophie Robinson. After 150 episodes we needed a break but we have returned with a six-week series taking you right through a renovation, from layout and lighting to working out your budget and picking your colour palette. We also found time for a row about beige and Sophie manages to share how she gave her gynaecologist a design consultation while having an ultrasound. The link is at the top of my home page as well.
If watching is more your thing, then Lisa Dawson and I have begun hosting a monthly design chat called On The House. The live video feed is free to all, but I also offer a full write-up with a slightly more considered take and lots of pictures and links, for paid subscribers, as part of my Let’s Talk series.
While we were in Italy we drove from Turin to the other side of Milan to pick up a vintage Thonet Bentwood office chair that I’d found on Italian eBay. On the way back we stopped in Bergamo for lunch which is a gloriously pretty and much under-rated spot. We had only visited once before, in the days when Ryanair would tell you you were flying to Milan and you would find yourself actually landing 45km away. But it turns out Bergamo is well worth a dedicated trip, so add it to your lists and have lunch at Nonna Alda in the old town.
When we returned home I installed the chair but felt something was missing. It was The Mad Husband’s idea to colour drench the whole room in olive green. So we did. When I first saw this room I fell in love with its painted green doors and the still life paintings over them. I felt it was enough to paint the ceiling green and leave it at that, but it’s a small room and actually it can take a strong colour. I love it so much more (this isn’t a great picture and I haven’t got any radiator paint so that’s for next time) and now really look forward to sitting at my desk, which is the aim of all home offices.
In the press:
It was great to be included in this month’s issue of House & Garden where the bathroom was featured as part of a design special and a kitchen I styled for Smeg earlier this year was used as a full-page advert.
The rest of this long magazine-type post is for paid subs only, so if you want to see inside the colourful and cleverly designed house of an Italian interior designer which we visited as part of Open House Turin, discover my design discoveries and get some TV and book recs, then you can sign up here. Subscribing will also give you access to the full archive, crammed with interviews, house tours, expert advice and my favourites places to source lovely things for your home.