House Notes #6
This month we unpack the Pantone Colour of the Year, find out about Skye McAlpine's Interior Life and look at my recommendations for reading, watching and eating.
HOUSEKEEPING: My month this month
Nearly there now! In keeping with my promise, this month’s posts have been light on the seasonal greetings as you get enough of that elsewhere. But I also thought it would be the perfect moment for cook and hostess Skye MacAlpine to share her Interior Life with us, alongside lots of other things that don’t relate to Christmas. Come on in…
As regular subscribers will know I’m a huge fan of Inigo and the way they use amazing photography to create an estate agency that doubles up as a magazine. Indeed I love their style so much I tracked down one of their photographers to shoot my last house in London and was delighted when another photographer who shot my Italian house was hired as their north of England person. So it was even more of a thrill to be featured in their Almanac pages.
As you read this we will be gearing up to host Christmas in our “achingly romantic villa”. Last year the builders left on 22nd December with a promise to return on the 28th for snagging and final touches. We had arrived on 17th for the first full night under our new roof and had spend around 10 hours a day cleaning and unpacking. On the evening of 22nd, after collecting our sons from the airport, we turned the oven on for dinner. The house went dark. No switches appeared to need tripping. We stared at each other in torchlit horror. Eventually, the very clever Mad Husband went outside to the junction box in the street outside and pulled a little lever. Light was restored. We put the chicken back in the oven and turned on the hob to boil water for the vegetables. Bang. Back to black.
It appeared we couldn’t have the hob, the oven, the lights and the dishwasher all on at the same time. Further sleuthing the following day revealed that while Italian houses are supplied with 3KW of power as standard, we needed 6KW, as it’s a big house that uses lots of electricity. A simple matter of applying online for an upgrade – unless it’s Christmas of course. We received the upgrade on the 27th and in the meantime cooked a perfect Christmas dinner with a bit of juggling and use of another oven at the top of the house, which meant running up and down two flights of stairs with pans of vegetables and potatoes – but all was well that ended well, and the running up and down totally justified an extra helping of Panettone.
Finally, for the last free/paid post of the year (nearly - there are a couple more to come) I wanted to take this opportunity to say Thank You. It took me a year to make the decision to move from the blog to Substack and it’s a decision I have never regretted for a second. Of course, I must thank all of you who are paid subscribers – as someone who has spent my whole career writing words for money, it’s a joy to be able to do that again and not to have to rely on advertising to pay the bills. But I am also so thankful to all of you who follow along for the free posts. This is a real community and I’m honestly grateful to each and everyone one of you. As I meet you in real life here and there, allow me to buy you a coffee to say thank you. Just make sure all 16,000 of you don’t turn up at once!
MY INTERIOR LIFE: Skye McAlpine
This month it’s the turn of cook and hostess Skye McAlpine who always manages to make entertaining look effortless and whose recipes ( I know because I have cooked many of them) are easy to follow and delicious.
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Skye McAlpine. I’m a cookery writer: I write a regular recipe column for the Sunday Times Magazine and have written three cookbooks (most recently, A Table Full of Love). Three years ago I launched my own tableware line, Tavola. Making the table look welcoming and beautiful is for me a huge part of what makes cooking and hosting fun. I also write The Dolce Vita Diaries, a lifestyle scrapbook of sorts, here on Substack.
What’s your trade secret?
I would say that my top secret is to keep things as simple as possible when entertaining. There are lots of shortcuts and simple recipes that you can play around with that make hosting easy and fun. I genuinely believe that food tastes best when it’s shared with others and, if you do things in a simple way, then you’re more likely to have friends over (and enjoy having friends over!) more often. I would also say that even a pretty basic takeaway can look fabulous and feel special when served on a pretty plate at a nicely laid table.
What would you rush to save from your burning house?
I often joke that if the house were on fire and I could carry it, I would take my Lacanche range cooker with me. Although it’s massive (4 ovens and countless hobs) so that probably wouldn’t work. I don’t know, probably something really boring like my laptop because it has all my manuscripts and archives on it.
What’s your (current) favourite Instagram account?
I’ve been obsessing over the @thespaceforsale account recently: it’s an edit of beautiful properties for sale around the world, and it’s a never-ending stream of houses/cottages/tree-houses/palaces/castles/lofts to look at. It’s a rabbit hole of dreamy properties and prompts all manner of daydreaming about ‘if we moved to…’
If I gave you £150, what would you buy?
Probably a pair of shoes! I’m always buying shoes and have more than I could possibly wear in a lifetime, but it still doesn’t stop me from buying more. I would trawl through Vestiaire and find a fabulous pair of vintage something Prada or Charlotte Olympia.
What’s your favourite style of furniture/decor?
I love old things that feel like they’ve had a life and a story before me: I love comfy, colourful and a little bit chintzy.
What is/are your most visited interiors websites/stores?
I buy so much second hand, so I spend a lot of time in flea markets, antique stalls and on Ebay. Facebook Marketplace (improbably) has also proven a really rich source of pickings (and bargains!) though you do have to really edit things down… In terms of dealers, I love Lorfords Antiques and Brownrigg – I’ve found some beautiful investment pieces there. For accessories and smaller bits and bobs, I love Pentreath & Hall.
What’s the best thing you ever bought?
I love the big cabinet we have in our dining room. It’s massive and we bought it for a song at an antiques market in Brussels. We got it home and had it repainted (and lined the inside with Antoinette Poisson wallpaper) and it’s beautiful and provides an impressive amount of storage. When we first moved into the house, I thought we would never fill it and yet somehow (!) it’s now bursting at the seams.
What’s your cocktail of choice?
At the moment, I’m obsessed with Botivo: it’s a non-alcoholic bitter. A splash over ice with tonic water and a slice of orange.
What’s the soundtrack to your favourite room?
I always have fun, cheesy music playing in the kitchen – the sort of music that makes you want to dance to it. I have a particular soft spot for 80s Italian pop, Abba and 70s disco.
Confess – what’s your screen-time total (so far) this week?
Crikey – I don’t even want to know! TOO long!
What do you wish you had designed, or could own?
I love designing pieces for my company Tavola: I love being able to dream up the perfect shape of glass or plate or the perfect cake stand, just as I want it. It really is a dream come true for me!
What’s one thing you do for your mental well-being?
I love going for long walks: it really helps clear my mind. I usually put my headphones on and listen to an audiobook or some music and then just get lost in my own thoughts. I don’t go anywhere in particular, just walk.
Plan B. If this wasn’t your job what would you be doing?
Well, once upon a time I was going to be a lawyer – but I’m happy things worked out differently!
PANTONE COLOUR OF THE YEAR: Mocha Mousse
It probably goes without saying that I’m a fan. In all the renders I’ve seen it’s a milk chocolate shade with a pinky tone – rather than a yellow brown tone, which is a different thing altogether and we won’t go there now in case some of you are reading at breakfast. But yes, it’s unarguably brown. Those of you who follow the Great Indoors podcast will know that my co-host Sophie Robinson and I have very differing views on colour. On the day of the announcement she sent me simply the vomiting Emoji – no words needed. I replied with the triumphant dancing lady.
I have long been a fan of brown, painting the sitting room in my last house in Fallen Plum by Atelier Ellis and my kitchen cupboards in Tanner’s Brown by Farrow & Ball, both of which are still my favourite dark brown chocolate shades.
Colour consultant Fiona De Lys, who runs a brilliant workshop at my interior design retreats, says: “A colour that returns us to the ground… Perhaps because it feels primitive or pleasantly decayed, or quite natural, akin to the soil, or furniture of same aesthetic. Some might relate that it also speaks of 1970s familiarity and, for me, the lighter variations bring a colour often found in shade and shadow.
“Pairing with brown is fun… you can turn to its softer warmer counterpart – pink – or deeper hues of reds and plums, or back to nature with greens.”
But before I give you a few other suggestions you might like to consider, remember also that you probably already have a lot of brown in your house - a wooden floor, perhaps a leather chair, the table, lamp bases and maybe unpainted doors and window frames. You may feel that’s enough brown and, if so, perfectly fine – but if you fancy a soft cocooning and warm shade to create a cosy space that’s safe from the outside world, then take a look at these.
Little Greene has a whole range of honey, caramel and chocolate called Sweet Treats.
Coat has several browns, including this lighter one called Cold Brew
Try also Benjamin Moore Midsummer Night for deep violet undertones (good for a south-facing room, as the golden light will warm it up without turning it yellow), Smoked Trout by Farrow & Ball (which runs from soft pink to brown depending on the light) and, of course, Pantone 17-1230 – the original Mocha Mousse.
Brown always loves cream and many shades of pink - that’s basically my go-to colour scheme. But it also loves blue – from duck egg to cobalt. And remember you can deepen pink to shades of red and orange. Certain neons work – yellow and lime –although beware or a flat yellow, which might just give banana. Plus, of course you only have to look to nature to see dozens of versions of green and brown. Give it a try, it’s easier than you might think, but the key is first to find a brown you love.
TRADE SECRET: Texture mixing
Not everyone is mad about the current maximalist revival. But there’s a much quieter way to add a maximalist vibe to your home. The key lies in bringing in as many textures as possible: while colours may clash, and too many patterns can overwhelm, different fabrics and textures will never fight. Indeed, a room with only one or two basic colours will come alive if you mix cotton and linen, velvet and knit, corduroy and cashmere. Pile them high and luxuriate in the cosiness you’ve created.
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