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A colour specialist's clever transformation of the house he grew up in
There has been much written in the pages of House & Garden about the importance of ‘good bones’ in a house. If you are fortunate enough to live with good bones, half the work of decoration seems to be done for you, with proportion, light and architectural features all on your side. But what if you just have so-so bones? A 1930s suburban house, or a 1970s ex-council flat, the sort of house that so many of us in the UK live in? Well, in that case, you have to be clever. Patrick O’Donnell, the personable brand ambassador for Farrow & Ball, is very clever indeed, as his 1930s house in Worcestershire amply demonstrates.
From the outside, it is an ordinary house, such as can be seen on any suburban street in the UK. Patrick grew up here, and having returned during lockdown to care for his elderly mother, now lives here full time along with his partner Paul Bailie, who makes exquisite hand-embroidered textiles and cushions under the moniker This Man’s Work. The challenges of decorating were manifold. Firstly, the couple’s previous apartment in Northern Ireland had been part of a castle, and the amount and scale of their furniture was more suitable for a castle than a standard-sized house. Alongside that they needed to create a ‘home within a home’ and do it with sensitivity to Patrick’s mother. Finally they had to work within the constraints of small spaces and a limited budget.
“I wanted to see how much we could do within a budget of £10,000,” says Patrick. “We couldn’t do anything structural, this was just for redecoration: things like new carpet, paint, wallpaper, curtains and blinds. I thought, let’s see what you can do if you’re judicious and spend wisely.” The rest of the work would be the considered arrangement of the couple’s existing possessions, a huge collection of art, furniture and textiles.The most important spaces for the two of them were their bedroom, bathroom and study. “Those are probably the most personal spaces where I ran amok and did my ‘full-on Paddy’, i.e. cramming as much stuff into a space as possible while just about being able to squeeze in myself.” The spare bedroom, dining room and hallway have also been refreshed, a comfortable dining nook created in the kitchen, and the sitting room, largely the domain of Patrick’s mother, given a light makeover with fresh paint and art.
The project is an excellent demonstration of how far nice things can go can achieve in the absence of the fabled good bones. “I wouldn’t say I’m a maximalist, but I am a hoarder,” explains Patrick. Having studied Fine Art and worked at an auction house early on in his career, he has always had a love for country house brown furniture. “I much prefer the integrity and story of older furniture, and it’s also often cheaper than buying new things.” The smaller rooms of this house (as opposed to the castle) have been no barrier to using his most impressive pieces. “I love the chest on chest in our bedroom. It’s late Georgian or early Victorian, with a lovely patina. People are so intimidated by large furniture in a small room, but it has a sense of scale and it breaks up the eyeline as you look around the room. Plus it’s deeply practical and fits all the clothes I don’t hang up.”
Colour is another huge part of the cleverness of the house. “I don’t respond well to white spaces,” says Patrick. The main bedroom, which was decorated in a ‘chilly off-white’ when he moved in, was the first to be transformed. “I’m very good at helping other people choose colours but I’m terrible at choosing them for myself,” he remarks, and spent several months umming and aahing between the Farrow & Ball shades Yeabridge Green and the archive colour he eventually ended up with, Cane. “I put the sample on the wall at the end of summer, but it came into its own in autumn and winter. In the south-east light in that room, you get these ripe skin apricot tones coming through, and it’s so lovely and cosy and warm.” The bathroom, meanwhile, once a paragon of what Patrick calls “abattoir chic” in square white tiles, is now equally inviting, with calming tones of soft greens and warm golds and browns in the wallpaper and paint. “Most people are petrified of brown but it’s my favourite colour, it’s unbelievably elegant.”
Ingenious ideas for affordable decorating abound in Patrick’s schemes. Most of the window dressings were either salvaged from other people’s houses when they were about to be thrown out (including a pair of silk curtains from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland’s apartments at Hillsborough Castle, which Patrick once redecorated, now in the spare bedroom), or recut from curtains into roman blinds. Books are everywhere, and as the famous maxim states, really do furnish a room. “Paul and I are both vociferous readers of just about everything. If you haven’t got any money, books will bring character to a space, and they will also inspire you as you look at them.” In the kitchen, the elegant dining area has been very simply put together with the use of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Biscuit’ in Dead Flat all over the walls and woodwork, and some homemade bookshelves which house an impressive collection of cookbooks.
And then there is the art. Some of Patrick’s favourite pieces have been picked up for a song in antiques shops, including a Bloomsbury-esque portrait found at Trilogy Antiques in Tetbury that bears a resemblance to Richard Madeley. “I’m a huge advocate of collecting pictures,” says Patrick. “And it should be affordable. Many places now have a scheme where you can split payments for contemporary pieces over the course of a year or so, so that even things that seem unattainable can be within reach.” Patrick’s friend, the interior designer Lucinda Griffith, recently came to assist with a full rehang. “It was all random and uncurated, but she gave me the courage to rethink it, and now every room has a narrative: the study has mostly portraiture and line drawing, a little more contemporary in mood, while the main bedroom is more traditional, and there are more interiors and landscapes in the spare room.”
A lifetime of collecting and a clever way with colour and scale are at the heart of what makes this house so appealing. But there is another crucial component. While there may be plenty of antiques, beautiful pictures and rich fabrics, “this is not a house that looks like it’s been preserved in aspic,” concludes Patrick. “There’s whimsy, there’s a sense of fun, and there’s nothing too serious here.”
Find Patrick on Instagram at @paddy_od_1. He is now available for private colour consultancies with Farrow & Ball. Book your session here.
1/14Although there was no budget to do a full overhaul of the kitchen, Patrick created a stylish dining area by drenching the walls and woodwork in a single colour, Farrow & Ball's ‘Biscuit’ in the Dead Flat finish. He painted the previously cream legs of the table in ‘Mahogany’ and covered it in a block-printed textile from Doing Goods. Patrick also made the bookshelves himself, buying the wood at a local timber yard, and used them for the couple's extensive collection of cookbooks. The chairs are upholstered in Howe at 36 Bourne Street's ‘Knurl’ linen. Plates by Paul Young, found at Tinsmiths in Ledbury, decorate the walls.
Chris Horwood2/14The sitting room was given a fresh coat of paint in ‘Templeton Pink’, and Patrick tiled the fireplace in blue zellige tiles to add lightness. The cushion is Paul's work; similar pieces are available to buy from Brownrigg or commission via @thismanswork.
Chris Horwood3/14Patrick painted the entrance hall (fittingly) in F&B's archive colour ‘Entrance Hall Pink’, and added the Charleston-esque ball motifs around the mirror. The radiator cover is from Scumble Goosie.
Chris Horwood4/14Patrick and Paul's sitting room on the ground floor is painted in Farrow & Ball's Blue Gray in the Dead Flat finish, which runs over the walls and radiator cover.
5/14In the dining room, Patrick made use of six rolls of a discontinued Colefax & Fowler wallpaper called ‘Livingstone’ he had been hanging onto for years. “It just fit,” he explains. “We were left with 30cm of paper at the end.” Paul had bought the huge gilt mirror 40 years ago at a sale in Dublin, and brought it over when he moved. Patrick painted the woodwork in a dark green to complement the wallpaper, and bought a tape border to make a break where the two greens meet.
6/14The dining room had curtains in the Colefax & Fowler chintz ‘Tree Poppy’, which Patrick recut into roman blinds, keeping the pelmet. An “indifferent” crystal chandelier has been replaced with an antique wheatsheaf style from Shiny Things London.
Chris Horwood7/14Patrick replaced the tired carpet throughout the halls with a sisal from Alternative Flooring. The walls are painted in ‘Pink Ground’ and the stair rail is in ‘Sutcliffe Green’. The contrast between the pink and green helps his mother to see the rail better. A picture of a stag by Kate Boxer hangs on the stairs.
Chris Horwood8/14In the main bedroom, Patrick drew the colour for the walls, the archive shade ‘Cane’ from the curtains, which he rescued when a London neighbour was on the point of throwing them out. The yellow lamps were a HomeSense find, and are topped with lampshades from Melodi Horne. The cushion is one of Paul's for This Man's Work, and the painting above the bed is from Tat London.
Chris Horwood9/14
Chris Horwood10/14Patrick's study is painted in the archive colour ‘Minster Green’, with accents of red and white in the upholstery and in the Alice Palmer lampshade hanging above. Patrick sits at his father's old desk to work, with a late 19th-century portrait “that looks like Paul” looking down on him. The plates on the wall are by Gavin Houghton.
Chris Horwood11/14On the chest behind the desk, a hand-painted lampshade from Alvaro Picaro sits atop a ceramic palm. The bookends are from Unpolished in Stow-on-the-Wold. The dove print is by Kate Boxer.
Chris Horwood12/14The spare bedroom is papered in the subtle GP&J Baker pattern ‘Hawkbury’. A lampshade by Samarkand Design stands on the side table, and a kantha from Sourced by Holly covers the bed.
Chris Horwood13/14A Feathers bracket from A.Prin Art is painted in Stiffkey Blue in Dead Flat.
Chris Horwood14/14Patrick has warmed up the bathroom with the discontinued Farrow & Ball wallpaper pattern ‘Orleans Stripe,’ with a ‘Pearl’ border from Adelphi Paper Hangings running round the top. The side table and the Spanish lebrillo plates are from Brownrigg Interiors in Tetbury.
