An artist's house decorated with riotous colour and collected paintings

Although the house was in a liveable state – with the exception of the damp problem that ‘took up most of the renovation budget’ – there were a few tweaks and spruces the couple wanted to undertake to make the house theirs. ‘We built into the roof, turning the empty storage space into two bedrooms, which took the house from three bedrooms and one bathroom, to four bedrooms and two bathrooms’ Alice details.

The only small issue was that Alice was heavily pregnant (which she describes as ‘always a good time to move house and start driving a van around London!’) when work began, and ended up living without a roof or heating for four months as they converted the space. Quite a ‘hardcore move,’ Alice concedes, ‘but I wanted to spend the money we would have spent on renting somewhere else on wallpaper.’

An artist's layered and light-filled house, arranged with a painter's eye

19 Photos

By Elizabeth Metcalfe

View Gallery

Alice approached the decoration of her house much like a curator might approach plotting a new exhibition. ‘I wanted every room to be a journey, an experience, a feeling,’ she explains. Paintings were hung on almost every available wall, with Alice's own art (the subject of which is often inspired by the antique frame it is to sit inside) placed next to pieces picked up for very little on Golborne road. ‘I love how something – like a portrait of your great-aunt – can feel so austere, but hang it next to a Hugo Guinness and it’s totally transformed.’ She wasn't bound by traditional hanging rules either, choosing unexpectedly grand frames for artwork, such as ‘a cheeky cockatoo in a ridiculous Rococo frame? How jovial!’

When it came to choosing more permanent features, such as paint and paper, her art collection ‘dictated the decisions.’ Colours were chosen for their ability to show off paintings. As such, the sitting room was drenched in Farrow and Ball's ‘Blue Ground’, which Alice describes as looking ‘fantastic in any light. It’s so simple to work layers upon it.’

Owen Gale

The only spaces in the house that Alice exercised restraint when it came to hanging art were the rooms of her daughters, Lucy and Arabella. ‘I wanted to introduce a sense of calm. They have busy wallpapers, but I like the idea that they can evolve in those rooms.’

Now, nine years on from buying their house, Alice and Pete have succeeded in creating a wonderfully welcoming family house with an ever revolving œuvre of art. For this, Alice credits her husband's support. ‘Heavenly and kind, Pete Field lets me paint paper and walls all day long and spend my earnings on paintings rather than food, and is up for any of my mad ideas. I still look longingly on minimal houses,’ Alice jokes, ‘I wish I was that person, but I just love texture and layers and colour too much.’

Alice Peto | @Paintedbyalice