Artfully undone: how to decorate like an artist
Great artists have an eye for form and colour that us mere mortals do not. They know how to take inspiration from the most unlikely places, and can pair colours and objects in unexpected but practically perfect ways. Their homes are often the most intriguing to enter, the most pleasant to stay in and the most difficult to replicate.
Here at House & Garden we have had the great fortune of snooping around many of these brilliant houses, so what lessons have we learnt? Well, whilst all these spaces are distinct from one another, there is a thread that runs through them all: a common philosophy that each of them abide by. To paraphrase the artist Haidee Becker, ‘It’s not about decorating; it’s about surrounding yourself with objects that mean something to you.' Haidee's sentiment is one echoed by Caitriona Manoury, a ceramicist based in Provence, ‘Personal significance,’ she tells us, ‘is the most important dimension for any thing in your house to have. Most of our art is collected from friends, or artists who have become friends.’
There is also the feeling of energy in these spaces. As the interior designer and artist Gavin Houghton puts it: ‘For me, anything that is overly laboured loses its energy. I like things to look as if they’ve happened by mistake.’ In Caitriona's house, the rooms are far from static too. ‘Quite often, when friends come over, they will point out new things we have switched in, mainly on account of wanting to see our own work in situ, or having bought a new painting from a friend.’
Aesthetically, these two principles (personality and motion) often result in the fixed decoration of a place remaining quite stripped back. White, or neutral, walls prevail above all, with moveable art, books and personal objects adding layers of visual interest. More often than not, furniture is made of raw - unpainted, unlacquered, unvarnished - materials. The beauty here is in their natural form. As the artist Monica Grose-Hodge explains, in her house, ‘The walls are a very pale warm grey and I kept the rest of the scheme to soft brown tones, with all the frames in natural wood, to make a good background for the pictures - nearly all by my friends,’ she says.
Whether grand houses or small, these spaces provide lessons on decorating in abundance. Below, we have compiled plenty of inspiring images.
Mark Anthony Fox1/20The wooden dresser in the kitchen belonged to Haidee’s great-grandmother, and is from the 18th century. It came from Virginia. The fridge was a happy accident: Haidee accidentally bought a built-in fridge rather than a stand-alone one during lockdown and so her daughter decided to make it work by creating a wooden panel for it, which features her linoprints. Much of the artwork on the walls is by Haidee’s friends and children.
Mark Anthony Fox2/20In the sitting room, Archmonger Architects added the two windows at the rear to bring more light into the space. The sculptures on either side of the fireplace are by Haidee’s old teacher, the Prussian sculptor Uli Nimptsch. The painting of the steamer above the fireplace belonged to Haidee’s father.
Oivind Haug3/20The farmhouse Caitriona Platts-Manoury shares with her husband Christian, a gallerist and artist, is a place of pared-back beauty. “For us, simplicity is great, I don't like anything too sophisticated," says Caitriona. “I don't like curtains and fancy fabrics, we just let the light in through the windows and let the art sing. If it happens to be beautiful already, why push it further when you don't need to?"
Oivind Haug4/20“We probably spend most of the time between the kitchen and the sitting room. There’s a log fire we always have on throughout the winter.” The painting is by Gabriel Vormstein, the ceramic stools are by Caitriona.
Greg Funnell5/20In the artist Sarah Graham's London home and studio, art is everywhere. Red blinds make the most of the light coming through the large bay windows in the sitting room. In the sitting room of Sarah and James's London house, abstract artwork brings sophistication to this comfortable space. Plenty of art books fill every nook and cranny of storage space.
Greg Funnell6/20In the sitting area of Sarah's home, a marble tabletop from Howe sits on top of a base by Chester and Toby Jones, which mirrors the rug pattern.
Paul MASSEY7/20Artist Phoebe Dickinson’s former south London home is a testament to what drives and inspires her, from the portraiture on the walls to the cherished fabrics and pieces of furniture amassed over time. A table from Brownrigg in Tetbury is paired with antique chairs from Westenholz. Above the chimneypiece is a painting by Phoebe flanked by antique sconces and plates by the South African ceramicist Hylton Nel.
Mark Anthony Fox8/20Textile artist Pauline Caulfield's home and studio, decorated in the 1980s with her former husband – artist and printmaker Patrick Caulfield – is a layered, timeless interior that bears testament to a creative life well lived. A sculpture by Nicholas Monro stands in front of the Howard Hodgkin that Patrick rescued from being burned (by Howard). The red checked sofas were bought from Kingcombe Sofas in the 1970s; the door leads out to the private garden.
Mark Anthony Fox9/20The set up means that there is now little escape from her art; even her bedroom overlooks her printing table. But, ‘living with it helps, I catch glimpses of what I’m doing, ideas form, and I’m drawn back in,’ says Pauline. Whether that’s to the wall hangings-come-curtains that she makes to commission, extraordinary ecclesiastical vestments, or – her latest pieces – wall-mounted, silk-screen printed fans of considerable size, where her mastery of trompe l’oeil is such that you can’t quite believe they’re not real.
Michael Sinclair10/20Mary Norden's creative journey has taken her from being a successful textile designer and stylist to making evocative landscape and still-life fabric collages in a tiny east London studio next door to her artist husband. When the couple bought the property in the 1990s, every room was an individual bedsit. They ripped out sinks and pulled up lino floors; Mary recalls becoming ill after stripping Victorian arsenic-laced green paint from the walls. Now, it is a calming and grown-up space, filled with antiques, art and textiles, thrown together with Mary's expert eye.
Michael SINCLAIR11/20In Mary's study, these treasures are seen alongside her collages, creating an inspiring environment in which to work.
Michael SINCLAIR12/20Mary's seascape collages depicting Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex.
Chris Horwood13/20Tasked with bringing colour and harmony to the ‘greige’ interiors of this Victorian house, interior designer Tamsin Saunders has created spaces to inspire the artist who lives there.
Here, the fresh colours of the Swedish rug echo the original paint inside a 19th century Swedish bureau. A mid-century Italian stool was upholstered in a soft dusty pink velvet from Tissus d’Helene.
Chris Horwood14/20In Rosie’s ground floor study, Tamsin painted the architrave a dark mouse colour ‘to frame the room’ and rehung Rosie’s collection of artwork ‘to cover the walls from floor to ceiling.’ The portrait of the man on right is by Julia Hawkins. The cushion on the chair is vintage. The other paintings are by Rosie, Arthur Neal, Luke Hannam and Fred Cumming.
Dean Hearne15/20Interior designer, ceramicist and artist Gavin Houghton lives a creative life in Tangier and London. In Tangier, Gavin’s portrait of his partner Boz is among the pictures in the dining room. The arched doorway provides a glimpse into the hall beyond.
Dean Hearne16/20Gavin turned an awkward L-shaped salon into a red and white striped visual feast.
Jasper Fry17/20Monica Grose-Hodge's flat in an 1830s house in Bloomsbury has become a workshop for her rag pictures, in which she uses a 19th-century technique to make patterns based on 16th-century crewelwork.
Jasper Fry18/20On either side of the Chesney’s Portland stone Regency Bullseye fireplace hang a pair of rag pictures, Boatman 1 and Boatman 2. In the centre hangs a lithoprint of a Ravilious bowl by Glynn Boyd Harte, a former Master of the Art Workers Guild, and underneath this is a lithograph by Norman Ackroyd. On either side is a pair of small lino prints by Christopher Brown. Monica has painted a pair of wooden lamp bases in Farrow & Ball's ‘Stiffkey Blue’. The ottoman was an early purchase from John Lewis some twenty years ago
Jasper Fry19/20Colour bursts in with the vivid yellow of the roman blinds on the tall windows, which are ‘wonderful in the early morning sun’ Monica says.
Jasper Fry20/20The tall windows are hung with roman blinds, made in Pret a Vivre linen chintz in ‘Citrus’. The concave mirror on the wall between the windows is by the artist Simon Hurst. The sisal carpet which provides a non-slip background for her kilims is from Kersaint Cobb. A raspberry rag cushion on the leather and chrome chair was a present from a friend.
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