We like red because it’s warm and a good background colour for pictures

Not surprisingly, colour plays a key part in the decorative schemes, and shades of red recur throughout the interior. ‘ We like red because it’s warm and a good background colour for pictures,’ explains John. From attic to basement, staircases, landings and hall are painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Porphyry Pink’. The walls of the main bedroom are covered in a red printed cotton fabric that was bought from Next, largely to disguise the poor condition of the walls. In the library, John has stencilled a red wall with an acanthus leaf design to replicate an expensive Colefax and Fowler wallpaper. While in the drawing room, walls that were first painted in archive Farrow & Ball shade ‘Ciara Yellow’ have been given a reddish wash for a snug e ect.

Given his profession, perhaps it’s not surprising that illusion and humour are key elements in many of John’s schemes. Throughout the house there are clever trompe l’oeil touches. These include a Venetian-style mirror in the library (page 76) that is in fact made from plastic that has been painted to look old.

Light and shade are also manipulated to create visual surprise. ‘I enjoy contrasts and the e ects you can get by having light and dark areas,’ John explains. The staircase leading from the hall to the kitchen on the lower ground floor is unlit, so John fixed a convex mirror to the ceiling and surrounded it with printed architectural mouldings

I don’t think our style has changed much, and if things are a bit battered, it really doesn’t matter. It’s all part of history

(page 78). ‘This was a trick used by the architect Sir John Soane,’ says John. At the bottom of the staircase, a wall is decorated with four modern casts of classical low-relief roundels by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770– 1844). Above, a hole of identical size has been cut through the wall. ‘As you come down the dark staircase and into the light kitchen you find a little peephole – I made it partly to amuse the grandchildren, and partly to amuse us,’ he laughs.

John’s talent as a painter has also helped to furnish the house. The drawing room sofa was specially made by a furniture maker who traded it in return for one of John’s floral paintings. Meanwhile John’s own practical and design skills are much in evidence throughout the interior. He designed a pair of X-frame Regency-style stools that sit in the library and a refectory table for the kitchen. A screen in the drawing room was re- covered and decorated with old prints and modern borders and bows. ‘I designed them for the National Trust many years ago and still keep a huge stock of printed sheets under the bed,’ he says. A striking petalled ceiling rose in the library is also an assemblage of old and new. ‘It came from a friend who rescued it from a demolition site in 30- odd pieces. I repaired and gilded it, and have since made a second one from a series of moulds.’

Although John still works as a decorative painter, after three decades in the same house the couple have decided that now is the time to downsize and have put their home on the market. As many of their old possessions as they can accommodate will go with them. ‘I don’t think our style has changed much, and if things are a bit battered, it really doesn’t matter. It’s all part of history.’

ABOVE LEFT A convex mirror hangs over the stairs leading to the kitchen. Above the four plaster replicas of Thorvaldsen roundels, John cut an identically sized peephole to amuse his grandchildren ABOVE RIGHT The glazed door in the kitchen looks out...

ABOVE John and Gabrielle used a printed cotton bought from Next to disguise the poor condition of the walls. Above a 17th- century oak chest of drawers, a contrasting green shelf is used to display a symmetrical assortment of ceramics, lacquerware and...