‘I made some really rash decisions when we bought this house,’ admits Pearl Lowe, laughing, ‘but moving here wasn’t one of them.
However much of a nightmare it was to live in at first, I knew I was in the right place.’
It’s been more than a decade since Pearl – pop star and model turned writer and designer – swapped the parties and scandals of her notorious ‘Primrose Hill set’ for a life of stylish sobriety in Somerset. But while her heart immediately settled on country life with her musician husband Danny Goffey (he of Supergrass fame) and their children, it took at least six moves before they found a house that was right for them… Kind of. ‘It was ridiculous to move here – it has 11 bedrooms for a start and even with all the kids at home [and older daughter, model Daisy Lowe, visiting most weekends] that’s too many. But it’s the house that just wouldn’t go away,’ Pearl explains. ‘A friend first brought me here six years ago, saying, “It’s got your name all over it!” She was right and the owner wanted to sell, but we couldn’t afford the price she wanted. We kept in touch and, earlier this year, she finally said she would accept an offer. Danny and I just looked at each other and said, “How can we not?”’
It was February when they moved in and, despite the house’s size and age (it was built in 1852 and features a huge curved frontage as well as the usual go-to Georgian spacious rooms and high ceilings), Pearl was convinced they could do a quick paintand-paper job and have it ready for a family party eight weeks later. ‘I was so deluded,’ she admits, ‘but there were no walls to take down. The only major change was to convert the existing dining room into a kitchen and I’d already walked into DEVOL and bought the cabinets the day we exchanged contracts.’ She hadn’t figured on the dangerous electrics – nor the dodgy plumbing. ‘There was basically no drainage at the front of the house,’ she says, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘Daisy ran a bath and suddenly there was water and bubbles all over the front garden.’
It seems fame doesn’t protect you from the period drama that is a renovation project. While Danny was working with his new band Van Goffey and Pearl was creating designs for her eponymous lifestyle brand and children’s fashion range, they were also living in a building site in the middle of winter and wondering if the heating would ever work again. ‘I was in a bit of a state, so it’s no wonder I made some bad decisions,’ she says. ‘I’d already redone the paper in Daisy’s room. Then one day, Danny looked at the really expensive green wallpaper I’d put up in the living room and said, “I hate this. It’s so un-rock ’n’ roll. You’ve made it look like an Eighties conservatory.” He was right. I had to go over it all with a new pattern from Little Greene.’
Pearl’s triumphs easily outweigh the occasional unfortunate wallpaper choice, though. There’s that gorgeous new kitchen with its three-metre island topped with seamless Arabesque marble. ‘Danny basically banned me from buying my usual jumble of reclaimed cupboards, with drawers that stick and knobs that fall off whenever you try to open a cupboard,’ she says with a laugh. Then there’s the elegant formality of the wallpaper she’s used throughout, subverted with tiger print and granny lamps, neon artwork and shaggy sheepskins, chandeliers and chintz. It’s the eclectic vintage look that Pearl is known for, taken to a new, more elegant level. ‘I just want to love every room,’ she says. ‘Basically, I want to be inspired by my own house.’
For more info about Pearl’s fashion and interior design business, visit pearllowe.co.uk