Photography by Rory Gardiner for Remodelista.
Kate Watson-Smyth runs the interiors blog Mad About the House, which she set up in 2012.
A journalist who has written for most of the UK national press, she wanted to find her own corner of the Internet to tell readers about products and designs tips that she had learned about after 25 years in newspapers.
The extension was initially painted in Wimborne White from Farrow & Ball, the same as the interior of the house.
We both just felt it needed a bit more oomph and I remember pulling the sofa in to the middle of the room and painting the walls in Down Pipe by Farrow & Ball while the Queen’s Silver Jubilee parade down the river Thames was on the television.
“The kitchen cupboards began life as white. The tin ceiling was added to give some interest to the extension which doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling.
“The open shelves were also white to begin with, then they went to dark gray and finally to an even darker blue-black shade.”
The sitting room was painted white until one day we just decided it would look better gray and painted it Down Pipe by Farrow Ball It was an instant success That shade of gray is brilliant in both natural and electric light...
...which is a key factor for a sitting room and I still adore it It might even be my favorite wall color of all time It is both cozy and dramatic and works at all times of day and in all weathers
Kate in her dramatically toned sitting room.
“This was the first room to go over to the dark side and we have never looked back. I love it just as much now as I did when we painted it.”
“The shelves in the loft were always going to be dark. Once you see how brilliant everything looks on a dark shelf you can’t imagine painting them white again.”
The windows are wooden and painted dark. However, traditionally window panes got smaller the higher up the house you went as glass was expensive and it was reckoned that the servants who lived in the attic didn’t need expensive and large panes of glass.
The bedroom is painted in the palest gray of any room in the house; it’s Pavilion Gray by Farrow & Ball.
The en suite bathroom is dark and dramatic and painted in Down Pipe. Large mirrors and a window prevent it from being too dark.
Another view of the bath.
Before
The sitting room was originally painted in Wimborne White by Farrow & Ball.
The master bath before it went to the dark side.
The rear extension in its original state.