Sir Terence Conran is one of the world’s best known
designers, restaurateurs and retailers. He made modern design accessible to
many when he opened the first Habitat shop in Chelsea in 1964.
Today he heads up Conran and Partners, an architecture and
design studio as well as owning shops, restaurants and hotels across the globe.
One of my most memorable experiences is of a trip to London
in the early ‘90’s and marvelling at the flagship Conran Shop which opened in
1987 in the historic Michelin House on Fulham Road. I think I spent most of the
afternoon in there before eating in Bibendum, one of the few times I have eaten
in a ‘proper posh’ restaurant! Still today, no trip to London for me is
complete without a visit to Peter Jones, Divertimenti on Brompton Road and the
Conran Shop.
The Conran flare for design didn’t stop there, with the
Conran children following in their father's footsteps. Jasper (fashion and
design), Sebastian (design), Tom (restaurateur) and Sophie (cars, design and
pies!)
So, you can imagine my excitement when I was approached by
Paint by Conran asking if I had any projects with which they could be of
assistance.
It just so happened that I had met a family living in the
village we had moved in to who were in the process of renovating their
beautiful Georgian farmhouse nestled in the centre of the village. Sarah asked
me if I would help her transform their dining room in time for them to use it
at Christmas. The perfect opportunity to look at Conran paints.
A little bit about
Paint by Conran
Paint by Conran is the culmination of 2 ½ years’ work and is
a dedicated paint range developed in conjunction with The Conran Partnership
and Sir Terence Conran. The range currently has 96 colours split into 5
collections, for ease of colour matching, as illustrated by the 5 images above
and draws inspiration from the glorious British countryside. Paint by Conran
has been created in partnership with Master Paintmakers who, as part of an
international paint group, have been making paints for 120 years.
"I have always been passionate about colour because it adds flavour to
life and can have a profoundly positive impact on our mood. (Sir Terence
Conran)
The brief was to create a country look and not stray too
much away from that but with an injection of colour to add depth and interest.
Sarah had already chosen curtain fabric, the delicious Voyage ‘Hedgerow’
fabric. We set about creating a mini mood board which, to be honest, was not
too difficult as when we opened up the Conran paint chart and set it against
the fabric, the colour we selected pretty much jumped off the page like it was
meant to be!
We picked out a colour in the fabric and matched it to
Midnight Thyme from the Highland collection. As this is a deep, fairly rich
colour, we then selected Pastures New from the Harvest collection to work
alongside this.
And here’s the result.
Before.....
And after....
I’m now trying to decide which colours and where I can
introduce some Conran colour in to my own home!
For more information and to visit the website, click on www.paintbyconran.com
