January 2023 News
Jan 2023
Happy New Year!
We hope that you had a good Christmas and a pleasant beginning of the year.
For us, this year is starting a little slower than normal.
This is because we are both recovering from recent operations, meaning we will open on Monday 16th January.
We are extremely pleased that the Postcard from Barra Collection has gathered so much attention and that Francesca’s Paints has been awarded a New Year Honours from The English Home Magazine.
The English Home’s highly respected annual awards celebrate the most covetable products, notable brands and inspiring designers bringing comfort and joy to English interiors. This year’s hotly contested New Year Honours categories include Wallcoverings, Pattern, Lighting, Flooring, Furniture, Home Details, Collaborations, Rising Stars and Designers of The Year. Innovation, sustainability, craftsmanship, creativity and stand-out design are amongst the attributes highlighted and celebrated to bring readers of The English Home a curated list of the finest achievements of the year from the interiors industry.
We are absolutely delighted about this.
Our Colour Collections are a labour of love, and they all have a story. They are made because we have been inspired by art, nature and travel. This time, it was the splendour of the landscape of the Isle of Barra in Outer Hebrides that really touched me.
The Collection came very quickly to mind, and I could see the five colours that I designed clearly.
The pigments are all used in an equal measure to create a tonal balance and perfection.
Colour of the Month
We have been mixing a lot of Orange; ‘Arabella’s Pumpkin’, ‘Louise’s Orange’, and ‘Gioia’s Madras’ from the Original Collection are always warm favourites. Also, Blue and Green are popular with many requests for ’Ice House Blue’ from Houghton Hall Collection and ‘Moss’ from the Tenth Collection. ‘Peace White’ from the Off White Collection is an absolute preferred tone too.
Not surprisingly though, the colour of the month is ‘Thrift’ from the Postcard from Barra Collection.
Thrift is a soft, playful, gentle pink made with my favourite pigments; raw and burnt umber, organic red and yellow ochre. It is a warm tone, there is no blue in it, and it has a calming, nostalgic effect.
It reminds us of our childhood, it is a colour that we feel comfortable with. Cosy and homely.
Perfect in a bedroom, but as good in a drawing room, kitchen and bathroom. It pairs beautifully with Ochre, Blue, Grey and of course Green. And all the colours of the Postcard from Barra Collection. Plenty of good reasons to be a favourite in 2023.
Green Credentials
Because our paints are hand mixed, sometimes we can make mistakes when preparing our wonderful colours. Rather than wasting the paint, we donate it to the Work and Play Scrapstore in Tooting. We care about waste, and the environment, so we are constantly trying to improve our green credentials. Our plastic buckets are recyclable, so please make sure you wash them out and put them in the correct bin.
Going into the new year we are quietly working on amazing projects, and we will share them with you as soon as possible. We feel incredibly lucky that we do what we love most, making colours to create or transform a house into a home.
Thank you for your continuous support and Happy 2023!
Francesca
