September 2024 News
September 2024
August’s smouldering heat and incessant rain has brought the sort of warmth and humidity that our plants in the studio have adored. Tendrils of flowers have been erupting from our spider plant throughout summer, and now our journey to the sink is fraught with plant based battles.
But foliage has not been the only thing this month’s weather has enticed into fruition, our external paint finishes like Limewash and Masonry have become our best sellers leading us to speculate – from our studio here in Battersea – that the great outdoors has wrapped its wriggly roots around the minds of our lovely clients and got many of them thinking about exterior design.
Exterior Design
The beauty of gardens is in their untameable unpredictability. Even amongst the symmetry of a french formal garden, the kind you see in well kept palace courts, there is inevitably certain plants which thrive one year and certain plants which don’t. Next year will never hold the guarantee of the previous harvest. Because of this we need to plan colours to accommodate their fluidity.
The first consideration is Green: it plays an enormous part to any garden through shrubbery, stalks or simply a lawn. First study your green. The grassy banks of a Scottish highland will be different from a sun scorched and saltwater whipped lawn on the coast of Devon. Consider whether you prefer a dark or a pale green, a warm or a cold green, vibrant or dull, spend time on this and keep observing how it changes with the light and so on. A strong, vibrant, dark and warm green will become striking and contrasted with whites, but perhaps more at home with other vibrant colours. Our lovely Camillo painted his garden wall in Pigi Piggy Pink, from the Original Collection in the Limewash. (see below).
On the other side of the spectrum are the foliage of this Wales based farmhouse (see below), and a colour like Clay, from the Earth Collection, in the Limewash, looks absolutely perfect.
Colour is very much like a garden, there is no one formula which can predict which one will look best, take some samples and stick them up and see which one feels right, that is really all there is. Below is the headquarters of Yeo Valley, painted in Barbara’s Pink from the Original Collection in our Masonry Paint.
Now all that is left is to think about finish. Limewash is imperfect by design, subtle shifts in colour appear due to the carbonation of lime – a chemical reaction which takes place as the paint dries, and takes weeks or even months to be completed. As it rains or as it absorbs moisture from the air, the limewash will slowly but surely build up character creating a broken colour, a mottled effect and a wonderful patina. Limewash is breathable, which means it allows for the passage of moisture. Masonry Finish by stark difference is unified and even but is not breathable making it unsuitable for any older houses or any buildings which soak up ground water. Unless you are bound to a certain finish, it really is a simple matter of taste.
New Restaurant Projects
August is the month of spontaneity: good weather is fleeting and so too are the opportunities that it affords. From a nice swim in your nearest body of water, to seeing friends, staying out late or going for a stroll. Is it any wonder that this is the month where we throw caution to the wind and look for new and thrilling ways to enjoy ourselves?
One such glory of self indulgence, in such a month as this, are restaurants. Restaurants give us an excuse to meet up and chat, they form a key structure in almost any hazy plan, and can either be a starting point, or a wonderful conclusion to an event.
Here at Francesca’s Paints we have had the honour to work with quite a few restaurants in the last month, but we would especially like to mention two which have been really exciting for us, and they are both yellow!
The Yellow Bittern, 20 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DL.
Due to open at the end of October, 2024, this exciting project is very much still a work in progress. The colour used is Fede’s Ochre, from Donne D’Arte Collection, they have colour drenched the space with it and we made a custom Black in Oil Eggshell for the window frames and door. Colour drenching makes a room look more elevated and it creates a feeling of calm. We are very happy that the client chose our new colour and we think that it will look very elegant and smart once completed.
Tollington’s Fish Bar, 172 Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, London N4 3AJ.
Tollington’s Fish Bar has just opened its doors to the hungry guests and locals of Finsbury Park. A confusing mish-mash of a place set to appease what the pallets claims to desire most: a fish and chips. Hustlers and bustlers alike, share in the oddity of this crowded bar, where seating is much akin to any other chippy, and the space you occupy there feels ever fleeting as you tuck yourself round corners or perch in the front.
The owners called us for advise because they had a tricky task when renovating, they wanted to try and keep most of the original features of the building they inherited, our colours had to work around sign at the front and the terracotta tiling throughout the restaurant. In the end the clients decided upon Chari Flame from the Indian Summer Collection and Gayatri’s Brinjal from the JJK Collection, for the restaurant at the back, whilst the front has been painted with a water based Gloss in a custom Yellow created to suit the space.
Tollington’s Fish bar is a fun place to go for a quick but yummy meal.
Colour of the Month.
Angelico Pink from the Poison into Medicine Collection, has always been a successful colour. It is warm, it feels natural and once you have it, you rarely wish to swap it for anything else. Inheriting its pinkish glow from the natural pigment, burnt umber, this colour can create a subtle blush no matter what lighting you are working with. One of our best selling colour, it is a mid tone and it can be combined with almost every other colour. It is a timeless, smart and intelligent colour that changes throughout the day depending on the light. One of our favourites.
This month’s image is from an external project painted Angelico Pink using our Limewash Paint
See you next month, enjoy the last of the summer days
Francesca and Wren