Rather bizarrely we have only used our front door twice in 11 years ! Both for big birthday parties to get everyone through to the garden! Instead we use the kitchen door for everything, the more mud the better it seems, and have never really thought about the rather dark and dingy space at the front of the house, mainly because it is north facing and has an overgrown box parterre that we have neglected and are now moving.
So it was a joy to discover @ashbrooklocationhouse on Instagram and see how a lick of paint, in the right shade, really can transform things.
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Ashbrook House is the stunning home of the Maydon family, designed and built, by the creative genius that is Josephine Maydon who had location shoots in mind when she created her dream home from the dust of a derelict farmstead . Used by all our favourite brands for film and photographic work, this hidden gem provides the perfect backdrop for those looking for a quintessentially British piece of paradise.
It’s clear through a scroll of Josephine’s instagram feed that colour plays a huge role in the ambiance at Ashbrook House and I was interested to hear that Josephine had worked with colour supremo, Vanessa Konig from Konig Colours who also runs a colour consultancy, when choosing the right tones for each room, including her much coveted front door.
Vanessa Konig from Konig Colours and TGP’s Sarah Heseltine
So it was that on a sunny August morning, Vanessa, armed with paint swatches and ideas, arrived at GPHQ to hear about our project and offer advice on what to think about when changing your entrance way.
‘It’s a lovely opportunity to add some colour to the outside of a home. People always notice colourful doors but also, subtle colours depending on the architecture and style can be just as eye catching. It’s a lovely way of creating a beautiful entrance and giving people a joyful welcome or even just for you returning home. Plus it’s a small project with big impact and hopefully happy results.”
Konig Colours offers a brilliant, diverse and beautiful paint range that is available both to decorators and us paint-loving, decorating-mad British public. And as well as introducing new colours each year, Konig Colours also offers a bespoke service developing paint colours for individual clients looking to match specific fabrics or create a new colour of their own.
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As I’ve mentioned, our neglected front door is on the north side of the house, and whilst surrounded by gorgeous Georgian stone, has the later addition of a red brick extension to the right of the door and it was this change of stonework that needed Vanessa’s expert eye. Having trawled through every one of Vanessa’s colour swatches online, I had become rather taken with a turquoise-y blue called Ulysses Blue and seeing it in the flesh in situ was a revelation on how colour would lift this space.
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Vanessa explained how the change in stone work picked out different tones and showed me a selection of different options that I would never have normally considered. These included shades with great names including Olivers Army, Barton Green and Karner Blue and were all far more in keeping with the style of our entrance as well as being a refreshing update on the current sludge brown that has graced the front door for goodness knows how long!
Konig Colours paints are all eco-friendly, highly-engineered and 100% water based, with very low VOC’s and virtually no odour. Sustainability is vital, so having a paint that has great coverage and is long lasting was an important consideration when Konig Colours first launched. The paint also has fantastic opacity and durability so you will get a hard-wearing paint that goes on beautifully with the minimum number of coats required, which in turn reduces labour costs and materials used. Win win!
We’ve got quite a lot of prep to do before we can reveal our finished colour choice. We need to remove some really cracked paving, order in new gravel and give the windows and downpipes a bit of a makeover. But, we have a colour and thanks to Vanessa’s vision guiding us through the different shades and highlighting aspects of the house that I hadn’t given much thought to before, we are excited to get cracking once the kids go back to school.
GAITPOST GIVEAWAY
Vanessa is offering one lucky reader a one litre pot of Gloss Eggshell in the shade of your choice from her colour library for you to revamp your front door AND we’ve teamed up with Alban Hill Nurseries, who are a favourite small business of Vanessa’s and are adding a beautiful potted bay tree with a terracotta pot to the prize to enhance your revamped entrance. Alban Hill Nurseries is a family run business outside the pretty market town of Olney. Vanessa adds,
“Alban Hill a little oasis of plant heaven and has the kindest staff ever, old school retail and a charming place to go and have an afternoon sourcing plants and a little coffee shop to relax whilst deciding. It’s been my favourite escape place with so many beautiful plants. My lockdown vegetable patch buying place!”
