F22_F&B_Ceros

Trust Your Gut

“Quite often people have a physical reaction to color,” says Cosby, recalling how on one photo shoot she noticed the crew visibly relax as they walked into a room painted in Eddy. Take into account how you feel when assessing a particular hue and choose accordingly.

“Quite often people have a physical reaction to color,” says Crosby, recalling how on one photo shoot she noticed the crew visibly relax as they walked into a room painted in Eddy. Take into account how you feel when assessing a particular hue and choose accordingly.

During our conversation, Cosby’s indecision emerged again when discussing the color for her bedroom. “I was thinking of Eddy,” she says of the supremely serene green shade she and her husband ultimately went with. “Because for me, a bedroom should be relaxing and calm.” For now, Eddy stays, but Cosby says that’s always up for discussion; her home remains a constant work in progress. “It will always be ongoing. By the time I’ve done the rest, I’ll be ready to redo the room I started with.”

During our conversation, Crosby’s indecision emerged again when discussing the color for her bedroom. “I was thinking of Eddy,” she says of the supremely serene green shade she and her husband ultimately went with. “Because for me, a bedroom should be relaxing and calm.” For now, Eddy stays, but Crosby says that’s always up for discussion; her home remains a constant work in progress. “It will always be ongoing. By the time I’ve done the rest, I’ll be ready to redo the room I started with.”

In spite of Cosby’s efforts to steer her son and daughter clear of gendered preferences, they insisted on their upstairs bedrooms being blue and pink, respectively. “That did not come from me,” she says. “Maybe it’s just society in general.” In her son’s room, she chose Kittiwake, a new seabird-inspired shade that “retains its blueness throughout the day,” paired with a panel of banana leaf–print wallpaper similar to the iconic Martinique design from the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Against the blue, it just looks fantastic,” says Cosby. In her daughter’s bedroom, thick, alternating stripes of School House White and Pink Drab across the ceiling and down the walls are reminiscent of an Eloise illustration come to life.

In spite of Crosby’s efforts to steer her son and daughter clear of gendered preferences, they insisted on their upstairs bedrooms being blue and pink, respectively. “That did not come from me,” she says. “Maybe it’s just society in general.” In her son’s room, she chose Kittiwake, a new seabird-inspired shade that “retains its blueness throughout the day,” paired with a panel of banana leaf–print wallpaper similar to the iconic Martinique design from the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Against the blue, it just looks fantastic,” says Crosby. In her daughter’s bedroom, thick, alternating stripes of School House White and Pink Drab across the ceiling and down the walls are reminiscent of an Eloise illustration come to life.

In the entranceway, she hoped to preserve the lovely light that comes through in the evening: “I wanted it to feel bright and exciting and open.” Tailor Tack, a pale, delicate blush from the new collection, does just that. A friend of Cosby’s painted a mural on top of the breathy hue, depicting the pine trees near the coast. “It’s not a color you would naturally expect to be behind the forest, but it looks amazing mixed with the greens,” she says. “I’m not a pink person, but I just bloody love it. It feels so refreshing.” Of course, that feeling is by design. “With this particular set of colors,” Cosby says of the fall assortment, “you’re going to get either comfort, refreshment, or excitement. We’ve covered all the bases.” Some of them occupy more than one territory at once, like Templeton Pink, the soothing yet invigorating hue in Cosby’s kitchen. “This was actually designed for a very historic property, but we started putting it in modern spaces and it looked just as good, if not better, in those,” she explains, adding that in the context of her own Victorian it lends a “1950s feel.”

In the entranceway, she wanted to preserve the lovely light that comes through in the evening: “I wanted it to feel bright and exciting and open.” Tailor Tack, a pale, delicate blush from the new collection, does just that. A friend of Crosby’s painted a mural on top of the breathy hue, depicting the pine trees near the coast. “It’s not a color you would naturally expect to be behind the forest, but it looks amazing mixed with the greens,” she says. “I’m not a pink person, but I just bloody love it. It feels so refreshing.” Of course, that feeling is by design. “With this particular set of colors,” Crosby says of the fall assortment, “you’re going to get either comfort, refreshment, or excitement. We’ve covered all the bases.” Some of them occupy more than one territory at once, like Templeton Pink, the soothing yet invigorating hue in Crosby’s kitchen. “This was actually designed for a very historic property, but we started putting it in modern spaces and it looked just as good, if not better, in those,” she explains, adding that in the context of her own Victorian it lends a “1950s feel.”

Go Portable

Testing out several colors? Try painting each hue onto large pieces of paper so you can consider them individually and in different corners of a room. Says Cosby, “I’ll paint on wallpaper, stick it on the wall, and then see how I feel—trial and error.”

Consider Every Angle

“You can never quite tell how color is going to react to your space,” says Cosby. Everything from the lightbulbs to what’s outside your windows can drastically affect how it looks in a certain room. Go beyond the color card and swatch in more than one place of the area you want to paint. Don’t forget to check in on the samples either; sunlight changes how a color presents.

“You can never quite tell how color is going to react to your space,” says Crosby. Everything from the lightbulbs to what’s outside your windows can drastically affect how it looks in a certain room. Go beyond the color card and swatch in more than one place of the area you want to paint. Don’t forget to check in on the samples either; light can drastically change how a color presents.

Tailor Tack

Farrow & Ball’s head of creative opens the doors to her freshly painted Victorian—and gives us a chromatic crash course.

“Color is something that you feel. When you are in a room, you really understand it,” she says. “And so I never know how a color feels until we do our photo shoot.” Since seeing them on-site is the only surefire way to test their efficacy, Cosby decided to bring her most recent work home in a very hands-on way, trying out a number of Farrow & Ball’s fall 2022 hues in her house to finish off a gut renovation of the space. “Your home has to do so many things now, and it’s very hard to switch off,” Cosby says of the all-but-dissolved line between work and life over the past few years. On this point, she speaks from personal experience. After years of living in the top-floor flat of an old Victorian in London, Cosby and her husband purchased the downstairs portion of the building when its tenant moved out. At the time, she was on maternity leave, and—unbeknownst to the couple—the U.K. was about to go into lockdown as a result of the pandemic. In an attempt to put their newfound abundance of days on end at home to good use, Cosby’s husband grabbed a sledgehammer and began the demolition on his own. As lockdown stretched on, however, the pair realized they wouldn’t be able to get anyone to come in to start the rebuild. “Now we’re living in a pile of rubble and nobody can fix it,” Cosby says, summing up their dilemma. With some serious timeline adjustments, elbow grease, and a bit of ingenuity—Cosby made their builder a to-scale model out of a cereal box to get her vision across—the house is now nearing its final form and sporting an array of fresh Farrow & Ball paints. Even though Cosby is responsible for creating the shades, choosing which one to use in each room of their home proved difficult. “I don’t know why it’s so much harder,” she says of the task. “If you asked me what color you should have in yours, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, it’s this one.’ For me, I’m like, ‘Oh, should I?’ But you can just repaint it; it’s fine.”

Charlotte Cosby’s voice assumes a sense of hushed caution when she’s asked about her role as head of creative at Farrow & Ball, the storied British paint and wallpaper company founded in 1946. “It’s really fun,” she says in what can only be described as a conspiratorial tone. “You almost don’t want to let anyone know, because I’m worried that they might just take it away—but it’s the funnest thing.”

Charlotte Crosby’s voice assumes a sense of hushed caution when she’s asked about her role as head of creative at Farrow & Ball, the storied British paint and wallpaper company founded in 1946. “It’s really fun,” she says in what can only be described as a conspiratorial tone. “You almost don’t want to let anyone know, because I’m worried that they might just take it away—but it’s the funnest thing.”

Despite these misgivings, Cosby graciously opens up about one of her favorite parts of the job: dreaming up new paint colors from scratch, alongside her colleague, Farrow & Ball color curator Joa Studholme, to add to the brand’s catalog of iconic hues. After reviewing the current color card, Cosby and Studholme select a few to be retired to the company archive, while devising new ones that they hope will become instant classics. “We sit down and it’s basically like children at school; we have all the samples and we literally mix them together to try and get the colors that we want,” explains Cosby. Studholme, who regularly goes into clients’ homes as a consultant, tends to know just what kinds of neutrals will be a hit, while Cosby’s specialty is hues that make more of an editorial impact. “It’s done on gut and instinct,” notes Cosby. “[We’re] actually incredibly lucky to be able to work in that way, because so many people subject everything to questions like ‘Does it pass this sales test?’” They collaborate with the lab and eventually whittle dozens of shades down to about 10.

Credits

Above: Card Room Green and School House White Paint, Farrow & Ball; Hikira Flat-Weave Rug, A Rum Fellow; Sofa, eBay; Acacia Emberton Linen, Liberty Fabrics; Wall Art, Michael Angove. Right: Lohals Rug, IKEA; Ceramics, Margot Wilson.

Credits

Pale Powder, Cinder Rose, and Arsenic Paint, Farrow & Ball; Handmade Playhouse.

Credits

Tailor Tack and Setting Plaster Paint, Farrow & Ball; Estate Emulsion Mural, Farrow & Ball; Echo Chandelier, David Weeks for Tala; Vintage Pot.

Credits

Left: School House White Paint, Farrow & Ball; Bekvam Step Stool, IKEA. Right: Templeton Pink and Setting Plaster Paint, Farrow & Ball; Cabinetry, British Standard by Plain English; Countertop, Diespeker & Co.; Classic Range Cooker, Rangemaster; Rattan Wave Pendant Shade, Matilda Goad & Co.

Credits

Left: School House White, Pink Drab, and Oval Room Blue Paint, Farrow & Ball; Kura Bed, IKEA; Marquess Garden Linen Fabric, Liberty Fabrics; Scout Playmat Rug, Totter + Tumble; Bedding, Zara Home; Framed Art, Michael Angove. Right: Kittiware Paint, Farrow & Ball; Sniglar Bed, IKEA; Linen Duvet Cover and Pillowcases, Piglet in Bed; Seagrass Stool, Allcraft.

Credits

Light Blue, School House White, and Skimming Stone Paint, Farrow & Ball; The Muse Table Lamp by Tala, Lumens; Silk Border Rug, Farrow & Ball for The Rug Company; Curtains, IKEA; Vintage Chair.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY James Merrell WORDS BY Roxanne Fequiere

Kitchen Templeton Pink

Girl’s Bedroom Pink Drab

Boy’s Bedroom Kittiwake

Bedroom Eddy

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Portrait photography by Robin Kitchin

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