When couple Michael and Andrew were looking for a new home away from the busy streets and air pollution of London there was really only one choice – beautiful Wales, especially as they already had links to a remote area of Powys that they loved.
The couple were leaving behind a spacious and colour drenched home and studio in London and trying to find a home that they could fall in love with, that could fulfil their ambition to recreate their London home full of colour to make their hearts sing, in the area that they wanted was going to be a challenge.
But then property serendipity stepped in, as it so often does, and a building they knew well was looking for a new owner. Michael says: “We found the old courthouse, which dates back to 1654, and bought it in 2013 but it was in a derelict condition. There were cables hanging out of the ceiling, all the walls had been stripped out but the staircase was still in place in the middle of the property. We stripped out the bathrooms, took down ceilings, took down walls but decided to leave the bedrooms upstairs rather than create an upside-down house.” For more property, renovation and interior design stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here.
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The former courthouse dates back to 1654 and the couple have revived and extended it -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
Luckily for the old courthouse the couple both have a background in architecture and design, with Andrew now an internationally celebrated sculptor too, so the building could not have been in better hands to not just renovate it but create a comfortable home for now and long into the future.
The home has been lavished with colour love and has appeared for the first time on television, amazing viewers of series three of BBC Cymru Wales’ property programme Wales’ Home of the Year 2024 with its memorable and mesmerising interior.
Michael says the marine blue/jade is a shade that comes with them to every home -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
The black and white tiles are inspired by stately historic houses -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
But before the couple could bring their incredible colourful style to life Michael says the building needed to be taken back to bricks, extended, and then put back together again. He says: “What we had to work with was the dilapidated courthouse in the middle, and then we built on the sun room with glass walls at one end and then at the other end there was a wash house with a big crack running through it, so I knocked that down and built a two-storey extension.”
Michael, 78, continues: “We have put in a ground source heat pump – this was ten years ago when most home owners were asking ‘what’s that?’, plus I’ve added five inches of insulation all the way through – under the floors, behind the walls, and through the ceilings.
Add in oranges and lemons too for a zesty splash of extra colour -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
The staircase is a feature made a centre point thanks to pink paint -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
“I lined all the walls on top of the insulation with plywood and then plasterboard on top so that we could hang our works of art, so then we could put in really solid fixings into the wall to take the weight.”
Once the structural work was done Michael and Andrew could begin to bring the interiors to colourful life and after being together for over 50 years the choice of shades and creation of style was effortless. What the couple have created is a home that is truly unique to them, mixing all their favourite shades, patterns and personal treasures from their life together and from their friends.
Andrew, 79, chuckles as he remembers when they went to get some paint specially mixed as they are very particular about the tone of the shades they use, wanting no undertones of black or white or chalk added. The paint specialist summed it up neatly, saying ‘Oh so you want children’s colours do you?’ – and they said yes please.
Tartan carpet throughout the first floor -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
Even the smallest room in the house gets a bold colour -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
Michael says: “From our previous experience and from what we knew we liked to live with, we just threw it all together but you should take the time to research and get the shade of colour that works for you, take your time and find the right paint, we regularly use theatrical paint from a company called Flint in Deptford.
“We’ve always lived with colour, our studio in London was a riot of colour but this was a chance to do lots of lovely colours in one space including ultra marine blue, a theatrical paint so the tone is deep and luscious, and we always feature that colour in our buildings.”
Not many people would have the bravery to add a red tartan carpet to spaces that are covered in bright pinks and blues, zesty yellows and acid greens with splashes of orange thrown in for good measure, but then Michael and Andrew are not most people – they feel great joy at surrounding themselves with colours that bring a joyful emotional response combined with artwork that Andrew has produced and that friends have given them.
Wake up to sunshine every day -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
The sunshine continues into the principal bedroom ensuite -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
Michael comments: “Red is so relaxing and the tartan carpet ties it all together, people say ugh putting acid yellow with red tartan and a shocking pink staircase with a Royal Stuart tartan but it works for us. The floors downstairs are all black and white except the sunroom which is terracotta colours as it’s more an outside space but the rest of the floor is great big slabs of black white – I’ve always loved those in historic houses.”
Andrew adds: “I don’t really have a favourite room, every space has a different quality, we eat in the lovely jade room and I have a space in the studio where the fire is where I do things, and I really enjoy cooking in the kitchen too. Upstairs I can go and relax in the red room and watch television and I love the lemon yellow in the bedroom because irrespective of the weather you wake up to sunshine.
“You only have to look at nature for inspiration – all the flowers in spring, all the incredible colours, and the greens in Wales are amazing, just nature itself – the inspiration is there but I’m not sure most people look and see it.”
Andrew is an artist and sculptor and Michael an architect and together have created something very special -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
The house is full of friends’ artwork too -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
The couple’s home offers a slice of clever design as well as spaces so full of vibrant colours you can’t help feel uplifted. The use of thoughtfully located roof windows and roof lanterns has been at the core of adding more light to spaces but also the trick of adding mirrors to the window reveals to bounce light around the spaces.
Andrew says: “Also, because we are near the river, you can stand in a certain position and you can see the river flowing one way in one mirror and it’s going in the other direction in the other- and then they join up – it looks magical.”
Michael says the secret to using colour and creating a space that reflects your personality is just to use the colours that you love and then surround yourself with treasures that mean something to you.
The sun room has two walls of glass and doors to create an indoor outdoor seamless connection -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
Andrew and Michael outside their white house which is hiding a riot of colour inside -Credit:BBC Cymru Wales / IWC Media / Iolo Penri
He says: “When visitors step inside our house their jaws drop because you don’t usually see people being this bold, most of the homes we go to are all painted white, but white is too easy – it’s like you haven’t made your mind up so you just paint it white. We will never change it – it is what it is, the house is almost like an art piece in itself!
“So be bold, put all the colours that you love together and it works – because it’s you, it’s all the things you like, it sings, it’s your personality. It’s about having fun really, which is what doing up a house is all about, have as much fun as you possibly can.”
The third series of BBC Cymru Wales’ property programme, produced by IWC media, Wales’ Home of the Year 2024 is available to watch on iPlayer, with the series continuing every Wednesday at 7pm. For more property stories join our Amazing Welsh Homes Facebook group here.
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