Twenty nine years is a long time to stay with any company, but for Joa Studholme, Colour Curator at Farrow & Ball, her passion for paint means that time has flown. From devising new pallets and coming up with names for the shades (some of which are now so well-known that they’re common parlance), to advising customers on the perfect combination of colours for their walls and woodwork, it’s a role that almost three decades later she still continues to relish.
Formerly in advertising, she joined the company in 1996 and during the same year assisted on the launch of their first store in London’s Chelsea before setting up the brands consultancy service. Since then she has written three books on her specialist subject, while a career highlight was being asked to curate a selection of colours for The National Portrait Gallery before it reopened in 2023. “It was such a privilege to be involved in that project,” she remembers. “Seeing our paint used to transform the famously white walls into a backdrop for such incredible works of art was beyond exciting. I was very emotional when it was finished.”
Satisfaction also comes from other people’s love for the brand, which during her tenure has become something of a British icon. “The best thing someone said to me recently was, ‘you seem to have made colours that which we didn't realise we needed,’ and that’s a really good feeling,” she continues. “And people always ask about the names. With the latest collection, they were all inspired by things close to home, literally in my kitchen, starting with a paint called ‘Duster’. Then there was a shade that we felt was very down to earth, so my husband, who's a fantastic gardener, suggested we should call it ‘Dibber’, which is a tool you push in the ground to make a hole for a seed. Nothing is over-thought and there’s no big committee. They are just nice words that somehow feel right.”
Both the duster and dibber still reside at Joa’s Somerset home, which she shares with her husband and Tufnell the dog, named after the retired cricketer. A former schoolhouse originally built in the nineteenth-century, they bought the property eight years ago while still living in London and have since refurbished the historic building and made it their permanent residence. “I just love the area, and we’ve got loads of friends who live around here but we’re not in the town, we're a little bit separated,” she explains. “The house is right in the middle of a field, so we’re surrounded by cows, sheep and birds and it's very bucolic. My shoulders drop as I go over the cattle grid to get here. It really is just heaven.”
Equally as heavenly inside as out, the space is doused in uplifting colours and filled with fascinating objects, including a set of Caran d’Ache pencils gifted to Joa when she was a child. “My father bought them for me from a business trip in Norway, and they really started my love affair with colour,” she remembers. “I didn't use them much, because they were my most treasured possession but I used to move them around, creating different combinations. It’s not a huge set, just slightly bigger than average, but I was the proudest little girl in the world. They have that very evocative, slightly woody smell. I really did just worship them.”
Another treasure from childhood is a small enamel cup, which was used to scoop flour from a tin. “My mother was the worst cook in the world - I cannot tell you how bad she was,” recalls Joa. “But she was also the very best mum, and she would attempt to bake with me just because she thought that’s what mothers do. We made endless flapjacks and peppermint creams, which were basically icing sugar, cream of tartare and peppermint essence. I used to put my tiny hand into the flour tin to retrieve this cup, and the thing that always strikes me is the clipping sound it makes when it hits a marble pastry board. How I’ve ended up with it rather than any of my siblings is anyone’s guess, but I’m so glad it’s in my possession.”
Memories of her own experience as a mother are intrinsically linked to a set of alphabet prints by the artist William Nicholson, that were gifted to her by husband’s parents. “They hung in their spare bedroom, where I often slept with my children,” she explains. “Little kids wake up very early, and so in an attempt to keep them quiet, we would go through this alphabet endlessly.” Now, the prints hang on the wall above Joa’s own stairs. “I said to the children, I've got the alphabet! And it was only then they told me that they were terrified of the pictures,” she laughs. “They were very much of the moment and some are now not very politically correct. But they’re how I taught my children the alphabet, so to me they’re very precious.”
Though her children have now left home, when they visit, a bench in the garden is where the family love to congregate. “When we bought this house, it was for the interior as it really reminded us of a holiday home we used to take in Norfolk, but as we were so used to urban life we didn’t really think about the garden. As it turns out, we live outside completely.” Having originally bought a regular bench, they have since upgraded twice to their current six seater. “It kept getting bigger and bigger!” says Joa. “Now it means that all six of us – our two children and their partners – can all sit on it at once and in the evening, we’ll have a drink in the sun, admiring the most beautiful view with the cows snuffling down our necks. It turns out that this huge bench has become a wonderful part of our lives.”
Family gatherings also call for delicious food, which in turn requires an abundance of crockery, much of which has been gifted to Joa over the years by friends and family. “I’ve lots of really colourful china, some from Moroccan markets, all of it mismatched, so I love this amazing oil pourer from TOAST.” Handmade in Aubagne in the south of France, the tactile piece is inspired by Provencal ceramics. “I was attracted to it because of its incredible mimosa glaze, and it sits next to an orange bowl full of ripe tomatoes, as well as a bright blue jug,” she says. “It looks so fab and fits right in with my collection. It really is very me.”
Joa wears our Selma Cotton Shirt Dress and Hooded Waxed Cotton Parka. The Poterie Barbotine Oil Pourer and Melin Tregwynt Welsh Blanket also feature.
Words by Claudia Baillie.
Photography by Ellie Smith.
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