88 | SATURDAY | 30.04.22 | The GuardianLIFESTYLE
Object lesson
I
don’t like mid-tones,” says
Manfredi della Gherardesca.
“ Cappuccinos , bland colours:
they just don’t work.
Marriages often produce
greyish houses, because
nobody wants to fi ght about colour.
But I have always loved colour.”
This should come as little surprise
to visitors to Della Gherardesca’s south
London home, with its walls papered
in black-and-white patterns of
writhing lizards, its yellow fl oors and
P e p t o - B i s m o l p i n k l i v i n g r o o m. B y
combining pops of colour – from
lime-green kitchen cupboards to an
orange-painted hallway – and adding
sumptuous fabrics, oil paintings,
antiques, objects collected over the
years and quirky collections, this
interior designer and art consultant
has created a lush interior that feels
like it’s been this way for decades.
But this is far from the case: a
couple of years ago, his house was just
a white box.
In the hallway, alongside the
Timorous Beasties’ iguanas and birds
wallpaper , are an ornate gilt sideboard
and mirror; through an arch into the
stairway, the orange walls are
stencilled with a palm motif. A
black-and-white-striped carpet runs
the length of the stairs.
In the pink living room, with its
fl oor-to-ceiling sash windows, a
bespoke, mid-century-style sofa and
chairs surround a coff ee table laden
with objects. Overseeing all, on a
mint-green plinth, is a 1970s ceramic‘You need bad taste,’ says the owner of
this uplifting home, which mixes up
colour, styles and periods with gusto
Words: Alexander Breeze
Photography: Sarah Hogantotem lamp by Georges Pelletier.
“I thought it was like Star Wars meets
Walt Disney,” says Della Gherardesca.
The bedrooms have more texture
and mismatched patterns. Built-in
wardrobes opposite the bed in the
guest bedroom are papered in the
same Turkish-style block print
wallpaper as the rest of the room.
Artworks in the master bedroom
include a print of Just an Average Guy
by Ed Ruscha.
Della Gherardesca’s desk is tucked
away on the top-fl oor landin g by the
guest room, making good use of a
slightly awkward space. It’s illuminated
by a skylight, whose light is amplifi ed
by surrounding boxed-in mirrors.
He doesn’t labour over matching
periods or styles, but considers each
piece of furniture, object and artwork
in relation to its neighbour. Thus the
elegant sofa and a carved lion sit
alongside a plastic gnome brazenly
fl ipping his middle fi nger.
“You need bad taste,” he says,
“because it counterbalances things – it
all works together so long as what
you’re surrounded with is loved and
has meaning, and is not just pure
accumulation.”
When Della Gherardesca moved
into his house in Stockwell a couple of
years ago, he built the bulk of his
collection to fi ll the space pretty
quickly. “I cherish every occasion
to go shopping,” he says , “and I tend
to nest fast. I arrive
somewhere, I put
together what I wantINTERIORS