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1. Sandra Thomas permalink

   February 2, 2023

   Oh how lovely, thank you, thank you. I loved Jocasta Innes’s ideas, revelled in all her books, (used the cookery book too) and rejected magnolia utterly. I felt completely at home with her and bought a derelict untouched Regency Terrace with 3 floors and a cellar and sanded, scrubbed and painted. The kitchen was deep teal and ochre with a rusty coloured Fired Earth brick floor and is still my favourite room ever 40 years later. Because the cornices were all different and so beautiful I scraped and dug old emulsion out of them and colourwashed the rooms that colour so as not to blur them with any more paint. The woodwork was matt and coloured apart from the stunning glazing bars in the beautiful windows. I painted the narrow hall in imitation ashlar coursing (which was overwhelming) and polished up the old oak floor boards, sanded the pine top floor, blacked grates and hung muslin curtains and where appropriate, made Laura Ashley curtains (was in Carno country) on old rails with large brass or wooden rings. I polished huge old wardrobes that nobody wanted, scrubbed deal tables, stoned the step and slept in a brass bed and basically lived in a museum (but with heat and a phone, a washing machine, a fridge and a freezer). It was bliss.
   She was my hero and when the house was done I did a Fine Art Degree, so fired up was I by her clues and snippets of knowledge, of design and styles, of frescoes and of lime wash and the qualities of home made paint, (was inspired to visit Pompeii). Then I went on to do and teach interior design, paint effects, furniture painting, stencil making, paint mixing , scenery etc etc. And then charcoals and paint and art.
   She made me brave and bold and we ate her recipes (the mushroom pie only last week) and lived in a sort of quiet bliss of colour and genuine old furniture and cotton and linen and wood and watched the 80’s and 90’s flat pack plastic life pass by. Lovely to hear more about her personal life and her partner. I miss her like a soul mate. Jocasta Innes made a massive difference to my life.

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