I Just Can't Stop Experimenting With Colour

As Farrow & Ball’s colour consultant, Joa Studholme knows how to pick a palette (but she’s made mistakes in her own home, just like the rest of us...)

Joa Studholme started out in advertising, but took a career swerve after having children and now works as a colour consultant, advising clients on the shades to choose for their homes. She has spent two decades helping paint company Farrow & Ball develop its colour palette, co-written the brand’s decorating bible, How to Decorate (£30, Octopus) and even has a Farrow & Ball paint colour named after her: ‘Joa’s White’. She lives in West London with her husband Andrew, their son Cosmo, 24, and daughter Nancy, 18.

I once painted a bathroom in an acid gloss green. 

I thought it would feel like being in a retro Fifties caravan. Sadly, it just made my children look incredibly ill at bathtime! I still can’t help experimenting with colour at any chance I get.