'The colours in my home inspire my artwork'

With a love of painting, Catherine Frost has created a colourful home that is the perfect backdrop for her artwork and prints

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Living in London was no longer practical for Catherine Frost and her husband, Alan. Before getting married, they lived separately in different areas of the city, almost an hour’s drive apart. With their wedding on the horizon, it made sense to sell their properties and buy a bigger home together in the Surrey countryside.

‘We wanted to move closer to my family, and to a quieter area with lots of green spaces to enjoy,’ Catherine explains. ‘We looked for nearly a year and, after two failed house sales, we finally found this lodge house. It definitely needed renovation work, but nothing that felt overwhelming for us.’ Built as part of a larger estate in the 1870s, the property is on the former grounds of a nearby mansion house. ‘Although the main part of our house is very old, over time rooms have been added and extended,’ says Catherine.

DOING IT THEMSELVES

The interior of their new home needed updating, and Catherine planned to inject colour into every room. The walls had been decorated with beige paint and gold wallpapers, and there were yellow-toned carpets throughout. Many of the rooms had fussy window dressings that obstructed the views out over the garden. ‘When we peeled back the wallpaper, some of the walls were in poor condition. We had to either replaster them or fill in holes and sand them back before we could even think about decorating,’ says Catherine.