Now, it is taupe, with one wall of Neisha Crosland wallpaper. The bookcase, once a school cupboard, looks a bit weird, and the room needs something like an amazing dresser that you might pick up in France. She advised us to use paintings that reflect happiness and life, and give good vibes.The sitting room at the front of the house has been five colours, including red. Above the fireplace is a triptych that we got up a mountain in Spain, and in the corner are our “happy” paintings. Don’t laugh, but because the former owners got divorced, I got in a feng-shui lady. There are cushions for the poor guests, because it’s not that comfortable.We have two sofas in the kitchen – it’s a huge space – arranged around a pretend fireplace It’s made of some Italian plaster of Paris stuff I think faking things for effect is good. The table was an expensive thing from a place in the King’s Road.
It’s new but somebody has made it look old, so you can get pen marks or candle wax on it and give it a really bad time, and it doesn’t matter The bench is from a church. So I made friends with a wonderful American who worked in a shop that sells paint and talked to her a lot. She recommended a Sanderson colour, a sort of taupe, and I love it.The kitchen units are from Ikea and we just painted them blue and put in the chunky white tiles. People said, “You’re trying to be too rural”, but I wanted warm shapes and textures that are friendly. The kitchen was yellow to start with because I’d read that it is a good colour for a kitchen, but even the people who painted it said, “Oh, my God, it’s like sick!”.
The trouble with me is that I know what I want, but only when it has gone wrong. It had been converted into flats, then a developer returned it to a house and a couple moved in. They promptly divorced, and we bought it for just under £600,000 – it’s probably worth £900,000 now.My dream was always to have a big fuck-off house to do up, but having done it, I wouldn’t necessarily do it again. One can become obsessed – it took me six months to sort out the colours. I know that sounds poncey, and it was expensive, but I hate that thing of going into people’s houses and looking at their bits and bobs and going, “Mmm, it’s lovely…”, while just wanting to get out.
The house is turn-of-the- -last-century.
On Sunday, she is hosting a wine tasting at the Ros?’Anjou Queens’ Garden Party in London’s Soho
used to live in Brixton, in a cottage that I bought from Rab C Nesbitt (the actor Gregor Fisher). I lived there for 10 years, first as a single girl, then with my first husband, then, after we split up, with our daughter Hannah Many years later, I met Chris, husband No 2. He sold his house in the country and together we were able to get a mortgage on a bigger property.Five years ago, Hannah was about to go to Alleyn’s School in Dulwich, so it made sense to be here, although I’m really a north-London person and hanker for Upper Street (in Islington) A property finder found this house for us. She began her career at London’s Comedy Store and appeared in the BBC TV series Absolutely Fabulous She is currently writing her first comedy novel. As I said at the beginning, northern Spain isn’t undiscovered – just ignored, so far, by most Britons.Inmobiliaria Res ( www.inmobiliariares ; 0034 94 331 6062); Fincas Corral ( www.fincascorral ; 0034 94 236 5919); Inmobiliaria Campillo ( www.resinmobiliaria terra.es; 0034 98 540 1582); Inmobiliaria Dursa ( http:// www.dursa.es; 0034 98 521 5511); BK Property ( www.bkproperty ; 0034 98 673 1121). Then, in Galicia, rockier shores and beaches prevail.Of course, these beaches won’t be entirely empty, but they will certainly be less packed than in the south. Helen Lederer, 51, lives in East Dulwich with her 16-year-old daughter Hannah and her second husband Chris.
