Farrow & Ball's Colour Queen Joa Studholme Reveals How She Dreams Up The Brand's Best-Loved Paint Names

It, it-

... all those years ago.

It was indeed.

And what's fantastic is Farrow & Ball is actually sort of coming up for our 80th anniversary.

Which is extraordinary.

Which is extraordinary.

Even I haven't been here for 80 years.

[laughs]

And actually, I haven't quite got to 30 years.

It'll be 30 years in September.

So in 1996, Martin and Tom, who owned Farrow & Ball, wanted to have their first retail outlet and were sort of casting around for somebody to perhaps help them do it or, or look after it.

I had no retail experience at all, but had become obsessed with the fact that every dinner party I went to, people were talking about Mouse's Back and Dead Salmon and Pea Green, and it was so intriguing.

And so I found myself, I can remember the moment, I found myself saying, "Oh, I'll do it."

[laughs]

And here we are now in what we ...

This is now what we call a Farrow & Ball studio, so it's sort of an upgrade where you get fantastic service.

So it's a little bit more than a showroom now.

And I have to say, finding a little quiet spot to come and talk to you, because the showroom is very busy, as are all the Farrow & Ball showrooms, because people need help when it comes to choosing paint color.

Yes, they do.

I mean, I think that was part of Martin and Tom's genius, is that we realized very quickly that that was what you needed.

This first showroom, as it was then, it really didn't look like a paint shop at all.

It was ...

It looked like a sort of library.

Crazy notion, really.

It was so aspirational.