My Happy Home: Interior designer and star of season three of The Traitors, Francesca Rowan-Plowden, talks to House Beautiful UK about her English eclectic home, her love of disco balls and the one change she would make to The Traitors' castle.
Before Francesca became an interior designer (and many years before she became a Faithful on The Traitors), she went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) for three years to train as an actor. ‘I sort of worked as an actor – I worked a lot as a waitress and a shopgirl,’ Francesca tells us.
She was juggling touring, theatre work and raising two small children when an advert for the tenancy at the National Trust property Lamb House came up. After many rounds of interviews, she was given the job as tenant and custodian of the house. The property began to gain media attention and after decorating some of its rooms, Francesca was encouraged to pursue interior design professionally.
Now, Francesca has an interior design business in her own name. Over the years, she's worked on projects ranging from Goodnestone Park in Kent to Battel Hall of Leeds Castle, as well as local residential projects.
As Francesca explains, there's been an element of serendipity to her entire career. ‘Since The Traitors, I've had loads of people messaging me, saying, How should I get into interior design? I’m really not the best person to ask,’ she says.
Today, Francesca lives in a Georgian-style house just outside of Rye in East Sussex. Despite making a career out of renovating heritage properties, her home is a relatively new build. She shares it with her sons, husband, two dogs, one cat and one chicken.
Many people know you from being on The Traitors. If you could change one thing about the interiors in Ardross Castle, what would it be?
FRP: I said to the producers afterwards, ‘Put the kitchen in the breakfast room.’ I know they want all the separate conversations going on, but I think it would become more of a communal space. People always gravitate there to make a cup of tea or a coffee – and that's when they chat.
Have any of your fellow Traitors contestants been round to your house?
FRP: Yes, I've had Freddie come to stay for one night – I think he ended up staying for three. And James.
Didn't people suspect Freddie of being your son in the show?
FRP: It was funny because when he first arrived [at my house], it was kind of like how we were in the show – just sort of colleagues and, you know, nice. And then, by the second day, he was going, ‘Can I have a snack, Frankie?’ and opening the fridge and watching TV with the boys, and I was like, ‘You've literally gone from being my colleague to being my actual son.’
How would you describe your home?
FRP: It’s a Georgian-style house but it’s actually a modern build, which is quite unusual for me because I love old houses and buildings.
We moved here about three years ago, and slowly, I’ve just been doing it up to make it feel like an English country house. It was very modern with white-grey carpets and chrome fittings. I’ve been changing the plug sockets to antique brass, the door handles to beehive ones and adding a lot of layers, colour and texture. It’s a constantly evolving project.
How would you describe your decorating style?
FRP: It is quite eclectic English with lots of layering and colours. I think quite a lot of it is about storytelling. Lots of it has come with me from house to house. Much like English eclecticism, they have come from my travels, past, family and all sorts of things.
Have you had any decorating disasters?
FRP: Oh, yeah, many! Funnily enough, when I had just left drama school, we were living with friends in Clapham and our flatmate said, ‘Why don’t we paint the hall?’ And I said, yeah, I'm going to do it. I think I had grand country house ideas for a small flat in Clapham. And so my boyfriend and I repainted it this dark green…
My flatmate’s sister came in and she went, ‘Oh my God, you've made it look like a pub!’ And we really had.
That still haunts me. I think it's probably why when they said, ‘You should do interior design,’ I just kept thinking back to that flat and going, oh no, you shouldn't let me loose on the green paint.
What makes you happiest at home?
FRP: I think having everyone around. I also like it when it's tidy, I have to say – though there are two sides to that because it does get messier!
What was your childhood home like?
FRP: My parents went through a phase of doing up flats. We'd live in them, and then we'd move on to the next thing.
My dad was an engineer, so career-wise, he moved around quite a lot. My mum is a textile designer and very creative – in the fashion sense rather than the interior design sense – and so there was a real sense of making something look and feel homely really quickly. I picked up on that.
It was always quite fun – doing up the flats, and I suppose that's where the foundations of interior design came from, because I watched them very much do it themselves.
What's your dinner party style?
FRP: I like having parties. I do dinner parties less so because I worry that the focus is too much on the food, and I'm not the best cook.
I do have two disco balls permanently up on the ceiling in the kitchen because I love disco balls. They're also on the veranda. In our last house, I had a blackboard outside which had been left by the previous owners, and because I'd put disco balls all around the garden, it just said, ‘Every day is disco day.’ That's sort of my motto.
What’s the trend you're least likely to follow?
FRP: I'm not averse to bouclé, but it probably is one of the most impractical fabrics, and I cannot understand how we’re in our fourth year now of bouclé chairs being everywhere.
I was literally going, ‘When is this going to stop?’ I mean, I like it, but I can’t go there with the dogs and everything. If I lived on my own in a very lovely minimalist department, we’d have loads of white bouclé sofas – but it's not happening in this life.
What is your biggest extravagance in the home?
FRP: I think our biggest extravagance – which wasn't as extravagant as it could be – is that we have a lovely, very big burgundy velvet sofa from Maker&Son. But the Hastings Sofa Company made it so I got it at Hastings Sofa Company prices rather than the Maker&Son prices. It was a big purchase, but we needed it because with my husband’s two children as well, there are eight of us.
If we move, I think the person who buys this house would have to keep it because it's so big. If you didn't have a double French window on the ground floor, I'm not sure how you would move it – which is probably why it was reduced! We were the only people who were mad enough to think, ‘We can take up a whole room with a big burgundy sofa.’
Do you collect anything?
FRP: I have a soft spot for cabbage ware, which I then just stick on the wall. I do collect novelty ceramics, which range from being quite pretty to quite hideous and kitsch, but they make me laugh.
I also collect jelly moulds – copper ones and lovely white French ceramic ones. I collect fashion prints and disco balls. I have quite a lot of collections. There's definitely a magpie element to me. I also collect green glass.
I go through phases of putting the novelty ceramics out and then I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I look like some sort of weird lady who’s just raided a charity shop and put it everywhere!’
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