My Happy Home: Actress and Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page talks to House Beautiful UK about her creative family home, building an extravagant bespoke library wall and why you'll never find her hosting a dinner party.
Joanna rose to fame playing Stacey Shipman in the BBC’s BAFTA-winning sitcom Gavin & Stacey – a role that made her a household name when it first aired in 2007.
A RADA graduate, Joanna began her career with roles in the BBC’s David Copperfield, Love Actually and From Hell before finding a home in Ruth Jones and James Corden’s hit series. Since then, Joanna has blended acting with presenting, voice work and radio, while staying busy as a mum-of-four (Eva, 13, Kit, 10, Noah, eight, and four-year-old Boe).
Married to ex-Emmerdale actor James Thornton, 50, Joanna lives in Oxfordshire with her family, including two dogs and four guinea pigs.
How would you describe your home?
JP: Home is my happy place, my sanctuary and the place I feel safe. It's our cave, where we shut the door and lock ourselves away, eat, have fun and cwtch.
We moved into our home – a brand new house – four years ago. It’s so new, we’ve got an air source heat pump. When the heating gets going, our house is boiling. James and I have a constant battle. I like it really hot, about 26 degrees, and he knocks it down to 18 degrees.
Since I was small, I’ve lived in old period properties, but it feels nice knowing we're the only people who have ever lived in our home. It’s taken us a good three years to put our stamp on it and to create character. At first, every room was like a massive white box.
What's your decorating style?
JP: I planned to go for neutral decor (creams and light brown) to create a nice, calm atmosphere because that's what’s needed when life is so hectic. It’s turned out completely differently. In the hall, I’ve got a red, black and white OKA sofa with tassels all over it, a big wooden apothecary cabinet from an antique shop, large wooden lamps, a huge mirror and a bohemian multicoloured rug (below).
In the kitchen, there's a big wooden table, black lamps with red lampshades, a rock pool blue sofa, and bright green sofas in the living room and the playroom. I’ve got lots of gorgeous Louise Dear paintings of women and women's faces – lots of bright orange, hot pink and blues (below).
I’ve also got loads of art from Wales that belonged to my mum. I’m waiting to inherit a painting that was in the National Gallery of my great, great, great, great-grandmother. She’s in a traditional Welsh costume and the painter approached her all those years ago and asked if he could paint her because she looked amazing.
It's now being looked after by my great-great aunt, who has asked if I'm ready to inherit it. I'm planning to put it at the top of the stairs, but I think it's going to scare the s*** out of the children because she's got a very serious expression on her face!
What's your favourite room?
JP: The kitchen, because it's our big family room. In my area in the corner – Jo's Creative Space – I've got two turquoise armchairs and a white metal frame jigsaw table from Amazon, which James hates. Every day, something creative is going on. Kit's making a robot, Noah's building Lego, Eva's doing a painting on her big easel and I'm doing Play-Doh with Boe.
What was your childhood home like?
JP: It was a semi-detached house in Treboeth, Swansea. It was dinky, but it was home. Mum and Dad would pull up the sofa to sit and watch telly, while I would choreograph dances underneath the stairs. It felt so safe and lovely.
We moved down to Mumbles, by the sea, when I was about 14, because my Auntie Iris died and left her house to us.
Worst decorating disaster?
JP: When James and I first moved in together, he decided to paint our bedroom like a womb, in dark blood red. We had a really dark wooden four-poster bed and two huge mirrors. It sounds like the red room in Fifty Shades of Grey. Just a few whips on the wall and it would have been sorted!
One day, I went 'Oh my God, it's too overwhelming, I’m getting a throbbing headache.' The next thing we painted one wall bright orange and the other walls dark brown. That was a bit of a disaster as well.
James also found in a secondhand shop a big bed made out of milk crates with fitted milk crate bedside tables. We got a mattress made to fit the size of the milk crates. It was absolutely disgusting. We both hated it but lived with it for a few years. We've now got a nice green velvet bed – green is my favourite colour – and everybody can fit in. We like to watch films in bed together as a family.
Is there a design trend that you're least likely to follow?
JP: Minimalism! It’s just not in me. At the moment, I'm decluttering because we've collected so many things over the years. Kit has constantly made us robots; there are all the kids' artwork, which is plastered not only on the fridge but also on the kitchen cupboards and walls. I put everything up.
What’s your biggest extravagance in the home?
JP: When we moved in, the big kitchen/living room area didn't have any shelving at all. I wanted a big wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling library with cupboards and shelves for all of my books (below). We spent about £10,000, but it needed to be done and done properly. It's in, it looks fantastic and it'll never change.
And the best bargain?
JP: We got a really old, grey teddy bear material sofa off the street when we lived in East Dulwich, South-east London. It was outside a shop on Northcote Road with springs coming off it. James carried it home and we had it reupholstered.
Whose house would you love to nose around?
JP: I've looked at Jo Wood's house in magazines and she's got gorgeous navy blue sofas and mustard walls. It looks right up my street. I love anything eclectic, bohemian and very artsy.
What’s your favourite homeware store?
JP: There's a shop in Henley-on-Thames called Biggie Best and they've always got nice lamps. I really like Vinegar Hill and my finds in Fanny’s Antiques in Reading are always gorgeous. If I'm going online, I love Graham & Green, Cox & Cox, OKA and Neptune.
What’s your favourite housewarming gift?
JP: A candle and a bottle of something, because they're going to need a drink after they've moved. If you bring anything else, you're introducing your own style.
What’s on your bedside table?
JP: I'm still sleeping with Boe so I've got a bedside lamp, a bottle of milk, a bottle of water, my headphones for when she falls asleep and I can start watching something, lip balm, a Sherlock Holmes escape room book and a murder mystery book.
What’s your dinner party style?
JP: I will not host a dinner party. I get severe anxiety and panic. I can't cope if I've got to cook. The only time we hosted a party, it was horrific. I answered the door, sent them off in James' direction, then took myself off to the kitchen and got drunk on Pina coladas. I came into my own later on when we played Murder In The Dark. My brother-in-law hid under the Christmas tree!
What’s the first thing you do when you walk through the door?
JP: I greet our two dogs, take off my coat, go upstairs and put on my tracksuit and vest, visit the kids in their rooms or in the kitchen, then, depending on the day, I might make an Aperol Spritz while James makes us food. If nobody's in, I go to my jigsaw corner. I certainly won't prepare any food or do the dishes.
What object would you save in a fire?
JP: My Jack Russell, Daisy. When she died, we buried her in our old garden because I couldn't cremate her. Before we moved out, I made James dig her up, so we've got her and the soil in a big plastic garden box.
Before we buried her, I cut off a small bit of her fur, which I keep with a little blanket that I knitted and embroidered. I'd also save my kids' artwork. Eva's made a massive pottery puffer fish. It’s orange with green eyes and it's amazing.
Outside my window is.…
JP: My garden. I've just put in some laurel across the fence. There's a big tree, where I’d love to build a treehouse and a Springer Spaniel with a tennis ball in her mouth, running around and churning up all the mud!
Are you green-fingered?
JP: I am. At my old house, I had two acres and a greenhouse where I grew strawberries and tomatoes. I also had rhubarb, potatoes and a blueberry bush. Since we moved, I’ve not done anything. With Boe, it’s been impossible. Now she’s four, I’ve decided that this year I’m going to get a little greenhouse and start planting again.
There's nothing better than having peace and calm in the greenhouse. I also want to establish my own garden. We’re putting in two ornamental pear trees and I’d like some daffodils and wisteria. With National Lottery Open Week happening, I love going to Dyffryn Gardens in Wales because they show you how to do all of that.
Where are you every Sunday?
JP: We get up in the morning, take the dogs into the woods and on the way back from a massive walk, we phone our local pub and book in for Sunday lunch. I drink loads of lager and lime and we play cards, Boggle, Yahtzee and Dobble, then make our way home to light the fire in the living room and watch telly.
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George Clarke
