What's the one thing in Vogue Williams' home that instantly takes her back to childhood? Which unexpected paint colour does she swear makes a room feel warmer? And what does her decorating style really look like? The Irish media personality and TV host talks us through renovating her London home, the belongings she treasures most, and the clever reason she installed water jets on the roof.
Renovation Rescue host Vogue Williams has loved interiors since studying construction design and management at university. She has newly renovated her property in Howth, near Dublin, and work is underway on a historic London house — one that she and husband Spencer Matthews plan to make their forever home with children Theodore, Gigi, Otto and their fourth, which is due soon.
Here, the TV star shares how colour, natural light and treasured possessions shape her distinctive style.
Howth is a calm and relaxing place, so I wanted to make sure the house felt calm and relaxing too. It's my getaway from crazy, hectic London.
We had the place redesigned by interior designer Geri O'Toole of Geri Designs. It's a very open space and everything flows, which works perfectly being by the sea. It's not lacking in colour.
When I first saw the house, which used to belong to a friend, the kitchen was quite dark and I instantly thought, 'I'm painting that pink.' I pulled up all the dark tiles. Now the flooring matches throughout thanks to a light-washed wood from Matt Britton, which makes the space look a lot bigger. We painted the kitchen cabinets in DH Blossom by Dulux Heritage and put in a new kitchen island topped with Taj Mahal from Cosentino, which is full of pink and gold tones.
I have an obsession with White 01 paint from Lick. It doesn't necessarily look pink, but I put it everywhere because it has such a warm glow. You can still have white-ish walls without them feeling cold.
There are gentle pastels throughout the house and I've just colour-drenched Gigi’s room pink!
Before I met Luke [Luke Mabbott, Vogue's co-presenter on Renovation Rescue], who is incredible at DIY, I would never have bothered with DIY; then after a while in his company I found myself buying a drill and a sander!
I can't do everything, but if a small table needs putting together, I can do it now. Do you know how hard it is to get a handyman? They are booked and busy. It definitely pays to do it yourself. You can save so much money; then there's the gratification from doing it yourself. It gives you a great sense of accomplishment. You end up doing things that you think would be impossible, but when you learn how to do them, they're totally doable.
I love it when guests come in and help themselves. Obviously not the first time I’m hosting somebody, but I like people to feel like they can go to the fridge and get a drink. We've a really open-door policy in our house. We just want people to feel comfortable.
I'm not the kind of person to walk into Chanel and drop a load of money on a bag. I'd rather have something that brings me joy to look at. I've been collecting art for years. Some of it's inexpensive, some of it's a lot more expensive, but it's always my biggest extravagance.
I like such a varied style, from pop art to something really old school. Spenny's mum's an artist and I always ask her for one of her pieces on my birthday. I've also got pieces that belonged to my granny years ago. Art means there's a talking point in every room because every picture tells a story.
Spenny doesn't necessarily love the art that I love — but he has to look at it anyway!
When my dad passed away 16 years ago, I kept his really old deck shoes and they now sit in pride of place in my wardrobe. I love having pictures of family and friends around too. I don't overdo it with walls and walls of photographs, but I like framing special moments and having a bit of everyone in my house.
He's a giant mouse that my dad bought me when I was about five. He's dressed like someone from the olden days and has lived in every house — apart from when I went to Uni because I didn't want to lose him. He sits on top of the kids' wardrobes, but the other day, Gigi put him in the cupboard. I brought him straight back out. I'm very protective of Jonathan.
The Irish house is beaming with light. It's completely scorching at the moment because of the weather, but you walk in and it's so bright and open-plan. There's a glass floor on the first floor, which lots of children are terrified to walk across, but it means light comes in from everywhere and there are skylights too. I love natural light, which is why in our new London kitchen we're creating a huge glass ceiling.
It's just off the kitchen, and when you look out of the window, you just see the sea. The kids' toys are all tucked away in arched bookcases, designed by Geri's team and built by Con Brouder Kitchens and Interiors.
As much as you think children will go off and play in a playroom, they won't. They just want to sit with you. I love the tranquillity of that room. It's so peaceful, quiet and calm — a really healing place.
When I'm there on my own, which is rare, I just walk around the house enjoying it.
If someone ever came to me with an offer I couldn't refuse, I would be of the reasoning that everything is for sale. I love doing renos and interiors, so doing another one would never really scare me.
I've been given side tables and lamps from when my parents lived in Edinburgh 22 years ago, including one that looks like a giant hooded hair dryer from a hair salon.
I had a drinks do in my last home in London and my sister's friend was pretending to do her mum's hair. She pulled the lamp down on her mum's head and the whole thing smashed. She was totally fine, but the lamp's now in Howth, still with no bulb because it's safer not to replace it.
Our new London home is around 200 years old and the woman who owned it before loved gardening — she won awards for it.
When I stand in what will be the kitchen, I look out the window and can just see green. I think, 'I can't wait to wake up to that every day'. I haven't had that in London since I moved here about 15 years ago, and coming from Ireland, I've missed it.
I have high aspirations of being a gardener. Kelly Brook was telling me about how much she loves gardening and it seems like such a nice, peaceful way to spend your time. It hasn't yet come to fruition because with so many small kids, I prioritise my time in other places. Maybe my gardening era will come when they're in secondary school.
If I smell laundry detergent on someone's clothes, I think, "Oh God, I'd say your house is lovely." I also love a Diptyque room spray made for the Eden Rock — the hotel in St Barth's that Spenny's parents own. It's made from the yellow flowers of the ylang-ylang plant.
St Barth's is where Spenny grew up, so it feels like home to him and I feel so settled and relaxed there as well. It's somewhere you don't even put shoes on. The smell reminds me of relaxing and having a really nice time with the kids.
Seagulls are wild where I live in Ireland. The tourists are petrified of them and they s**t on everything, so I put in water jets on the roof. When a seagull flies by, it sprays water, so they don't land and poo on your roof. My roof is absolutely spotless!
In my house in Ireland, there's an architectural detail where one wall doesn't touch the ground, so there's a gap of a couple of centimetres between. Only architects seem to notice it, including Irish architect and TV presenter Dermot Bannan who spotted it straight away when he visited.
The previous owner didn't spend money on curtains, but he splashed out on details like that. I still don't know if I'd be willing to pay for it myself, but it looks really cool in that house because it's so modern.
The 12-seater table was gifted to us by Spenny's parents when we lived in our apartment in London, but it's so massive, it took up the entire apartment. We loved it, but after 18 months, we moved it to our place in Jersey. Then, when we sold that a couple of years ago, we relocated it to Ireland with the intention of one day moving it into our new place in London.
Since making the pilgrimage to Ireland, we've realised the table might live there forever. It's made of light, gorgeous wood. It really suits the light and bright space.
It also gets so much use in Ireland because we always have so many people to stay. I fly back whenever I have work there and sometimes I take the kids during half term. They love it there, playing with their friends and cousins.
My builder was a bit taken aback when I asked for a schedule of works. I don't think he realised that, because of Renovation Rescue, I know about scheduling everything and making sure a project stays on track.
We're about a year away from moving in, but I'm really enjoying the process. My friends at Boss Studio are working with us on the interiors and their vision is incredible. Somebody was talking to me about decision fatigue with her house recently, and I thought, I just don't think I'd ever get that. I love it too much.
He never showed a keen interest in interiors until we got our forever house in London. We're actually pretty good at compromising and have quite similar interior styles, but at one point in our apartment he really wanted an orange resin floor. He was very insistent and I just flat-out said no. He does have some quirky tastes that will not be making it into the new house. I'm just hoping he plans a run across Australia for the time that we're doing it up.
Renovation Rescue is available to watch now on Channel 4
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