Farrow & Ball’s new pop-up is packed with clever tricks to elevate a room with a little colour – without the cost of painting a whole house

If you live in East London or near enough to be able to come down to The Mix by Bert & May, I recommend you do so. Tile brand Bert & May just opened The Mix, a permanent collaborative retail space this month, featuring a host of other brands which including a beautiful Farrow & Ball pop-up. If you’re looking for paint ideas that don’t cost a fortune to make a big impact, then this is the place to go.

I visited The Mix this week, located in a warehouse building at 67 Vyner Street in East London’s Bethnal Green area. It might look dark and industrial on the outside, but inside it’s a cosy, warm and super stylish space.

The colour scheme for the whole space was chosen by Farrow & Ball’s colour curator, Joa Studholme. When I spoke to her, she said that she was going for a cosy look, but she also wanted to reflect the creative and youthful edge that East London is known for. That involved including paint inspiration for anyone working on a tight budget.

(Image credit: Beth Davis)

‘I spend quite a lot of time in people’s houses, helping them choose colors,’ Joa says. ‘And I have lots of very young clients, and they can’t afford to paint their whole house. So here it shows you how to paint just one feature – like the door, for example, just paint something – to add a little twist. The pillars are only half painted across the space, and all these little quirks.’

While the space uses a combination of paint all over. All the ideas can be taken in isolation as inspiration for how you can stretch one tin of paint to add colour throughout the whole house as your red thread. Like Joa says, not all of us have the time or the money to redecorate our whole home in Farrow and Ball paint.

(Image credit: Future/Sara Hesikova)

If you’re only picking one shade to decorate your home, the space also offers plenty of bold suggestions. There are quite a few different Farrow & Ball paint shades used here including some of the most popular Farrow & Ball colours and this year’s newly launched shades.

Starting with the brand’s pop-up space, the main wall is painted half in the new Marmelo shade on the top and Broccoli Brown on the bottom with a stripe in Reduced Green running through the middle, separating the two block colours.

An organic-shaped table in the middle of the space is painted in the more vibrant Bancha green shade, while a moodier green tone called Douter was used on the screen separating the Farrow & Ball pop-up from the rest of the space.

(Image credit: Beth Davis)

But the real statement was created in the centre of The Mix using a fiery orange Bamboozle shade where it was perfectly paired with tiles from Bert & May and fabrics from Ottoline used on ottomans and a banquette bench.

While you can’t purchase Farrow & Ball paint and wallpapers directly from The Mix, it’s a perfect place to go and explore the range of colours and wallpapers on offer.

You can also order paint sample pots and book colour consultations with the Farrow & Ball team at the venue. It’s the perfect place to pop by and remind yourself that even with just a tester pot or a small tin of paint you can completely change the look and feel of a room.