Arts and Design

‘When we can, we’d love to throw a party to show it off’: designers on their lockdown DIY


‘The entrance hall had become a dumping ground’: Morag Myerscough

I have spent lockdown with my partner, Luke Morgan, and my dog, Elvis, in our live-work building in London. We moved here in 2005: I had done so much work on my previous house, I couldn’t face another project, so painted the walls white and lived with it. That changed in lockdown; most of my commissions were cancelled, and I was finally able to get going. We don’t have children, my parents are no longer alive and Luke’s parents are shielding in Bristol, so we don’t have the same commitments as many people.

The revamped top-floor terrace.



The revamped top-floor terrace. Photograph: Laurent Paoli

We ordered paint and plywood before everything closed, but I didn’t start work immediately. I felt too anxious and foggy, but I needed to start doing things to give myself a reason to get up every day.

Morag Myerscough’s new bookshelves.



Myerscough’s new bookshelves. Photograph: Courtesy Morag Myerscough

We have a large terrace on the top floor. I had started transforming it in 2018, but became distracted by work and it was left half finished. In the last few months, I’ve painted the facade and walls in bold, geometric patterns. It’s now an important, safe outdoor space: I’m there every morning watering my plants, and we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there.

Inside, we have transformed our library. It is our main entrance hall, but it was a dumping ground for books, cardboard models, coats, even a swing arm boxing ball. We’ve been using the entrance to our studio instead of our front door for years. I painted the ceiling yellow while Luke built plywood boxes to form bookshelves. I painted them pink, red, orange and yellow. It took us three weeks and 58 boxes in total. I’m holding off putting the books back as I like it empty, but that defeats the object, so they’ll go in soon.

When it’s possible, I’d love to throw a party to show it off.

Morag Myerscough is an artist and designer; @moragmyerscough

‘Small projects have kept me feeling creative’: Tess Newal

Tess Newall



Tess Newall gets to work in the spare bedroom. Photograph: Alfred Newall

A year ago, we moved from London into a 16th-century cottage on the edge of the South Downs. So during lockdown, we have been surrounded by green, and free to roam for miles without seeing a soul. I’m with my husband, Alfred, our two-year-old Wilf, and Romy, nine weeks. She was born at home two days into lockdown, and we have been self-isolating since then.

Alfred went back to work when Romy was one week old (he’s a furniture maker with his own studio), so as well as feeling anxious when I listened to the news, I’ve felt quite solitary. We’ve spent a lot of time in the garden under a walnut tree: it has a patch of wildflowers under it, which I’ve been pressing to make cards.

With a newborn baby and no childcare, I haven’t been able to use my garden studio as much as I would have liked. So I’ve decorated our spare bedroom – often carrying Romy in a sling. The room had white walls and low beams, stained black in Victorian times. It has never felt cosy, so I decided to paper the walls in Gaia, from House of Hackney, and paint the beams to lighten the space. I’ve added some decorative detailing, which I hope looks as if it has been there for centuries. I made a cardboard stencil of a flower motif, inspired by medieval and folk patterns. I stippled the paint on sparingly with a brush to give it an imperfect, aged effect. These small projects have kept me feeling creative.

I’ve also been planning our kitchen renovation. We’re going to remove the false ceiling, which was put up in the 1970s, to expose the beams of an old smoke bay (a high point, where smoke would accumulate before escaping). Alfred is making us a dresser, incorporating a butler’s sink, with a window above it that looks out over the Downs – a daily reminder of how lucky we are to live here.

Tess Newall is a decorative artist; @tessnewallstudio. She has launched a collection of handpainted chairs at ceraudo.com

‘Memories make a home’: Beata Heuman

Beata Heuman.



Beata Heuman in her dining room. Photograph: Chris Gloag

I spent hours obsessing about my home in London, long before Covid-19 came along, and that has only increased. Our entrance hall pendant – a Chinese-style paper lantern – was a quick fix; I never got round to replacing it. I’ve designed a new fixture, not yet in place, which has a rattan weave over a glass shade. The radiator cover in the entrance hall is also my own invention – it functions as our hall table for keys, post etc. Before lockdown, I asked my marble man if he had any offcuts, and this is what he brought. It’s a bit kitsch, but I like to flirt with kitsch on occasion. The painting seen in the mirror is Fish Bowl by Donald Hamilton Fraser, who was my husband’s great-uncle.

Beata Heuman’s radiator cover in the hall



Heuman’s radiator cover in the hall. Photograph: Courtesy Beata Heuman

Above the fireplace in the dining room hangs a painting by a Swedish family friend, Marianne Stalin; during lockdown, I’ve realised that what it needs is an ornate pink frame. My husband thinks I’ve gone crazy, but it has been ordered, so fingers crossed.

I’ve spent lockdown with my husband, two young daughters and our nanny. I’m lucky that my studio is within walking distance. It has helped to maintain a separation between work and home life. I’ve kept in touch with my family in Sweden on FaceTime, and I’ve baked a lot of cinnamon buns.

Heuman’s daybed, upholstered in their Asteria’s Folly Day fabric



Heuman’s daybed, upholstered in their Asteria’s Folly Day fabric. Photograph: Courtesy Beata Heuman

Spending more time at home helps form a stronger bond with our houses. I have been pretty housebound over the last three years from having two children; lockdown is an extreme version of that. Memories make a home – it has been nice to spend so much time with my family and create new ones.

Our garden house is the perfect place to unwind: I settle into my love seat, or the daybed we recently designed – covered in our fabric Asteria’s Folly Day – drink in hand.

Beata Heuman is an interior designer; beataheuman.com





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