White and Faded | Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: So hi, I'm Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg and my latest book is called White and Faded: Restoring Beauty in Your Home and Life.
Suzy Chase: So White and Faded is not only the title of your book, but it's the hub of stylish yet sustainable living. You and your husband, Dino, are the creative powerhouse behind UK-based White and Faded, with a focus on restoring old homes and furniture. You bring new life to everything you do while introducing your clients and fans to stylish, sustainable living. So on your website and Instagram accounts, you give us a behind-the-scenes look at your process of restoring your own home in the Garden of England. A large country house originally built in 1767, and you just started working on a new project in Tuscany. I'd love to hear about that.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: After we renovated that house, which you just mentioned, we actually moved to Canterbury, and that plan was to be our forever home. So we did absolutely everything in the possibility of design within the borders of the house. And when we were done, a lifelong dream to move to Italy came just on the surface. And so we actually bought a property in Tuscany, in Luca, which is half an hour from Pisa, and it's a proper Tuscan house. And the idea is to bring a little bit of White and Faded into that, because, as you might know, Tuscany is known for orange and yellow and red and white and faded is known for white and faded colors. We are super excited about that project.
Suzy Chase: So is this house out in the country, or is it in the city?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yes. So it's just outside the borders of the city. Luca. So Luca is quite a fairly small city, which has the wall all still intact around it, and we are just outside of that. But we are a five-minute drive from the axis city center.
Suzy Chase: Decorating an elegant home on a budget is at the top of all of our minds right now. So do you have any good tips for decorating in the new year?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yes. So for me, it's very important not to follow trends. Just do what you like, because if you follow trends, you are quite quickly wasting money on things that in half a year's time or even earlier, you don't have that same passion for anymore. So I am somebody who is really following my heart in things that make my heart race faster. I'm living already for, I would say, over 30 years in white houses. So white is, for me, the easiest one. I, as well, sometimes take the cheapest paint to paint the entire house. But furniture wise, no. My tip is just go to flea markets, antique markets, and make it your own. That makes it much more, you know, when you really love a piece of art, it doesn't matter if it is in trend or not, if you really love it. So that's basically the tip I'm giving my clients.
Suzy Chase: Yea, it speaks to you.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Correct. When your heart beats a little bit faster. That's, for me, a sign, like, okay, yeah. And if you see something and you really like it, like, I've seen many pieces of antiques. They are just way over the budget I want to spend on it. I just find something similar which has the same look and feel it in black and white, let's say this way. And then I imagine a color on it to make it look like that one item I really like but was above my budget.
Suzy Chase: You just said you've lived in white for over 30 years. So how do we live in a white home with kids and pets?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: I raised four children, three boys, one girl, in white houses. And currently we have a big golden retriever, and all the kids flew out. So he doesn't understand wiping his feet and taking shoes off. But, yeah, for me, living in a white house, the must have is quilts or slip covered sofas and chairs, because you can easily just pop them in a machine just when there's an accident. White floors are easy to clean just by mopping them. If something is dirty on the walls, I use always wipeable paint or sometimes even a high gloss on the walls, so I can just easily clean that. Although people say, oh, but it gets dirty. For me, it's like, well, you actually see where it's dirty and not when you have, like, a dark brown sofa and your kids eat chocolate on the sofa, you don't see the chocolate. Right. And then you sit with white trousers on and you transfer. And as well, I've been always quite disciplined with my children in my book as well. I give some simple tips about the no-shoe policy and how to do that with children putting little treats on shelves where they have to put the shoes on and as well, again, like slipcovers and quilts. That works the best.
Suzy Chase: This book, as we know it, is called White and Faded. When I think of the word faded, I think of something that might be older, maybe a bit worn. So what is your definition of faded as it pertains to interior design?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yeah. So for me, actually, it is faded. It's like preloved, something that's inherited from your parents, something you find on the antique market, so wide and faded, is actually standing for new and old and then joined together as a perfect match.
Suzy Chase: So you cover three specific styles in the book, British, European and American. What are some hallmarks of British, European and American interior design?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: British and European are quite similar. In effect, British is more romantic, whereas European, depending where you are in Europe. But the European antiques I like, they are more from Scandinavia, which are very most light in color, original in light in color. Because they live in such a dark area. They have their furniture and their homes actually quite light and white. So British is more romantic, more flower, more. Think Laura Ashley. European is a little bit more plain in that sense, except French, of course. But what we do have, what is very different to American houses, is that we have much more designated rooms and less open plan. Our house, for instance, has been built in 1500, has been extended in the Georgian time, which is in 1700, and then another extension came, Victorian, which is 1800. They just glue it all together so the rooms become quite boxy and quite small. So what America has in America, Victorian houses, they are still nice, big, open places. They don't have that same boxy interior that we have. So with having such boxy rooms and no possibility to open it, because we don't have just wooden walls, they all brick. You need to spend some money in getting a structure engineer to calculate for steel beams and all this stuff. So what a lot of people are doing is just creating a small tv room, a small snug, a small dining room, and to actually get a unity. What we have done here in our house is to actually place French doors between rooms so you can have the French doors open. That gives that flow, because the flow is really important to have a house that is usable for our day and age. Yeah. Unlike how it was in the earlier days. I hope that makes sense.
Suzy Chase: For those of us who love the clean and crisp Scandinavian style, but not so much modern and sleek accessories. How can we create the antique-scandi style that you talk about in the book?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: To have a complete house in antique Scandinavian style, you need to have quite a large budget because the Scandinavian antiques are very high priced. I have to say myself and what I said earlier, you can find in Scandinavia quite light-colored antiques. So that means you have it in white and cream. Light blue is very popular. So I combine things. I buy a new sofa and I put an antique chair next to it, and then maybe an antique candle stick on a modern table to balance that. Right? Because if you would have all of it in antique, it becomes for me, I don't want to live in a museum. I want to feel like it's cozy. I can put my feet up and not, I'm afraid, because this table is antique. Although I have to say the Scandinavian antiques are incredibly heavy and very good. So a cupboard from 1700 would still be perfect to use every single day. If it is French, it's just only for looking pretty, because French antiques, they don't last as good as Scandinavian antique. The wood is just harder and heavier than the French.
Suzy Chase: So you talk about taking time for your own restoration. I'm so intrigued by this. What does that mean?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yeah, so I had quite a challenging marriage before I got to know Dino. And with that marriage of 21 years, I kind of lost my complete identity and who I was and let's say this way, placed in a box that I couldn't really be myself. And when I separated and divorced, I started to go back to myself and which start actually doing my photography that I started off. So I was working in this time as a photographer for portrait and not interiors. And in this time of restoration, I started to take photos of things. So not of people, just of things and just things that would speak to me. And the funny thing is as well, is like when I had those photos printed, sometimes I was just in shock because it actually showed me something of what was deep inside, the pain that was deep inside. I gradually got milder and sweeter, let's say this way, in my photography. And I found my whole feminine side back. And so my whole restoration is seen in wide and faded because I am very much. Although I love some modern designer stuff, I absolutely love an old table that has been lived and has been used and sometimes even put in a garage to use for tools and stuff. And then one day somebody takes it out and places in an antique shop and it's been sold for a lot of money, so it got its value back or maybe even a higher value that it used to have. And so for me, that is restoration. I've seen that in my own life as much so if you have difficulties with yourself or need to find yourself, the best way to do it is that is in art. Because I think we are all made that way and that art can be in writing, that can be in photography, painting, I mean, name it.
Suzy Chase: I feel like I'm always a bit behind incorporating seasons into my home. Do you have any quick tips for planning a seasonal atmosphere in our home?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: With my seasonal decoration, I go again not with the trends. I go with what I like. I first look in my garden what I have, and as well, it's pointless for me to put, like, summer flowers in the winter in your interior. So I really look to what is outside. So in the fall, how you say it, in America, the one thing I don't do is I'm adapting the full colors. I don't. I do adapt to browns, but I'm going more for creams and browns. That means white pumpkins and this kind of stuff. In the summer, I have a tendency to go a little bit more color because everything around me is very colorful. So I will have my white basic interior, and then I'm just put some scatter pillows on that has some blue stripes or red stripes to give a little bit of the seasonal changes. Winter is, for me, always white, so even more white than I have white in my house. That means I'm going with white fluffy pillows and then some greens that comes with Christmas trees and other greenery that we put in our houses for Christmas decoration.
Suzy Chase: What I think is so cool about you is you offer courses, you have something called White and Faded Academy. I would love to hear about that.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yeah. So White and Faded Academy actually started with the lockdown. We had the first lockdown, and I just saw the need for people, for communities because we were not allowed to meet. And so I set up then in this time a Zoom class where I was doing an upholstery course, and people could participate in that. So they will have their own homework, they will have their own little chair to upholster. And that has been very successful, very fun. I know as well of some of the ladies, they are still talking to each other, that met each other on Zoom during that time. So we've done several courses in this time afterwards, I've been doing some pre-recorded courses, which are much more in detail. The other ones were more for fun and do something together, something creative and just chatting to each other. The other in-depth courses, they are really into little details with detailed list of materials and stuff like that. But having said that, I am planning this year actually to go back to the online courses because I think that although we are not anymore in lockdown, I think that people still have this need for community and doing something together. And it's not always easy to find somebody around, a friend of yours or whatever, that has the same interest to learn to upholster antique painting that I did and stuff like that. So that's my desire. I love to hang out with like-minded people and just to have fun and just to chat and just to teach them something.
Suzy Chase: Okay, so it's a new year, and most of us have made New Year's resolutions. My resolution for 2024 is to be more forward-facing. I find the intimacy of being behind the microphone. Connecting with people like you is very comfortable for me. As an introvert and an audiophile, I have endless curiosity about how people tick. So, Janet, on your blog in January 2020, your New Year's resolution was to work on your lifelong shyness in front of the camera. And I can so identify with that. Could you tell the story of setting up your camera and feeling awkward and the long shutter time, et cetera, et cetera, and how you felt and how you got through it?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yeah, that's very funny. I'm mainly a photographer. They have a shyness towards the camera. I still hate to be in front. If I'm together with other people, I'm okay. So setting up a camera and do take photos of myself, I have to say, the first couple of photos, I just told myself bad words just because I'm like, why do I look like that? Can you not just smile a little bit more? Like, so all these kind of things I was telling myself, and then I had to actually stop myself. The voice inside of me said, you have to love yourself for who you are and what you look like. And if that is a crooked smile, if that is a nice smile, if it is friendly or not. And so I actually started to post in Instagram in my personal account, taking some selfies in the mirror like my daughters do. And they do that with confidence and just taking pictures. And I actually placed them in Instagram because I was like, you know what? I'm sure I'm not the only one that has difficulties with that, especially in this time where we live now, when it becomes more about how we look on the outside and who we are on the inside. And all the filters are not helping either, because then you're like, okay, I put a filter. And then when I put a filter, I feel guilty because I'm like, no, if I really want to show myself, I shouldn't use filters. I should be just me. And there's nothing wrong with me. It's something inside. I think we have all that insecurity about, yeah, but what people say about me, and I'm like, yeah, but I don't look like that to people. If I see somebody, I'm not thinking, oh, she has a weird nose, or, her smile is not very genuine. I don't think that? And I'm like, why do we think that about ourselves the whole time? And so my biggest step was to actually say, Janet, you are okay, you are accepted, you are desired, and you can just show yourself. Why not? And to be honest, I still don't do it often, but I try to do it a little bit more. And going live on Instagram is, for me, something I do like much more, because I think it's not that one picture, it is an action in that where you see the expression, you see everything else. So I think going live, I liked, again, interaction with the people. But, yeah, camera shyness. I mean, my sister is amazing. She never gets shy for the camera. She poses for the camera, and I'm like, how do you do that? But, yeah, I'm still working on it, but I'm getting there.
Suzy Chase: That's the thing. Everyone else loves you for who you are and what you look like. But it's our internal dialogue that's the worst.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yeah, absolutely.
Suzy Chase: So what's your resolution for 2024, if you have one?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Yes, I do. So because of how our business has been running the last few years, I have kind of walked over myself a lot in that sense of not really listening to my body. And so living in Italy is known for its good food. Not only it is tasting really good, but as well, the quality of food is really good. So I'm somebody know, most of the evenings I can't be bothered really to cook because the kids don't live here anymore. It's only Dino and me. And if I ask him, what do you want? He's like, I don't know and I don't know what. So we're eating really bad. But my New Year's resolution is that I'm going to look a little bit better for myself to eat better and to enjoy life a little bit more. I take it a little bit easier because life will be very different because we're planning on doing those Zoom courses that I said earlier. We want to start with doing retreats. So the whole retail part of widened, faded is going to be completely slowing down, which would help a lot in the stress that we are living at the moment in, I have to say. Yeah.
Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called Home, where I ask you to describe one memory of your childhood home. And please start by telling us where it was.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: The majority of my childhood was in the second house I grew up. My parents built that house themselves, and it was the craziest, artsiest house ever. What my parents used as bricks for the house were the bricks that had been lying too close to the fire. So all of them were misformed. And so that created, on the other hand, a really nice wall to climb on. And so my sister and I sometimes secretly climbed on those walls. We were not allowed to do that, of course, but climb on those walls to see how high we could go up. So it was very quirky, artsy house, yet in the inside, it looked like an old farm. So kind of like an old farmhouse. But outside was super quirky. And I would say, that's my memory now.
Suzy Chase : Where was that house?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: That was in Kampen, in Holland.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media? And where can we sign up for the White and Faded classes?
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Whiteandfaded.co.uk. And we are on Instagram. White_and_Faded or my personal account, which is Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg. And then we have another account that is currently called Our Old Country House. But we're going to change that in January where we are sharing all our renovation. And it's more like a fun page where we share the befores and afters. We going quite often live in that account where we're just showing the progress of the house and the renovations. And it's a highly, highly engaged page, I have to say.
Suzy Chase: I love the idea of restoring beauty in our home and life in 2024. Thank you, Janet for coming on Decorating by the Book Podcast.
Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg: Thank you for having me on.
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