Spencer House was commissioned by John, 1st Earl Spencer in 1756. The architect he chose was John Vardy who had studied under William Kent. Vardy is responsible for the facades of the mansion that we see today.

In 1758 James ‘Athenian’ Stuart replaced Vardy as the architect of the project; as a direct result of this Spencer House was to have authentic Greek details in the internal decoration, and thus it became one of the first examples in London of the neoclassical style.

The Painted Room

Catherine Hassall and I were commissioned to carry out the paint analysis of the walls of the famous Painted Room. The original colour of the walls was found to be much paler than the one applied during the 1980s refurbishment.

A cross section from the walls of the Painted Room shows how the existing green was very much darker than the original

I have also carried out a colour survey of the fine rooms to enable the accurate reproduction of the paint colours. These colours are available from my company Papers and Paints.

Samples of paint matched to the various rooms in Spencer House


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