What are your thoughts about the changes at No 10?
I think it will be interesting to see what Sir Keir does about short-termism in British politics and I’m also…
…changes to the décor.
Oh, really. Do we care what colour the PM paints his walls?
Yes! It’s the thing to have an opinion on right now.
Fine. What are people saying?
The Times advises he spend some of his £30,000 budget on the Regency paint colour Pea Green by Little Greene (pictured below, £57.50 for 2.5 litres).
Has anyone, I wonder, told The Times that the building is typical of Georgian architecture?
Downing Street in 2024 and 2011
See – now you’re involved.
Go on, then. Bring me up to speed on the hottest political design debates.
First, the nation needs to know whether there’s any of Boris’s controversial gold wallpaper left in the flat at No 11 (where the Starmers are also likely to live).
Well, is there?
Jeremy Hunt (who also lived at the flat) says not.
Glad to hear that the former chancellor made himself useful with a palette knife.
It wasn’t him.
A likely story.
‘It wasn’t me,’ Hunt told LBC Radio. ‘I went and had a look and it had been painted over.’
In Old Pea Soup?
Pea Green. That point remains unclear. But many commentators have opinions on how Starmer could hide any other reminders of tenants past.
Downing Street in 2010 and 1987
Surprise me…
Towers of books on the floor.
That’s assuming Starmer wants to live like a freshers’ week student. If so, can I suggest that he invests in as many lava lamps as finances will allow – and maybe decorates the reception rooms in Tibetan prayer flags?
Actually, says The Times, it’s extremely fashionable to have too many books. Apparently floors in the most chic homes ‘host them in toppling towers’.
Righto.
Regency paint colour Pea Green by Little Greene, £57.50 for 2.5 litres
You don’t sound convinced. What is your floor hosting?
A dog bed, three socks and an Amazon package for next door.
Meanwhile, designer Matt Payne (who supplied the Camerons with their Downing Street kitchen) has let it be known that the kitchen cupboard fronts will need replacing with ‘something more up to date’.
Fair enough – the last thing you need after a hard day at the Nato summit is to see a lacklustre cabinet.
Payne also advised changing the ‘tired’ worktops.
What are they? Beige vinyl?
White Corian.
Just imagine: there you are whipping up a quick omelette for Ursula von der Leyen when you suddenly realise you have passé work surfaces.
Exactly! What the Starmers need to keep up with the smart set is ‘a natural stone Taj Mahal quartzite’, costing £700 a sq m.
Sorry?
Apparently, it’s ‘the most-wanted surface in North London’ (although likely to consume two-thirds of the PM’s budget alone).
OK, we’re looking at some serious spending cuts here.
In that case, says designer Eva Sonaike in The Telegraph, Starmer should ‘focus on decorative updates that will uplift him after a long day at work’.
What is a ‘decorative update’?
Sonaike’s own patterned Asa wallpaper – just £129 per roll.
And what colour is that?
Gold is an option.
You said the Starmers wouldn’t want gold wallpaper!
I said the Starmers wouldn’t want Boris’s gold wallpaper.
Ah, I see. Provenance is everything in the world of interiors.
Now you’re getting it. It’s fine for Starmer to break out his pasting table and get busy with the Asa.
And if it looks awful, he can get Jeremy Hunt over. I hear he has previous.
amit lennon, eyevine, getty images
