The Joy of Sets

I get a mixture of responses to my house.

Some people come in and go, oh my gosh, there's too much.

I can't cope with it.

And then some people come in and go, is it a museum?

It is complete mishmash of the things that I love.

I'm a bit of a magpie

because I'm attracted by all sorts of things.

Anything that catches my eye, I will purchase.

My name is Farang Wren and I deal in antique frames

and mirrors predominantly.

Occasionally, some pictures.

Anything. [chuckling]

I live in Hackney with my family.

I'm very lucky in that the house is so big,

it can accommodate all my madness really.

I must have at least a thousand frames.

I mean, it is completely full.

I literally have no more wall space.

I love having everything around me,

especially in my workroom downstairs.

I've sort of created something like a womb.

I love it because all the things that inspire me

that I particularly love, I put in there.

Like I have a collection of artist palettes,

used artist palettes.

I just find that really inspiring.

I love the warmth of their mahogany

and that they belong to somebody creative,

because I'm not an artist, but I enjoy

the process of painting.

I'm obsessed with portraiture and life drawing,

and so I'm constantly looking at the brushstrokes

and how they've done the shading

or the way the hair is done.

Yeah, it's my happy place.

The kitchen is really an extension of my collection.

It just spills in.

I don't like fitted kitchens

because I'm always buying things and moving things around.

I need to have freestanding furniture.

I bought a pair of servant's bells in a market,

and I love the old world aspects of it.

My plan is to actually fill a whole wall with them

and it's gradually creeping along.

When I first started decorating my kitchen, I didn't have

that much money, and I used to find,

when I deframed something,

often the backboard was an old advertising board

that someone had stuck in like a backboard.

So I would frame them and put them up.

I think they're great.

We were in Paris one year and we were in a marketplace

and there were these two fabulous doors.

We bought them and I remember we drove home

sitting in the front, the passenger seat like this,

with the doors over my head, but we got them back

and they're now my larder doors in the kitchen.

I'd say 90%

of the things in the house have cost me very little.

I've just bought them over the years in a market,

at an auction, at a house clearance.

My living room is the culmination of all my collections.

My background is Iranian,

and I think, without realizing it, somewhere inside me,

I have a love of colors,

dual colors from the Persian miniatures.

I've got a lovely old, small silk rug

that I found in Columbia Road,

which I think I'm gonna put on the back of that door.

It's sitting there waiting.

[gentle music]

I wanted it to be a theatrical room. It is like a theater.

It's like a gallery. It's a lovely mix I think,

of Anglo French, Iranian.

I love having bedrooms that are quite dark

because I find that for me, I relax in a nice,

dark environment.

I was initially thinking I'd do a wallpaper.

I just couldn't find a wallpaper that grabbed me

and I kind of had an idea.

I wanted it dark.

I wanted some bright color,

you know, bright flowers.

In the end, I painted it a nice dark, kind

of like a midnight blue color,

and then just to give it a little something.

I stencil on it, just freehand, so it's not at all even,

these olive leaves in red.

Above the mantelpiece,

I've got the most amazing mirror, all hand-carved in gold

leaf and silver leaf.

It's beautiful. It's got sunflowers, it's got a phoenix.

I mean, it's got wheat sheaths,

it's got everything.

Below it, I've got a collection

of old mercury glass candlesticks.

I was told that in the smaller provincial chapels,

they're kind of like 1890's, 1900,

where they couldn't afford silver candlesticks.

They used to have these

because in the darkness they looked like silver,

but they were much cheaper to manufacture and make.

And I've been slightly obsessed

with four poster beds since I was a child

and seen old programs,

the Edwardian programs with,

and Victoria programs with these beds in,

and I bought this bed at an auction.

It's the biggest bed I've I've ever had.

I mean, I'm lost in it when I sleep, you know,

I can sleep at any angle.

I know there's plenty of space for me.

I think the house is organic, it's constantly changing.

I'm always finding new things that I like.

So I will add, I mean,

I imagine the sorcerer's mirrors will probably just end up

going all the way around.

I hope that the children will value

what I've collected and keep it in their homes

and then hand it on to their own children.

My son did say, you know, When you're gone,

I'm gonna sell everything, because he's a minimalist.

He says he's a minimalist, but you haven't seen his bedroom.

I said, I won't leave it to you, Harry.

I'm not leaving it to you.

[gentle music]