Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Olive, lichen, moss and other earthy greens are having a real moment in interiors right now. Green blends seamlessly from indoors to out and, being one of nature's defining colours, is always a popular choice. But while most of us might paint a room or cabinet green, Amanda Mann took her love of the colour several steps further. Understanding the benefits of colour drenching long before it became so fashionable, she used Dulux’s Overtly Olive to paint every inch of the walls, ceilings, skirting boards, doors and woodwork. Effectively, she colour-drenched the entire house about 15 years before the term became part of the interiors dictionary. And although technically the same olive shade runs throughout, the colour takes on a completely different character from room to room depending on the natural light, windows, artwork and everything else in the space.
Amanda carried the same olive tone outside too. “I hate opening a door and suddenly seeing a completely different colour on the other side, and because I love fresh air, the doors at Kingfishers are wide open most of the time,” explains Amanda. Painting the exterior green had an unexpected benefit as it really grounded the house into the landscape. “When it was white, it felt quite harsh against the countryside, whereas the green allows it to blend into its surroundings. Even the exterior windowsills are green — there really isn't a better colour,” she enthuses.
Besides the colour, Amanda has created a deeply personal home filled with character, art and collected treasures. Let’s start in the dining room pictured here with the famous Joe armchair, an enormous baseball-glove-shaped chair designed in 1970 by Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi for the Italian manufacturer Poltronova. Amanda has displayed colourful portraits of three of her children around the chair, but what also caught my eye was the artwork hung directly on the windows. I asked Amanda what gave her the idea and she explained that the shape of the piece mimics the window itself. “I thought that was a rather fun thing to do — using the architecture as part of the way the art is displayed rather than automatically putting everything on a wall,” explains Amanda.
It’s Amanda’s incredibly creative and unconventional approach to displaying art that also makes her home every bit as distinctive as its colour. So let’s take a tour around the rest of this colour-drenched house, discovering the different ways the green shifts in tone from room to room and how Amanda cleverly displays her artwork, not just on the obvious walls, but in overlooked and unexpected places.
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Amanda and her husband Simon bought Kingfishers back in 2010 as a country home for their family of six. I photographed Kingfishers for a magazine and thought it was a superb house tour to showcase not just for the colour, but for the way Amanda has effectively created a series of galleries in her own home, styling and displaying the art she has collected over the years in the most interesting way. It is wonderfully eclectic, ranging from works by Andy Warhol and portraits of her four children to African figures and playful sculptures like the one pictured above, in what Amanda now calls The Hash Room, as it is currently filled with a whole mix of lush green plants.
Amanda doesn’t always hang artwork. “Quite often I simply lean pictures against a wall,” she explains. “Sometimes that’s because I haven’t yet decided where I want to put a piece, and sometimes it’s because I think the artwork looks much more informal that way. It also means I can move things around whenever I feel like it. Amazingly, whenever I find another piece of art that I want to live with, I somehow make room. I jiggle everything around and make it fit. There is always space, and I love having all these things I’ve collected around me.”
An entrance full of stories
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
The entryway is definitely a taste of what’s to come throughout the whole house. As you step inside Kingfishers, the wall directly opposite is unapologetically full, with a complete mix of frames - gilded gold, dark wood, sleek black, ornate and burl wood - all sitting together in perfect harmony, while the photographs tell a wonderful story of the family across generations. The large vase of flowers and decorative wooden bowls, each filled with one type of fruit or vegetable, both add another layer to the distinctive look of the house. Amanda grows cut flowers in her garden not just to look pretty, but so the house can always be filled with gorgeous seasonal blooms.
Mixed media, maximum impact in the dining room
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Amanda looks at almost every wall in her home as somewhere to hang art — under a shelf, above a doorway, wherever there happens to be space. “As you can see, I’ve covered virtually the entire house in art. I don’t think there is a single wall that hasn’t got something hanging on it,” she explains. “One particular piece dates back to a period when I was interested in African art. It isn’t actually African - it’s from Papua New Guinea - but it has something of Africa about it. I had used it for a project in London and it was one of the pieces left over from afterwards, so it came home with me,” says Amanda.
This really sums up Kingfishers and, as Amanda puts it, “It’s a collection of leftovers of different chapters of my life - projects I’ve worked on, places I’ve lived and visited, things I’ve collected and the different tastes and styles I’ve had over the years. Everything has followed me through, rather than being bought simply to decorate a particular room.”
Art filled olive green kitchen
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
The original house was built in the 1930s as a very long, thin, narrow property, and various owners subsequently added to it over the years. “I wanted to bring some of the 1930s charm back into the house, but there was also a practical reason behind the decision to paint everything one colour. There was woodwork, architraves and various architectural details that I didn't particularly like, and when I discovered how much it would cost to replace or alter them, it seemed completely ridiculous. So painting it all in one colour was the answer.”
Olive green room with art displayed in unexpected places
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Everything in this room, like the rest of the house, feels collected, loved and kept because it has meaning, rather than simply because it fits part of a scheme. Along with the vintage rug and gloriously worn pre-loved chair, the art is displayed in unusual places, such as the seascape hung just above the skirting board. Amanda told me about the rest of the pieces. “The black figure was a gift from President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. The other two were tribal pieces I found in a charity shop and later painted red. I’d intended to create an entire tribal wall, but I never quite got around to it.”
Amanda has styled the ground floor with a mixture of oversized rugs, including the vintage rug pictured above and the large sisal one beyond in the dining room. “I like rugs to be generous in scale rather than looking like little islands in the middle of a room,” she explains. “In the dining room, for example, I had the sisal rug specially made to suit the proportions of the room. I also like using natural textures such as sisal and seagrass to stop everything feeling too polished.”
Collected art layered with home-painted pieces
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Because the house has such a strong relationship with the sea, it’s fitting that there’s also an old ship poster in the hallway. “I think it was an advertising poster from around 1970 encouraging people to go cruising, probably something that would originally have hung in a travel agent’s,” Amanda recalls. “I just loved it, and it sits very happily there in the hallway. Again, it wasn’t a case of thinking I need something for that wall. I loved the picture first and then found somewhere for it to live.”
In front of another painting sits a pop-up shop sign. “I ran a pop-up shop for a while — as one does when one has nothing better to do with a husband and four children,” she jokes. “The shop was in the middle of a field, so one of the children painted this sign simply so people could actually see that the shop was open. I’ve kept it because, like so many things in the house, it’s a little piece of family history and a reminder of a particular moment in my life.”
That sentiment is the thread that runs throughout the house. “I don’t really buy things to decorate it. I collect things I love, live with them, move them around and somehow always find somewhere for them to belong.”
A clever floating bed design
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Another of Amanda’s interior tricks is to make heavy things, like beds and tables, appear to float. “There was an old trunk that I wanted to use as a serving table, so rather than leaving it sitting heavily on the floor, I raised it on two simple blocks of wood. Being able to see the light underneath instantly makes the whole piece feel lighter.”
Amanda has used the same principle with beds. The bed pictured here was specially made with a discreet support underneath, so when you walk into the room it appears to float. Being able to see the floor beneath it also creates a greater sense of space and makes the room feel larger.
At the entrance to the bedroom, Amanda has hung an exquisite tapestry, adding another layer of colour and texture. In the bedroom itself, she created a headboard with a ledge so she could lean photographs on it, rather than hanging them on the wall, bringing art into the room in another clever and relaxed way.
Wall decor in the bathroom
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Amanda doesn’t strictly use paintings as wall art. As the children’s bathroom pictured here demonstrates, she also uses other items as wall decor, such as the vintage boat-shaped mirrors. You can use all sorts of items, from hats and handbags to fans or plates. Just like Amanda has done with the boat mirrors, I think it often looks most effective when you stick to one theme.
Floating bed in a children’s art filled bedroom
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
The bed in Amanda’s youngest son Arthur’s room has the same floating effect. To make the bedrooms feel cosier, Amanda has used sisal carpet, carrying the natural texture from the large rug in the dining room to the bedrooms upstairs which, along with the colour, creates a sense of cohesion throughout the house.
Art also features in the children's bedrooms, with the colourful statue painted by Amanda’s eldest daughter Lilly when she was young. Rupert Bear sits above the bed, which reminded me of a fun charity event Amanda hosted recently and I attended - The Tiger Who Came to Tea at Kingfishers. “Wildlife photographer Paul Goldstein stopped at the house during his extraordinary walk across Britain wearing a 13-kilo tiger suit on his back, to raise awareness of these beautiful creatures and the importance of protecting them,” Amanda explains. You can register to walk with Paul or donate here.
Amanda and Bravo outside Kingfishers
Photo credit: Sandra van Aalst
Rather than constantly doing things to the house, Amanda shares her spectacular home and beautifully designed garden overlooking the Solent with others, hosting magical evenings including operas, plays and other events, all for charity.
This year Amanda held three events and welcomed a huge number of people through the gates of Kingfishers. “We raised a considerable amount of money, but for me the money isn’t everything. One of the charities we supported was Hammersley Homes which works in mental health. What I think was equally important was the awareness and profile the event gave them. Hundreds of people came here, heard about the charity and learnt more about the work it does.
Amanda is now planning even bigger things. “I’m looking at hosting another full opera in the garden next summer, this time with a stage and everything that goes with it. I suppose Kingfishers has entered a different stage of its life with me. I spent years creating the house and garden, and now I get pleasure from opening the gates and utilising everything here to bring people together and, hopefully, do some good.”
LET’S SUM UP
If you’ve enjoyed your virtual tour of Amanda’s rather special house, you might like to check out other home tours all with very different interiors.
Inside JTH Tucson: One of the World’s Most Stylish Vacation Rentals
Stylish Home Tour: Inside the Vintage-Styled Captain’s Rest by Interior Stylist Sarah Andrews
For more colour related features, visit the following:
Merlot & Burgundy Interiors: The Rich Red Shades to Decorate with This Autumn
Cloud Dancer (Pantone Colour of the Year 2026): How to Style with Off-White in Your Home
I'm Sandra, an interior stylist, writer, photographer and Sunday Times bestselling author. Having worked freelance for many of the interior magazines including Elle Decoration and House Beautiful, in my blog posts I share inspiring home tours, practical styling ideas and decorating tips to help you create a home that feels beautiful, personal and pulled together.
I also take you on tours of beautifully styled homes from around the world, offering inspiration and styling ideas to steal for your own space. Ultimately, I’ll show you how a little bit of styling can be transformational and take your home to a whole new level.
Read more about me here
