The Pickleson Paint Co.

In the heart of Bethnal Green…

…Just a thirty second walk away from Pickleson HQ (that’s our flat, if you’re interested) sits Town Hall Hotel. A former municipal building - turned boutique hotel - that has been around long enough to see its fair share of changes. Enveloped in Portland Stone, this place has been stubborn enough to survive wars and flexible enough to adapt to its constantly changing surroundings for over a century, without losing an ounce of its dignity or style.

Its latest reinvention comes in the form of a transformative double apartment suite design, led by the wildly talented bunch at Jan Hendzel Studio, in collaboration with London Design Festival. Creating pieces full of texture and sculptural finesse are what Jan has become best known for over the years, and his design for this East End stalwart is no exception. The refurbished rooms are now flush with Brown Oak, English Ash and London Plane, all having been manipulated - by hand - into something extraordinary. You will find smooth curved edges on coffee tables, ageing cracks in young green wooden sculptures and hand-carved grooves on mounted mirrors… It’s all quite sexual if you ask me.

The back drop to all of this? Well, it’s Pickleson, naturally. We’ve had the pleasure of not only lending a hand on this project with colour consultation and design, but have also worked with Jan and his team to come up with a bespoke new colour to adorn the walls. Introducing, East End Clay…

East End Clay offers a light - almost blushing - tan that looks just at home in Umbria as it does in the East End.

Here, it snuggly envelops Jan’s Bowater Headboard and provides a sanctuary for what is otherwise an open bedroom. A little scrap of calm in an otherwise chaotic segment of the East End.

Like the corner of our capital it was created in (and for), East End Clay has a miraculous ability to adapt to its surroundings; transforming itself to harmonise with changes of colour, light and style. It’s bold but grounded, modern but historic, and slightly dirty… but a lot of fun!

The remainder of the spaces have also had the full Pickleson treatment, with Le Nozze Stone being used in the living spaces, Tarte Tan gracing the doors and Veneto Verde adorning the walls of the second bedroom.

You’ll find Drunk Tahini in one bathroom, Europa Green in another and touches of Pickle Blue and Sunday Brown worked into sculptural surprises, the paint having been watered down, so the grain of the wood is still visible.

The palette used in these suites are a lesson in understated colour blocking. Each section of each suite is clearly defined by a new shade - yet seamlessly married together, drawing your eye from corner to corner as you walk through the space. It’s just distracting enough to make you forget you’re in Bethnal Green, but not so much that you’ll stub your toe on Jan’s immaculate coffee table. If you’re working with an open-plan space but don’t want it to look like Craig David’s shag palace, this is the palette for you!

The East End means a lot to us, it's where we call home. So the opportunity to create a new shade for such a stoic building - that sits literally seconds away from our front door - has been a real treat.

East End Clay, is now available for you slaaaags to purchase. We hope you love it as much as we do.

Jan Hendzel Studio x Town Hall Hotel

In the heart of Bethnal Green…

To learn more about this project, check out some of the articles below…