Old-school style
How intriguing retro finds brought one couple together
Vintage shop fittings, taps made from copper piping, tabletops from a chemistry lab – this couple’s home
puts a modern spin on traditional design
OPEN-PLAN LIVING
The addition of doors between the two first floor rooms means the space is now flooded with light from windows at each end
‘It’s really important to make sure a design fits the way you live,’
SAYS JULIA
Even before they met, Julia Wolfe and her architect husband Patrick Lewis shared a love of reclamation yards, car-boot sales and flea markets. When Patrick, 37, and Julia, 31, got married in 2013, they held their reception at a treasure house of architectural salvage in Vauxhall, south London. So it’s no surprise that their home together, a two-bedroom flat in Clerkenwell, an area rich in historic buildings, is a reflection of their taste for vintage china and retro pieces. There are even references to the 19th-century tradesman who built it.
Their apartment takes up the first and second floors of a grade II listed townhouse on a captivatingly pretty road, lined with costumedrama street lighting. Julia looks through the sash window of the kitchen and points out the lampposts. ‘I’m fairly obsessed with this type of Georgian property,’ she says. ‘I’ve always wanted to live in one. This was in a sad state when we bought it, but it was lovely that it still had the old shutters and windows.’
Originally, the house was built by John Ramsay, a tailor from Lambeth, between 1829 and 1832. According to a contemporary document, his work created ‘considerable difficulties with poor materials and construction’. This, says Patrick, was the beginning of the era of the amateur bricks-and-mortar entrepreneur. ‘People think of property developing as a new concept, but it’s how a lot of London streets were built. This parcel of land was divided up by speculators. As a merchant, you could buy a couple of plots and do them up as a project. A survey carried out at the time stated that the building had been completed by a tailor and was below standard. It’s important to say the building is now in great shape!’ he adds.
The couple spent five months between March and July 2015 living in their new home, before setting about refurbishing the property, preserving period details such
‘Most people have a fitted style, but we were keen that ours would be a kitchen made from objects,’
SAYS JULIA
as shutters, windows, cornices and skirting, and transforming the run-down rooms into welcoming, warm spaces.
The tailor’s legacy is commemorated in a herringbone motif created with the kitchen floorboards. Designed to resemble stitching, the pattern formed by the reclaimed oak strips – salvaged from the BBC’s Bush House – also marks the transition from the cooking to the dining area. The detail illustrates the couple’s genius for blending a celebration of the past with modern ways of living.
‘One of the key things that comes across through all our projects is making sure a design fits the owner’s lifestyle,’ says Julia, who was also an architect. She now works as a letterpress printer, but is still involved in Patrick’s practice. ‘You might see images of a beautiful minimalist home and think, “Ooh, wouldn’t it be lovely if that was mine?”, but it’s important to consider how you actually live in a space.’
She practises what she preaches. ‘We’re certainly not minimalist,’ she says, standing in front of a wooden-framed display case laden with china from Middleport, Poole Pottery and TG Green, as well as silver cruets and vintage decanters – it’s a real cabinet of curiosities. ‘We have loads of random things that we buy because we like them, and we want to be able to see them.’
The haberdasher’s vitrine, or glass-topped cabinet, acquired for £800 from a family in Hackney who advertised it on eBay, is the centrepiece of the couple’s kitchen. This room, at the front of the first floor, has a view over the street through spectacular floor-to-ceiling windows. Initially it was used as a living room, but after six months the couple recast it as the kitchen. At the same time, a doorway was created between the two first floor rooms so that both sides of the house could share daylight throughout the day.
‘Most people have a fitted kitchen,’ says Julia. ‘We were keen that ours would be a kitchen made
‘We’re not minimalist. We have loads of random things that we buy because we like them and we want to be able to see them,’
SAYS JULIA
BEDROOM
A mix of decorative objects highlights the couple’s eclectic tastes
from objects.’ Their unusual approach has created a space that looks stylish and was extraordinarily good value, costing about £8,000 to put together. To accompany the haberdasher’s cabinet, they found a vintage Hungarian shop fitting on eBay that was ideal for storing everyday crockery and glassware.
In the next room, a 1970s kitchen was ripped out to reveal a perfectly proportioned, snug little space and a brick fireplace that had been completely obstructed with blockwork. The couple chose living room furniture that was comfortable but small-scale, including two midcentury Danish sofas. In the corner, continuing the retro feel, they set up a turntable to play their growing vinyl collection. ‘With vinyl, you choose to listen to it more,’ says Julia. What’s the soundtrack in this house? ‘Quite a bit of reggae!’
The star of the second floor is the new bathroom, where a rolltop tub sits on encaustic tiles, and the walls are painted in a soft grey to make the most of the light. The glassed-steel basin is a classic industrial design that emits a sound like torrential rain on a tin roof when you run the taps. These have also been created to the couple’s designs and made from plain copper pipes that have already aged beautifully.
‘We love not having shiny chrome,’ says Julia. ‘The copper is liveable, it’s unfussy. You don’t spend your life polishing copper pipe taps, do you?’ She speaks the truth. Not only are the taps handsome and original, they’ll also leave the couple with more time to search for vintage treasures, listen to Bob Marley, and enjoy their first child, due imminently. It’s a home that undoubtedly fits exactly the way they live.
Find out about Patrick’s architecture practice at patricklewisarchitects.com