Project journal

Uncovering the past

Be inspired by these stunning renovation works-in-progress

It took us two years of house-hunting to find our 1875 Victorian semidetached home. It was renovated in the 1960s, but over the last 60 years everything had just fallen apart. We had ivy growing around and under the gas pipes, threatening to pull them off the walls; a hole in the roof; buckets in the bedrooms – you name it and we probably had it! We weren’t looking for a project house, but as soon as we walked in the front door we knew that we weren’t about to let go of it.

I (Annika) am a planner and it takes me a while to get to a design I’m happy with, and that is then signed off by my wife, Rach. I always design about three rooms in advance, to give me time to see if it is a fad or whether the idea is here to stay. Once I’ve got the design chosen, I am a list person, so every item needed is detailed out and stuck onto the kitchen cabinets, then we go for it.

It had to be the sheer size and scale. We both work full-time, and a hallway isn’t like a singular room that you can close the door to and contain the mess. We started in November 2019 and for over six months everywhere was just covered in dust. I would get to work and the shoulders of my suit jacket would be filthy where I’d touched a wall on the way out of the house.

The skylight over the landing was only accessible via external scaffolding; it was triple layered with glass and was permanently filthy. We hadn’t originally planned on replacing it, but after the plaster quotes came back, we realised that rather than ruin the

BEFORE

This page: Rach and Annika in their 1875 semi Opposite, from top row: From unappealing hall to Victorian grace; halfway through cleaning, the tiles started to shine; the stained glass in the door was inspired by a similar pattern in the porch; the floor brings a new identity to the space; a bit of TLC breathed new life into the 145-year-old spindles; the transformation continues on the upstairs landing