Colourful, sculptural and highly practical, this updated Victorian property is a joy to live in
WORDS EMILY BROOKS PHOTOGRAPHY FRENCH + TYE
Clues to the exuberant character of Gwen Williams and Patricia Lynch’s home lie in the names of the paints used to decorate the interiors – Rosie Posie, Bobble Hat and Mint Turquoise.
Retired solicitor Gwen, 67, and Patricia, 64, who managed Gwen’s practice before they both retired, bought their Victorian house in the late 1990s. Adding a side-return extension in the 2000s gave them a little extra space in the kitchen, but it didn’t resolve issues such as the underused reception room between the living room and kitchen. ‘It was a terminal dumping ground,’ says Gwen. They also wanted a loft conversion with a bedroom and bathroom for when family stay over, and to improve the house’s energy efficiency.
It’s a standard story – but what architect Ewald Van Der Straeten came up with is far from typical. His practice gave the house a thorough upgrade with new windows, cork insulation lining the interior walls, new underfloor heating throughout the ground floor and an air-source heat pump replacing the gas boiler.
The practice also ran with Gwen and Patricia’s love of art, designing a colourful house with many sculptural elements. ‘What kept coming back from Gwen and Patricia is that they wanted something beautiful as well as functional,’ says Ewald. ‘The brief became something more creative and fun – they wanted to be inspired when they walked through the door. It ended up as an eclectic mix of ideas that just worked.’
So the staircase up to the new bedroom and bathroom is a vivid pink with a zingy green handrail, and an arched ceiling in the side return is inspired by a 1963 work by the American sculptor Donald Judd. The kitchen island is clad in deep-relief tiles with arched tops and has a brass worksurface.
‘It was our architect’s idea to use lots of colour, but I think it’s just fantastic,’ says Patricia. ‘The light plays on it beautifully, especially on the stairway with the blue sky showing through the roof window.’
The aesthetic aspects of the project are combined with measures that make Gwen and Patricia’s home far more practical, including removing a wall between the kitchen and the dining area and adding lots of built-in storage.
With the couple’s mai
