There are few greater disappointments than finding the perfect period property only to discover the hand of a ruthless developer or over zealous 1970s moderniser has had its wicked way with the period features, leaving you with a sterile white box. There is no need to despair, however, because much charm can be reintroduced with relative ease if you know how to go about it.
Start with the one element most interiors experts agree is non-negotiable when reinstating character to a home – and one of the most impactful changes you can make to boot – what designers refer to as the ‘bones’ of a property. Essentially that’s the windows, doors, mouldings, floors and fireplaces. ‘These are the things that will be almost impossible to change later,’ says Henriette von Stockhausen, founder and creative director of VSP Interiors. ‘You will regret it if you have done it cheaply, but they will be with you for the rest of your life if you choose them right.’
No matter what you want the ultimate style of your home to be – whether period purist, minimal modern or an eclectic mixture – it is best to match these key architectural elements to the period of your property. ‘It is important to be as historically accurate as you can be with things like cornicing, architraves and fireplaces because it just doesn’t work mixing them, the scale will be different,’ says Henriette.
While salvaged or antique pieces can have a charming patina and add a lovely authenticity to a home, not all of these features have to be original, nor is that always the most practical or desirable option. ‘In a lot of houses the cornicing has been painted over a thousand times, or there’s massive cracks in the ceiling. You could get a specialist to fix what you can but you can also replicate some elements with something new,’ says interior designer Uns Hobbs, who has been reinstating period character to her own Victorian villa in Dulwich. ‘A lot of people are quite precious about not taking cornicing out, and it is lovely to know it is original to the house, but if you have to replace it with new it is not the end of the world because there is a lot on offer that looks like the original.’
Steven Rodel, creative director at Guy Goodfellow says most suppliers of modern replica elements such as cornicing and fireplaces have websites which can be searched by period (he recommends George Jackson, ‘a great fibrous plaster supplier’), making it a relative doddle to find the right style for your home. You can also follow Uns’s lead and use other houses on your street as a resource. ‘Some of my neighbours’ houses are untouched and I have become good friends with them through taking photos of all their original features. For example, all the bedroom fireplaces in my house had been ripped out so I photographed my neighbours’ and sourced similar ones.’