Renovating a 1930s Art Deco house

Katherine and Ian Blair have lovingly renovated an Arts & Crafts house, fusing an authentic restoration of the original features with injections of Art Deco style — all while making huge savings by carrying out most of the work themselves.

Kathryn and Ian Blair sold everything they had to buy a stunning Arts & Crafts house in Guisborough, North Yorkshire — even though it needed completely renovating. “We had no money to do it up, but we’d never seen a house like it,” recalls Kathryn. “It had such character and we knew that, given time, we could do something with it. Although we’d just renovated a dormer bungalow and had no plans to move, it was one of those opportunities we couldn’t walk away from.”

Although they had set their hearts on the elegant detached house, they faced a stressful few weeks when the sale went to sealed bids, but Kathryn and Ian offered well over the asking price to secure it. “We later discovered that the owner had wanted us to have the house all along because they appreciated the fact that we wanted to restore it, whereas other potential buyers had been planning to rip out all the original features,” says Ian. “That would have been a tragedy. The house had already been knocked about during the 1960s but it was still a beautiful, individual property.”

Ian and Kathryn had already paid off the mortgage on their bungalow, so they were able to plough all the profit, along with all their savings, into their new home.

The legacy of the ’60s revamp included green threadbare carpets, a green sunken bath with gold taps, gas fires and a dated kitchen. All the floors and striking wooden ceilings were riddled with woodworm, which had to be treated before anything else could be done. “We had expected the worst, but it was still a shame that the house had to be ripped apart straight away,” says Ian. “We did most of the labouring ourselves, ripping up floorboards while the Terminex contractors sprayed every bit of wood in sight.”

After such a drastic start Kathryn and Ian decided to live in the house as it was for a year, before doing any more work. In that time they drew up their plans for the renovation knowing that, once they started, they would be living in chaos until the project was completed. Although the house isn’t listed and they didn’t need planning permission for internal changes, they wanted to understand the way the light worked and how they would use the house on a day-to-day basis.

When work began in earnest in September 2004, the property started to reveal more secrets. Dining room walls had been knocked out in the ’60s, for example, to create an open plan dining hall which seemed out of keeping with the rest of the house. Swimming against the trend for open plan living, Kathryn and Ian decided to reinstate the walls in line with the original houseplans to create a separate entrance hall.

“We took up the parquet floor piece by piece so the breeze block walls could be built, then reheated the tar and stuck them back down again, before sanding the whole lot,” says Kathryn. “It’s my pride and joy.”

But while they wanted to revert back to plan in some areas, Kathryn and Ian were keen to make better use of space in others. Walls were removed and doors blocked up to incorporate a toilet into the bathroom, making the bathroom larger and allowing room for a spacious walk-in shower. Three entrance doors at the back of the house were also reduced to one to improve the flow between the utility, kitchen and a small sitting room.

One of the project’s low points was living without hot water or heating in the middle of winter. “Our priority was to get a good heating system up and running,” says Kathryn. “We took the sitting room fire out to reveal a coal fire. By this time there was no other heating in the house because all the plumbing and electrics had to be replaced, so it was freezing. We got dressed in front of this fire and had four duvets on the bed.”

But friends and family were happy to lend a hand. Ian’s brother-in-law is an electrician and Kathryn’s cousin a plumber. Her father, Allan, turned his hand to a range of repair jobs, while mum, Ann, kept them supplied with hot dinners. “Our families and friends were incredibly supportive and used their skills where they could,” says Kathryn.

Fortunately there were very few mishaps, although they will never forget the time they returned home to find a hot water tap had leaked through the bathroom floor, down a light fitting and into the dining room, undoing work they’d completed; or the time someone drilled through a pipe on a bank holiday weekend when plumbers were in short supply.

“We are perfectionists and sometimes it was easier to do things ourselves than rely on others,” says Ian. “We don’t like to rush things. We would rather wait to achieve exactly what we want than settle for second best.”

However, their patience and attention to detail has paid off. Although the décor and furnishings are modern, their 21st century lifestyle is discreetly integrated into the Arts & Crafts setting. For example, the heavy ceilings in the lounge were sagging and required steel beams to strengthen them. Kathryn and Ian had special U-shaped beams made which were hoisted into place while the ceiling was supported with acroprops. Cables were channelled along the beam and then the steel was clad with painted wood to blend in with the originals.

By restoring the integrity of the house and its unique interior, Kathryn and Ian have created a stunning backdrop for their modern design ideas. The couple have saved up for each piece of design-led furniture to achieve the look, but believe they’ve cut their overall costs in half by doing most of the work themselves. “We simply couldn’t afford to have tradesmen in,” says Ian. “But by having such a big input at a practical level, it means we appreciate the house even more. It’s much more rewarding to do the work yourself.”

Kathryn and Ian each learned new skills in the process, and used their individual strengths to keep the momentum going. So while Kathryn sanded, filled and painted all the woodwork, Ian would paint the walls. While Kathryn sourced materials and planned the project, Ian was more hands-on, applying his draughtsman’s eye for detail to make sure everything was finished to the highest standard.

“It’s been a long process, but we’re finally making time to take a step back and start enjoying the house as a place to live, rather than a place to work,” says Kathryn. “We’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I think a little bit of history has been preserved as a result. It would have been a tragedy if someone had bought this house and ripped out all of its features. They are the very things that make this property unique.”