{"id":11587,"date":"2022-06-13T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=31056"},"modified":"2022-06-13T09:33:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T07:33:11","slug":"an-art-filled-converted-builders-yard","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/an-art-filled-converted-builders-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"An art-filled converted builders\u2019 yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jo Leevers\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 13 June 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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As an artist who paints street life and cityscapes, it makes sense that Trevor Burgess lives in a very urban location. His home is an old builders\u2019 yard, sandwiched between a busy London railway line and the backs of Victorian terraces. But behind his rickety garage door lies an intriguing home awash with vivid colours and upcycled furniture.<\/p>\n

The building was derelict when Trevor and his wife, landscape architect Andrea Dates, bought it. \u2018It was in a terrible state, stacked with rotten timbers and piles of old pipes,\u2019 he says. Cement had been poured over the area behind the building, which has now been turned into a garden. Trevor and Andrea had the cement broken up and removed, chunk by huge chunk, and then sifted through the decades-old detritus beneath. Some of the prettier spoils \u2013 cloudy glass bottles, sections of slate and the odd rusted cog \u2013 are now displayed around their home.<\/p>\n

Larger-scale reminders of the building\u2019s previous life remain too, from municipal door handles to windows with safety glass criss-crossed with wire. The bathroom was once the office, with a hatch in the wall where workmen queued up to collect their wages. \u2018We filled in the gap and it now makes a useful set of shelves,\u2019 says Trevor.<\/p>\n

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After clearing out the building, they set about converting the space into a habitable condition. Sheets of ply were used to clad the inside of the pitched ceiling and they used sections of semi-transparent corrugated polycarbonate between the bedroom and kitchen. \u2018It\u2019s lightweight, insulates well and is easy to cut,\u2019 explains Trevor, who also made all the wooden shelves and the kitchen units. For an interesting touch, he incorporated a beautifully decorative pair of 1940s drawers into the cabinetry. \u2018Originality was forced upon us because of our limited budget,\u2019 says Trevor.<\/p>\n

Colour is a big part of the couple\u2019s style, with vibrant paint shades inspired by travels to India and Latin America \u2013 Andrea is Argentinian so they frequently visit her family there and have travelled around the continent. The bright yellow of the rubber floor, which replaced dusty grey concrete, was inspired by a trip to Mexico City: \u2018We were thrilled with the effect,\u2019 Trevor says.<\/p>\n

More colour comes from a pair of vintage<\/a> chairs that Andrea bought in a junk shop<\/a> and re-covered in pink velvet. She was also responsible for the subtle gold paint that highlights the carving on a 1930s headboard and chest in the bedroom. \u2018The bed was passed on by my nana, along with its original mattress filled with straw. Andrea sanded it back and carefully picked out the carving in gold paint.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Trevor\u2019s own colour-saturated paintings are hung all around this single-storey home. Urban life is a mainstay of his work, from anonymous London flats painted from estate agents\u2019 listings, to children playing in the fountains of Granary Square in King\u2019s Cross. Then there are paintings of markets, depicting fruit and vegetable sellers in Dalston and a stall piled high with flip-flops, in Pune, India. \u2018Markets are part of why cities exist,\u2019 he says. \u2018It\u2019s how they developed as trading centres and, in most cities, markets are still a hub of city life.\u2019<\/p>\n

Displayed alongside Trevor\u2019s own artworks are old family photos and two pieces by artist John Kiki, who inspired and helped Trevor when he was starting out. \u2018I was a trainee at a Norwich gallery and one of my first jobs was to pick up John\u2019s paintings from his studio, hidden away above a meat-packing warehouse.<\/p>\n

I was just stunned by his work,\u2019 he remembers. Trevor soon went on to help set up a cooperative studio in Norwich, where he and other artists renovated a disused warehouse \u2013 skills that were useful when he and Andrea converted this London space many years later. \u2018Whether it\u2019s to make a studio or home, most artists are adept at reusing objects and spaces in creative ways,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n