{"id":4441,"date":"2022-01-26T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=25771"},"modified":"2022-01-26T12:20:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:20:19","slug":"classic-austin-vernon-mid-century-home","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/classic-austin-vernon-mid-century-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic Austin Vernon mid-century home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Molly Malsom\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 26 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u2018We really wanted a change from the area\u2019s Victorian houses<\/a>,\u2019 says architect Helena Rivera of the sleek mid-century home she shares with her husband, Hernando Alvarez, and their sons, Teo and Otto. \u2018The rooms in Victorian houses can feel quite closed off from each other \u2013 that era\u2019s architecture was all about privacy and closed doors rather than openness.\u2019<\/p>\n

The same cannot be said of the couple\u2019s three-bedroom house in Dulwich, south London, which clearly sprang from a very different mindset. No space has been wasted on a long, dark entrance hall. Instead, good-sized, light-filled rooms open off a central living room on the ground floor, while upstairs, a square landing creates a similarly generous sense of space.<\/p>\n

Helena and Hernando were immediately taken by the seamless layout. \u2018I loved how you walk straight into the shared areas,\u2019 Helena recalls. It was exactly what they had been looking for and it felt like a perfect fit, not least because they had an eye for mid-century design and already owned a Saarinen coffee table<\/a> and two Penguin armchairs by Theo Ruth.<\/p>\n

The house is part of an iconic estate, built in 1959 by Austin Vernon & Partners to provide well-designed, affordable housing on what was then the edge of London. Given its heritage, the couple didn\u2019t want to alter the structure of the house: \u2018When you find a good example of Fifties design<\/a>, you want to take care of it, not change it,\u2019 Helena believes.<\/p>\n

However, she could see that a few small design tweaks would improve it, while still honouring the original architecture. The first was reinstating the window seat in the living room. To do this, Helena went back to the original 1959 drawings and discovered that what had been used as a deep window sill for plants was marked as a day bed. \u2018It\u2019s a sunny spot with a view of the garden, so it makes sense,\u2019 says Helena, who had the new seat upholstered in orange wool for a late Fifties, early Sixties feel.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

She also designed a screen made from sections of buffed and polished black walnut, which looks every inch an original feature. It was inspired by a structure that once flanked the porch, but had long since disappeared. Fortunately, a neighbouring house still had theirs intact, which gave Helena the starting point for her design.<\/p>\n

The screen works as a subtle divider between the hallway and the living room. \u2018As you move further into the seating area, your angle changes and the panels make a more solid screen,\u2019 Helena explains. The bold paint shade they chose for the feature wall completed the Sixties feel. \u2018I\u2019d never have a monochrome home,\u2019 says Helena. \u2018Colour is just more interesting and uplifting.\u2019<\/p>\n

Paintings, posters and offbeat finds, gathered over the years, are displayed around the house, ensuring that it feels like a home rather than a mid-century museum. Helena has a collection of vintage Colombian bus route signs<\/a>, which she tracked down in a depot in downtown Bogot\u00e1. \u2018The garage boss couldn\u2019t see why I\u2019d want them, but he was open to my offer,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

The set of vintage Russian posters<\/a> in the kitchen turned up in the loft of their previous home. \u2018They\u2019re from a series of 32,\u2019 explains Helena. \u2018The owner travelled a lot in Russia. Maybe he took his favourites, but we love these as they are less well known.\u2019<\/p>\n

A huge 1909 map<\/a> of Great Britain hangs in the dining area. Bizarrely, it once hung in Hernando\u2019s primary school in 1970s Colombia. His brother went on to become a teacher at their old school and, when the map was finally deemed obsolete, he rolled it up and sent it to Hernando in London.<\/p>\n

A final item that feels particularly personal is tucked away in a frame in the corner. It displays two sheets ripped from a reporter\u2019s notebook. When Hernando was just starting out in newspapers, he attended a workshop by Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez, set up to encourage new journalism in Latin America.<\/p>\n

\u2018On the last day, I plucked up the courage to ask M\u00e1rquez for some advice,\u2019 remembers Hernando. \u2018He invited me to lunch \u2013 which continued into the night. Those pages are his scribbled list of the literary classics every aspiring writer should read.\u2019\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With personal collections at every turn, this is a home with a fine design heritage. \u2018We decorated this house in a way that is sympathetic to its era,\u2019 says Helena. \u2018But I also wanted to add touches that make it our own home.\u2019<\/p>\n

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