Harriet, who co-runs Projekt 26, in her transformed Sixties home
(Picture: Adrian Lourie)In 2022, most house hunts start online. But when Harriet Williams set her heart on Little Brownings in Forest Hill, there were no properties up for sale. So she took to letter writing, petitioning almost a dozen owners to consider selling.
Williams was in luck. One resident who had bitten off a renovation more than they could chew was desperate to move on. “I looked at quite a few areas, but really the only one that ‘worked’ for us location-wise was this row of houses. So I wrote letters — and it worked!” says Williams, who loves the spacious, mid-century design of the estate’s homes, its leafy location near Sydenham Hill Wood and the proximity to schools.
The Sixties, three-storey house was neglected, with no back door and mouldering walls, and while it had been up for sale, it was taken off the market due to lack of interest.
Undeterred by the condition, Williams and her then-partner pressed ahead and bought the house for £725,000. They made basic updates — adding a door, stripping wallpaper and carpet, and removing the mould — to make the house habitable for them and their two children before embarking 18 months later on a substantial refurbishment that would cost £220,000.
“Downstairs looked okay if you didn’t look too close, but upstairs did look like a squat,” says Williams. “It was pretty grim, but we knew it wasn’t going to be forever.”
They brought on board architects Margaret Bursa and Johan Hybschmann of Hackney-based studio Archmongers (archmongers.com), which specialises in coming up with innovative renovations for homes of this period.
“They’re really into renovating and putting life back into mid-century modernist and sometimes quite ugly buildings that are overlooked. So they seemed kind of perfect,” says Williams, who decamped the family to a rental property on the same estate for six months while work took place.
Archmongers paid tribute to the Sixties details of the property, while improving the layout and design for contemporary living. A glazed inlet full of plants, large skylights and windows has been introduced in the kitchen, mirroring the original glazed rear wall to bring light in from both aspects of the open-planned ground floor.
My island looks like a giant concrete tongue. It was one of the best decisions
Off-the-rack cupboard carcasses have been elevated with doors by Ikea-hacker company Reform, marble surfaces and a custom-made curving pink concrete island that separates the space from the dining area.
“It’s looks like a giant concrete tongue,” jokes Williams, who says it provides useful storage alongside a small larder that helps keep everything tidy. “It was one of the best decisions. There’s no point in any of the design looking pretty if it doesn’t function.”
The “tongue” is one of a few flashes of colour in the otherwise subtle design, including the muted green paintwork used for the staircase and a deep blue linoleum pinboard in the dining area.
“We were trying to create something that would last for a long time in quite a classic way,” says Williams. “The tongue is a feature but otherwise the marble is very classic, so you can paint and decorate around it. It should be something to last for a long time, something that someone’s not going to have to rip out.”
A stretch of modular 606 Universal Shelving System designed by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ spans one side of the lounge, while on the other side bare walls are brightened with vintage posters. Williams runs a dealership for Polish School of Posters from the 1950s to the 1980s called Projekt 26 (projekt26.com) with business partner, Sylwia Newman.
“The movement was groundbreaking in terms of the design, but also the story of why it was created,” she says. “They were all designed when Poland was under communist rule and were commissioned by the ministry of arts and culture for all their major cultural outputs...
“There was no commercial sector so if you wanted to work as an artist, you really had to work for the ministry. But the artists were able to strike a deal — by designing the posters they were left to their own devices creatively.”
Williams and Newman sell the posters online and at fairs. “We’re on a bit of a mission to tell the whole story of the art movement and the artists themselves. Their names should be as well known as Picasso or David Hockney,” says Williams.
They run Projekt 26 from the house. A bi-folding door at the top of the stairs can be used to separate or join their studio with the landing, off which are two children’s bedrooms and a pink-tiled bathroom where some extra head-height has been put to good use with a ceiling-mounted clothes horse.
The staircase with its exposed wooden structure, elegant cylindrical wire and timber banister and internal glazing has been reconfigured to take its turn for the third floor a little earlier. This has made room for a separate shower room and toilet for the bedroom.
“All the proportions are really generous compared to modern build standards. When they were built they were really thoughtfully designed — not just in terms of the architecture but the landscaping as well.
“They were designed so that it’s a real community. The houses all look on to each other and there are trees planted. It feels really like a little oasis,” says Williams, who particularly enjoys the sense of community on the estate where her neighbours range from 95-year-olds to newborns.
“I love living here. This little area of south-east London, it has a really nice relaxed feel to it.”
Get the look
- Bench One in oak, £575-£1,310, at Another Country
- Happy Romance vintage film poster by Jerzy Flisak, 1974, £200, at Projekt 26
- Flowerpot VP1 pendant lamp, £205, at Skandium
- Cesca side chair by Knoll, £660, at Heal’s
- Vintage G-Plan teak sideboard, £795, at Mustard Vintage
Suppliers
- Architect: Archmongers
- Builder: Chris Rauchegger of JCR Projects
- Paint: Ambleside by Little Greene
- Kitchen island: design by Archmongers, supplied by
- Concrete Carrot
- Kitchen cupboard doors: Reform
- Pinboard: design by Archmongers using Forbo Linoleum in blueberry
