House of Wards
Dark and dreamy, this characterfully cocooning home in Knowle is the passion project of interior designer Helen Ward
How would you describe your style?
I have an eclectic style, so you can find nods to different aesthetics throughout the house. My husband and I both love Japanese design. You can see this with the soaking tub and Japanese toilet in the bathroom and with the minimalist design of the kitchen. This style works for us as we want to make sure that every inch of the house is used efficiently to really make the most of the space. I would say that the building itself has led to a lot of our style decisions. This is an Edwardian home and we want to find the design solutions that suit it best, whilst adding in some fun and creativity!
Where do you find inspiration?
We love living here and the house is one of our biggest inspirations. We’ve always kept in mind that we wanted a cohesive and well-considered space for the whole family to enjoy. As we have worked on each room, we’ve uncovered all these amazing hidden gems that have been hidden away for years. Along the hallway, for example, we left exposed strips of the original wallpaper which makes for such a creative feature. You have to embrace your home and really play up to its features instead of trying to make it something that it isn’t, whilst adding in your own touches.
"I know people think it might be a strange choice to have a kitchen that is all black, but I absolutely love it!"
How do you accessorise?
I love scouting around vintage shops and foreign markets for old treasures. My favourite finds are always the things that have been handmade, so you can see the care and workmanship that have gone into them. As an artist and designer, I often make little bits and bobs myself in my spare time, so there are a lot of things around the place that I have made. I have recently started doing ceramics and the shelves have started filling up with slightly wonky mugs and vases. I made the giant pompom wall-hanging in our bedroom for my Sister-in-Laws’ wedding, so that has some lovely memories attached to it!
What’s your favourite room?
We have just finished a large building project which has reconfigured most of the downstairs of the house. This was a maze of little rooms that didn’t really link together before, but we have knocked through some walls and changed things around. We now have a large kitchen area with a dining table, a connected snug and a new utility space. We spend most of our time together here now and it has completely transformed our family life – a total game-changer! As an Interior Designer, I designed the space myself and we asked Penroe & King to build us a bespoke kitchen, with TRJ Building Solutions completing the building work. It was great to work this way as it meant we could really get things exactly as we wanted and we could choose some more interesting materials to work with. We both particularly wanted to have plywood edges as a feature and we really wanted to use Richlite for our worktops. My husband is a veteran skateboarder with a skate shop – Richlite is made by a company that also make the surfaces used on skate ramps, so this material particularly appealed to him.
This home is filled with original features, and we spent a long time trying to find a way to honour those. It didn’t seem right to try and fit in a brand new kitchen that simulated a traditional style as it wouldn’t be authentic, so instead we went for something that was in complete contrast. The mix of traditional with contemporary really works here and we are so pleased with how it has turned out!
I know people think it might be a strange choice to have a kitchen that is all black, but I absolutely love it! The trick is getting the task lighting right, so every surface that you need to see can be well lit. The lack of light around the rest of the room has the effect of blurring the edges - you can’t see the corners, giving the effect of endless space. We love the sleek design of the kitchen being such a contrast to the rest of the house. Our lives can be quite hectic sometimes, so it’s lovely to have a calm space to come back to.
My favourite part of the whole thing is probably the secret pantry – thank goodness we didn’t have this in lockdown otherwise I’d have locked myself in there with the biscuits instead of home-schooling!
"This home is filled with original features, and we spent a long time trying to find a way to honour those."
