How George Clarke transformed his Victorian home into a timeless, modern heritage retreat
Best known for presenting TV shows such as ‘Remarkable Homes’, ‘Amazing Spaces’ and ‘Old House, New Home’, architect and designer George Clarke has recently undertaken a project of his own – renovating his London home. The Victorian property is the perfect blend of traditional period features and modern design details, creating an interior palette that’s distinctly George.
“Of course, you work with the beautiful features an old house has, and in our redesign, I chose to select products that certainly had a contemporary feel to them, but were still classic and timeless.”
George Clarke
Turning to the fixtures and fittings, George chose Dowsing & Reynolds’ Matt Black Tapered Toggle and Combination switches, along with the art deco-inspired Bourdelle interior door handles for their elegant simplicity.
Here in an exclusive interview, Dowsing & Reynolds Co-founder and Designer, James Dowsing-Reynolds, caught up with George to chat about his home, the unique design and whether he’s a dimmer or toggle person!
How did you draw the balance between designing a modern house that still feels like your home?
Our house is a Victorian property and luckily all of the primary rooms on the ground floor and upper floors still had all of its original period features.
That actually made the redesign a lot easier than people might think. Of course, you work with the beautiful features an old house has, and in our redesign, I chose to select products that certainly had a contemporary feel to them, but were still classic and timeless.
It was interesting – in some of the areas that never had period features in them we chose to put them in for the first time.
Take the ground floor hallway for example – it never had wall panelling, but to make it feel smart and classic we decided to install low-level panelling.
It was all painted in a very smart, understated, neutral paint colour and then any metalwork that we introduced into that space (the internal metal-framed Crittall glass screen and doors, the ironmongery, the light switches and socket plates etc.) were all very minimal, black and distinctive.
What was the biggest compromise you had to make?
Honestly? We didn’t really make one. If I had to push myself on it, I was very tempted to upgrade all of the sash windows in the house, front and back, to brand new, super-high quality windows with the highest thermal performance.
But, all of the windows had already been changed around 15 years ago and although the previous install could have been a lot better and brand new sliding sash windows are thermally so much better than even 10 years ago, I just couldn’t bring myself to take them all out and replace them when they had only had a short life span.
With a bit of TLC the 15 year old windows, although far from perfect, will now probably outlast me!
What was your thought process when choosing switches and sockets, handles, hardware etc?
As I kind of implied before, it was a relatively easy choice. I’ve always been familiar with Dowsing & Reynolds and I love their range of products.
The switches in particular are beautiful and elegant. Even the most contemporary looking switches still have a timeless and classic feel to them and I adore that. Their simplicity gives them a unique beauty.
The switches and sockets I chose in my house are quite causally understated in their look, but when people actually operate the switches you should see their reaction! It’s normally an “oooh that’s really nice”… You don’t hear that often about light switches!
My passion is with honing in on the finer details. I’m curious as to what made the matt black tapered toggle design the right choice for you and your home?
A very good question. You’re clearly as obsessed with fine details as I am. Again…being super honest and I’m going to write this in capitals for emphasis … I ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE WITH THE BLACK TAPERED TOGGLE!
As soon as I tested a sample of it there was no way any other switch was going in my house. I’m serious! It captures that amazing combination of functional, well-engineered, industrial design with elegance, beauty and simplicity. Everyone loves them when they visit the house because they JUST FEEL SO GOOD.
The combination switches were designed so that you can have dimmers and toggles on one plate. Did this feature make planning the placement of your switches easier?
This is very very clever. I’m not a fan of large bank of light switch plates stacked together or having multiple switch plates scattered around a room. I personally feel that if you have too many switches in one room, then you’ve probably made the lighting design for that room too complicated.
I love having a few options, but not too many, so having dimmers and toggles on one plate satisfies my obsessive passion about simplicity. Why make something overly complicated? And with simplicity comes my other passion… elegance. Less complication, allows simplicity and creates elegance.
Which do you prefer more – the turn of the dimmer knob or the flick of the switch?
I love the toggles and the click on the toggles is unbelievably satisfying. There is no doubt about that.
I think you know my answer to which one I personally prefer… It has to be the flick of the switch for me. Especially with the design and style of the tapered toggle switches I have in my house. They are just stunning.
The matt black Bourdelle handle was designed with curves as opposed to angles – what made this design right for your home?
The Bourdelle handle has an understated art deco influence in its design. There are very few curves in the reading of my house. It is all very simple, straight lines everywhere.
I don’t really do funky shapes, certainly not with products, furniture and ironmongery details. The Bourdelle handle is nice and straight, beautiful to touch, and has a simple lozenge-style shape to it with a rounded curve at the end of the handle.
A squared end to the handle wouldn’t have been as elegant for me. It honestly took me second to make the choice. It was a handle that instantly worked with the design philosophy of the rest of the house.
“I don’t really do funky shapes, certainly not with products, furniture and ironmongery details. The Bourdelle handle instantly worked with the design philosophy of the rest of the house.”
George Clarke
What’s your ideal lighting setup? Are you a ‘ceiling lights on a dimmer’ kind of person, or does the ceiling light get replaced by lamps/wall lights?
My kids always complain that I have the house too dark. I hate bright lights any time of day or night and I’m really not a fan of bright, recessed downlighting! I really love low-level lighting. I’m sitting under a feature hanging ceiling light now while writing this and it’s on a dimmer on the lowest setting. I love Angle Poise lights too when I’m working, but I’m an architect so I’m bound to say that! I’m a lamp and wall lights person every time!
Finally, what’s your favourite space in your home and why?
My bedroom. It is the only room where I completely switch off from the world…
Don’t forget to follow @dowsingandreynolds and @mrgeorgeclarke on Instagram for more tips, tricks and interior design inspiration.
