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Holly Howe's London house, filled with the interesting antiques Howe London is known for
Of all the houses I have ever written about, this has to be the one I feel most connected to. Not just because its owner, Holly Howe, is a friend of mine, but also because I lived in the flat opposite for a year and witnessed the sweat and tears that went into transforming this Victorian end-of-terrace into the imaginative space that Holly, her husband Alexis and their two young boys, Bertie and Heath, now call home. There were weekends of pulling up dusty carpets and, every few weeks, the family would pack up and move to a different floor to make way for the builders. Alongside all of this, Holly was hard at work, overseeing contractors, picking paint colours and sourcing everything from vintage lighting to replacement screws, which she patinated herself to ensure that they felt right for the house's Victorian bones.
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She was keen to be as sustainable as possible in her choices, repurposing everything that could be saved - including the original floorboards and 1990s spotlights, as well as 1970s teak shelves that found a new lease of life inside the fitted larder cupboards. 'Very little in this house is new,' she explains. 'Having children makes you very aware of your footprint and what you're doing for the planet.'
Holly is the co-creative director of Howe London, the company founded more than 35 years ago by her father, renowned antique dealer and designer Christopher Howe. Today, the Pimlico Road stalwart, which has a new showroom (in collaboration with rug specialist Woven Place) just round the corner in Bloomfield Terrace, is known not just for its inventory of antiques, but also for its impeccably crafted range of furniture and lighting. Holly is at the helm of the recently launched Howe Home collection - an edit of ready-to-go staples inspired by antique pieces.
She and Alexis bought this house between lockdowns in September 2020, attracted by the fact that it is just a skip away from Hampstead Heath and had not been fiddled about with. 'It had this amazing light and atmosphere,' says Holly of the property, which is spread across three floors and an attic. 'It felt a bit like Mary Poppins' handbag.'
Their first task was a matter of getting the structure right. The roof was replaced and kitted out with solar panels, which provide much of the electricity on sunny days. The kitchen was moved from a poky room at the back to the main space, which runs the depth of the house; an en-suite bathroom was added to the main second-floor bedroom; and the attic was opened up to create an extra bedroom.
'We had a very white house before this one and wanted to use more colour here,' says Holly, who previously lived in a small mews house on the other side of the Heath. 'Now, with more rooms to play with, I felt we could have a lot more fun in the decoration.' Even so, she is not the sort to put a mood board together. 'I instinctively felt what the colours should be for each room and got straight to painting a patchwork of samples on the wall to pick the perfect uplifting green for the study,' she says, referring to the first-floor room that had previously been used as the main bedroom.
Green features throughout the house. 'I think it might be because we live in such a green area that the colour just found its way indoors,' Holly suggests. Downstairs, she has paired the waxed plaster walls of the open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting room with dark green floorboards and curtains made from vintage linen sheets, hand-dyed in a grassy shade by her talented Howe London colleague and friend James Townend.
The sitting area is cosy, confined to the back of the space, with a small Howe London corner sofa. 'I always say blue is my favourite colour, but I am starting to think I might be wrong about that,' says Holly, gesturing to the wooden fairground banner emblazoned with the word 'Superb' and the 1960s Swedish tapestry rug that hang above the sofa, both of which feature leafy greens. That said, shades of blue are woven throughout, in upholstered pieces and fabrics, and on the walls of Bertie's bedroom, painted in glossy dark blue linseed paint from Brouns & Co. The colour is most resplendent in what they now refer to as the children's 'blue bathroom', which is wrapped in sky blue tongue-and-groove panelling, with a matching 1950s bathroom suite.
While most of the rooms are rich with colour and pattern, Holly made the decision to paint the hallway and staircase white. 'It's a spine that glues it all together,' she says. She is particularly good at balancing the playful and calm, as in the kitchen, where buttermilk units - made by one of Howe London's workshops in Norfolk - bring a softness to the space. Opposite these, joinery in the same delicious shade was added around the existing fireplace. 'We owe this to my dad, who drew it all up,' explains Holly. ‘He has such an amazing understanding of proportion and traditional construction.’
Unsurprisingly for a dealer's daughter, Holly has an excellent eye for antiques, which she has slowly collected from fairs and auctions. A handful of favourite pieces came from John Evetts' 2021 sale at Wormington Grange in Gloucestershire, including the pretty lantern in the sitting area and an arm-chair, which Holly has had reupholstered in a blue-striped Howe at 36 Bourne Street fabric.
'My house has informed what I think people might want to buy,' Holly explains. The few new pieces - including the Howe London 'Retriever' armchair in the sitting room and 'Dinky' chaise in the study - were produced with the environment in mind. 'They are all made using traditional, responsibly sourced materials and upholstered in naturally fire-retardant fabrics from Howe that are free from chemicals,' she says.
Holly grew up watching the environment around her change regularly. In fact, at the age of five, she would pack her belongings into bags and take them with her wherever she went, in order to prevent them from disappearing and being replaced by something her parents thought was even better. This house, she admits, is not a space in quite that much flux, but she acknowledges it will always evolve. 'I doubt the house will ever be complete, because that's the fun of it,' she says. 'Wouldn't it be awful if you went to an antique fair and could not buy anything because you'd finished a space?'
Dean Hearne1/7Pondicherry wallpaper in maize from Howe at 36 Bourne Street is the backdrop for Howe Home's ‘Le Bedside’ table in fumed oak and a bed from The French House, with a headboard loose cover that Holly had made from antique kelsch cloth. The vintage striped cushion from Howe and mid-century wool rug are both Swedish. In the en-suite bathroom, pale pink tiles from Walls and Floors were chosen to match the vintage pedestal basin rescued from a skip.
Dean Hearne2/7In the playroom, the eye-catching two-tone walls are in Edward Bulmer's 'Vert de Mer' on the upper half, with a bespoke scrubbable off-white paint below. Vintage prints of aircraft are displayed above a weathered chest of drawers from Howe.
Dean Hearne3/7In the children's bathroom, 'Cypress' wallpaper in cocoa by Howe at 36 Bourne Street lines the walls above panelling in Little Greene's 'Grey Stone', picking up on a basin found on Facebook Marketplace.
Dean Hearne4/7This bathroom – unsurprisingly known as the blue bathroom – features a bath that Holly sourced from Facebook Marketplace. Next to it is a vintage tub chair, which doubles as a washing basket. The Turtle print hanging above the bath came from one of Holly's favourite Sunday spots – a little antique shop on Hampstead's Flask Walk.
Dean Hearne5/7These sweet shelves were an early flea market find. Holly bought them for their previous home, but they only found a spot on the wall when the couple moved here.
Dean Hearne6/7An antique Irish four-poster bed from John Evetts is dressed with vintage French kelsch cloth. The walls are in Brouns & Co's 'Chatsworth Blue' linseed paint.
Dean Hearne7/7The pink ensuite bathroom features tiles from from Walls and Floors, while the sink had been in the Howe warehouse for years due to a crack, which Holly had repaired.
