How To Make a Petrol Station a Home
9 October 2020
From former fire stations to Methodist chapels, converted properties pose an interesting interior design challenge.
Dominic Lutyens
Dominic Lutyens is a freelance writer, covering art, architecture, design and fashion. He writes for Vogue, Elle Decoration, the Financial Times and more, and has written three books: 70s Style & Design with Kirsty Hislop, Celia Birtwell and Living with Mid-Century Collectibles.
Jack Windmill, Sussex. Restoration and New Build by Featherstone Young.
©Brotherton Lock
Nowadays, almost any building has the potential to be converted into a home, regardless of its original purpose. While some people move into disused chapels or schools because they relish their romantic atmosphere, others gravitate towards former warehouses, factories, even water tanks or petrol stations whose industrial origins and vestigial features – from rose-pink exposed brick walls to extra-large windows maximising daylight – give them an edgier, more contemporary vibe. Such repurposed properties often appeal to individualists attracted to homes that feel unique and unconventional. A major asset of former public buildings is their soaring ceilings – perfect for creating dramatic interiors.
One of London’s most notable recent conversions was that of the Grade II*-listed former Belsize Fire Station, a handsome Arts and Crafts building designed by Charles Canning Winmill. Pleasingly, the building retains many original features, such as glazed bricks, wood-panelling and the fireman’s pole. Converted by London-based architects Tate Harmer, it originally housed accommodation for firefighters, a gym and billiards room.
Harmer believes you can’t pre-plan conversions too much: ‘You need to roll with it. The Fire Station was refurbished a lot over the years and we gradually discovered original fireplaces and old staircases as we removed partitions.’
Bavaria Road Studio, formerly a Methodist church, West Architecture Projects.
©Ben Blossom
Graham West, founder of London practice West Architecture, advises that you shouldn’t ‘try to squeeze a conventional home into a converted space. If the building has large spaces, try not to subdivide them with doors and partitions – be more creative and rethink your preconceptions about how rooms function and connect.’
West has converted the second floor of a 19th-century building in north London – formerly a Congressional Mission Hall – into a spacious, live-work apartment. A Methodist chapel might sound austere, yet this home is anything but. While West retained the double-height space, thereby preserving the character of a high-ceilinged chapel, it doesn’t feel cavernous. At the request of its first owner, he added a mezzanine used as a bedroom, accessed by an elegantly minimal steel staircase. The mezzanine overlooks a luminous, central space that incorporates a living room and streamlined kitchen and boasts original tall, arched windows. White walls bounce light around the room.
Bavaria Road Studio, formerly a Methodist church, West Architecture Projects.
©Ben Blossom
Its current owner, US-born Morgwn Rimel, spotted the property on the website of estate agent The Modern House, which specialises in unusual homes, from modernist gems to former granaries. When it came to interior design and furniture, the question was, how to choose pieces for a space where almost no precedent exists? Rimel has been admirably bold. The bathroom combines utilitarian and sumptuous materials, the latter standing out all the more against stark white walls. While the vanity unit is made of plain plywood, the bathtub has a rusted copper exterior.
When decorating high-ceilinged spaces, adding tall elements and pieces that cleverly echo architectural features help to create a harmonious whole. Rimel has accentuated the height of the room with several towering potted plants, such as fig and bird-of-paradise. A floor lamp in the living room was chosen because its semicircular top precisely echoes the curve of the arched windows. With daylight flooding the living room, she has created an atmosphere which is personal, laid-back and deliberately outdoorsy: eschewing conventional furniture, she opted for a boho-chic hammock, bought in Colombia, and a practically horizontal rocking chair by hip Belgian design duo Muller van Severen.
Adam Hills, co-founder of cult architectural salvage and design company Retrouvius, suggests some guidelines as how best to furnish different kinds of conversions: ‘In a rural property with a rustic feel, we’d recommend furniture and elements with a rawness to them rather than polished pieces. Similarly, industrial pieces don’t suit old manor houses.’
Sophie Bush, founder of Warehouse Home, a specialist design studio and independent estate agent, and author of the book, Warehouse Home, agrees:
Oak Museum Display Cabinet, by repute from the Rothschild’s House, Waddesdon Manor. From Retrouvius.
© Retrouvius, Tom Fallon
‘If you live in an authentic industrial conversion – I myself live in an East London warehouse conversion – honour the building’s heritage and original features. Find vintage furniture and lighting salvaged directly from old warehouses or factories. Invest in iconic industrial designs such as Tolix chairs and Lampe Gras lights, which have been in production for over half a century and are as timeless as they are durable. This doesn’t mean you can’t also source contemporary designs with a similar aesthetic if they make clever or quirky references to industrial settings – think tables with trestle legs, cabinets on castors and furniture with exposed bolts. In terms of materials, reclaimed timber, patinated metals and concrete always suit industrial schemes, as do plywood, terrazzo, jesmonite, resin, leather and reeded or wired glass.’
She also believes that a slightly more opulent look – which she dubs “industrial luxe” – can suit some industrial conversions. “Try adding a few pieces made of velvet, silk, polished brass or nickel”.
Retrouvius, meanwhile, warns against sticking too slavishly to periods. “Choose pieces you’re drawn to across a wide range of periods and styles rather than going for a total look from a specific era. In the past, we’ve supplied municipal library shelving to medieval and Georgian buildings, for example, for a library in a writer’s home.”
While converting spaces offers tremendous freedom, Giles Kime notes that no matter how radical we might feel, we are human after all. ‘The challenge’ he has observed over the years ‘presented by repurposing industrial or agricultural buildings is to give them a human scale. Most of us are accustomed to rooms designed as living spaces with familiar features such as door frames, fireplaces and maybe cornicing. In their absence it’s important to impose a degree of structure with furniture, paintings and rugs, all of which can define a space’.
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