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Why it’s worth bringing original features back into your home

Since he moved into his east London home, restoration expert Owen Pacey has added character and value by reinstating lost architectural elements, he tells Olivia Lidbury

Owen Pacey is looking out of the top-floor window of his townhouse in Spitalfields, east London, pointing down to the stone planters he has sourced for his neighbours to embellish their pavements with. One such customer is Michelin-starred chef, Telegraph food expert and long-time Spitalfields resident Angela Hartnett. “I didn’t know who she was and I got her name wrong, but we’ve become quite good friends now,” he laughs.

Pacey has upped his own home’s kerb appeal with greenery he is proudly growing through the grate from his basement; but it’s the cosmetic tweaks to the property’s interior that have proved most impactful in terms of value. Since he bought the four-storey terraced house with his partner, Rachel O’Hare, 18 months ago, a local estate agent estimates that their improvements have inflated its price by over half a million pounds. “There was nothing original in it, which was perfect for us because we’ve got the shop,” says Pacey, referring to Renaissance London, the salvage and restoration business he founded 25 years ago. The house dates back to the 1700s, but is the only one on the street not to be listed, due to its fascia being rebuilt in the Victorian era after a fire.

When O’Hare and Pacey got their hands on it, it was uncharacteristically blank and boxy inside. Gently reconfiguring its footprint to add two more bedrooms has helped its value swell, as has reinstating lost features such as coving, removing some of the 84 (yes, 84!) spotlights blighting the ceilings, and reanimating barren hearths with elegant fireplaces. There’s arguably no one better versed with the latter: Renaissance is a mecca for fireplaces old and new. The shop, handsomely housed in a former pub a stone’s throw from Old Street roundabout, attracts interior designers, architects and even the odd Hollywood star – Orlando Bloom has been known to drop by (while Madonna’s request to browse the store alone was not-so-politely declined).

Fireplaces are Pacey’s weakness – he can’t watch TV without pressing pause to admire one. “Oh God, the fireplaces in The Crown! This last season they were amazing,” he coos. Sarah Thatcher, the daughter-in-law of the late former prime minister, has just emailed to praise his “amazing eye”, and plans to follow up with dimensions for a pair of fireplaces she is after once she has spoken to her builder.

In the ground-floor living room of the house, which is a stone’s throw from the famous Spitalfields Market, stands a Palladian-style fireplace in breccia versilia marble, while in the main bedroom, two floors up, O’Hare chose an ornate style dating back to 1750, its string of inlaid pearls still gloriously intact. It’s for this very reason Pacey advises homeowners to leave chimney breasts untouched wherever possible, even if alcoves can be awkward to furnish: “In the 1970s and 1980s, fireplaces just weren’t in fashion and there was a trend for taking out chimney breasts. But if one day you turn a bedroom into something else, you might need it to make a feature, and having a working fireplace is a nice selling point,” he says.

While he is a fan of juxtaposing eras when it comes to decorating (see the mid-century chandeliers dotted throughout the house), when it comes to mantels he believes in reinstating styles from the period when a house was built: “if you ever sell, you want it to look like it’s been there for ever. Subconsciously, people think it’s part of the fabric of the house and hasn’t been messed around with”.

If the real deal can’t be found, his business specialises in reproductions, which are expertly patinated to belie their new roots (he won’t disclose exactly how, but they are so convincing

‘It would have been a shop or a trader’s house once, so we didn’t want anything too ornate’ ‘Stripping pine was an awful fashion that got me involved in this business’

they regularly dupe even professional dealers). For new-builds, which are often devoid of any character, he thinks fireplaces used purely for decoration add both aesthetic and financial value. “It’s about clean lines,” says O’Hare, who worked in retail as a fashion buyer and has an affinity for antiques and colour schemes. “Art deco or bolection [which have curved mouldings] styles work well.”

The couple had a healthy budget to attack the property’s interiors, but aren’t immune to a cost-cutting hack. What they spent on getting the castiron radiators powder-coated to match the colour of each room’s walls, they saved on extending the skirting boards as opposed to ripping them out and starting again. The extended height was achieved by simply adding another board along the top, and finished with a dado rail. “It’s a much cheaper way to get the Georgian look,” says Pacey. They didn’t agonise over the cornicing either. “This would have been a shop and a Huguenot trader’s house once, so we didn’t want all that ornate stuff, because it probably wouldn’t have been like that originally. We bought it cheaply online.”

Adorning the hallway’s walls are half a dozen framed receipts dating back 100 years, which were uncovered in the basement. Down in the former cellar, which now houses a guest bedroom and a bathroom, an original door bears etchings from 1865. The shower cubicle is positioned directly below the pavement: “We were going to put clear glass in, but I thought, ‘better not’,” laughs Pacey of the frosted vault lights overhead.

A born and bred Eastender, Pacey fell into the restoration business by way of what is now considered the ultimate interior no-no: stripped pine. In his 20s he was making £25 per day stripping doors after bumping into an acquaintance from the council estate he grew up on who was in the business. Like many in the 1980s, Pacey felt the effects of the interest-rate hike at the time, and when his mortgage repayments tripled overnight, he handed his keys back to the building society and moved into a squat in King’s Cross. “It was a terrible time, I can’t see it getting as bad as that,” he says of the current financial landscape.

He quickly fell in love with the trade – “I just couldn’t believe you could put a painted pine door in a tank of caustic solution, scrub it and jet-blast it, and sell it” – though he has since discovered that pine was never meant to be stripped. “Oak is meant to be shown, as is mahogany, but pine is cheap – it was always meant to be painted. It was an awful fashion that got me involved in the architectural business.” He even laughs about the time he actually fell into the caustic tank. “I slipped and my mate had to hose me down. It was funny. And it taught me a lesson – not to put too many doors in.”

Selling a £30 cast-iron fireplace for 10 times the price after stripping and restoring it was a light-bulb moment. “I thought: ‘Wow, there’s good money in this,” he recalls. His first shop in Islington followed, and the most esteemed antique fireplace specialist setting up shop next door only boosted his business. “I had a tap for stock, and the owner, Mickey Davis, mentored me – he would tell me what everything was.”

Pacey isn’t snobby (he happily admits that he can’t pronounce some styles of Italian marble he trades, and loves faux panelling as much as the next person), but he isn’t a fan of mass-produced Chinese marble, which can have a glittery effect. “If you need three or four fireplaces in a house, then stick a couple of reproductions in, but try to get European reproductions – they’re the best,” he advises.

He and O’Hare acknowledge that for the DIY home renovator, lighting can be difficult to get right. “We’re lucky, because we can take it back to the shop, but a 1960s or 1970s chandelier will always work.” As patents run out on lighting designs after 50 years, and with a network of Murano glassmakers at their disposal in Italy, their choice of stock to cherry-pick from at Renaissance is almost debilitating.

The couple practise what they preach, opting for a pair of amethyst Murano glass clusters suspended from the ceiling in the living room, and sputnik centrepieces in the coral sitting room upstairs. The effect is dazzling; the Huguenots would never have dreamed of such opulence. And what of the dozens of clinical spotlights that were formerly there? Almost all have been filled in, with discreet, petite styles from specialist John Cullen used to softly illuminate corners instead. “They give a halo effect,” explains O’Hare.

As with most enviably styled homes, the clash of old against new is what makes the end result so beguiling. O’Hare masterminded the theme for the coral sitting room (drenched in Farrow & Ball’s Smoked Trout), and picking a pair of iconic Camaleonda sofas by Mario Bellini in all their unapologetically plump and bulbous glory. The rust velvet upholstery is offset with a vintage bleached rug and the pine floor was softened with a limewash to dim any competing shades of orange. A pair of rose-gold convex Murano mirrors above each fireplace act simultaneously as sculptures and light-reflecting artworks.

Up in the main bedroom, which comprises a dressing area and en-suite bathroom, a Camaleonda bed frame recalls the memorable sofas, and clashes against Farrow & Ball’s cocooning Railings. These brave touches have elevated the house to location-worthy status, creating opportunity for a passive income when used for shoots (local art duo Gilbert & George have been captured here). Fees can total over £1,000 per day.

Pacey is thrilled to call this place home, but he is wistful about the odd piece that got away, like a life-size angel statue with enormous wings. “I thought it’d never sell because it looked a bit cemetery,” he remembers. When the young boyfriend of a haircare entrepreneur set his admiring eyes on it, the £20,000 price tag and shipping costs to New York proved no barrier. “I’ve regretted it ever since. This is another quote from Mickey, he’d say: ‘Sometimes you need a Picasso to get them in’, to bring them in the shop, and that was it.”

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