It is not uncommon to see Art Deco houses with more muted, monochrome interiors, as if to avoid detracting from the building’s architecture.
But Julia and Andy Gavriel’s double-fronted 1930s house in Ramsgate is not like that. It has a turquoise front door in the middle of its curved façade, a royal blue living room, a teal dining room, a citrus-green hallway.
“It’s not in my nature to do neutral – I love colour,” says Julia Gavriel, who originally trained as a textile designer.
“Actually, I did try and be a bit neutral and did our bedroom in grey when we first came in. I couldn’t do it. We had to go yellow.”
The couple moved into the house on London Road in Ramsgate in 2016. After their children had left home, they were downsizing from a Georgian property in Canterbury and had been looking to stay in the same area – until they saw this house.
“It looked amazing, but we didn’t really know anything about Ramsgate,” says Gavriel, 62. “We fell in love with the house, and the area as well.”
The house, Gavriel later discovered, had been built in 1936 by its first owner, a railway clerk who went on to become managing director of a building supplies company.
It had cost £3,000 to build (£184,000 in today’s money), but he had spent more (£3,500) on the large, three-room air raid shelter that still stands in the garden.
When the Gavriels bought the house, it was in good condition inside —its previous owners had replastered the walls, installed underfloor heating and replaced the kitchen and bathrooms— but its original Crittall windows were in need of repair.
“We didn’t quite realise what we’d taken on with those. They were rusting and twisting, and the panes were cracking where the curves were.”
Using a specialist window company, the Gavriels replaced all 10 curved, cruise liner-like windows at a cost of around £80,000.
And alongside the windows, they took on much of the “non-sexy” work: repairing the roof, repointing the brickwork, replacing the original cast iron guttering and the garage doors like for like.
“We tried to keep everything. We’re lucky because there’s so much original stuff in here that isn’t left in Art Deco houses,” says Gavriel. “It’s amazing what survived in it.”
In the downstairs toilet, there are still original embossed tiles which depict leaping deer, as well as coat hooks and a ceramic toilet roll holder that were installed when the house was built.
The same goes for the property’s door handles, each with a lock and a key, and the original tradesmen’s’ entrance and ‘beware of the dog’ signs.
There is a walk-in airing closet with big double doors and shelving. “It’s amazing,” says Gavriel. “It’s not something that’s in modern homes. You can see how they made this house their own.”
The front door is also original – although the Gavriels replaced its wobbly chrome door furniture with new, carefully selected bronze parts. “That took a couple of years to find,” she says. “We’ve both been very nerdy – but that’s what we enjoy.”
The aim, says Gavriel, was to preserve these period features while keeping the house feeling modern. And, obviously, to add colour to the walls.
“We didn’t want it to be a theme park of Art Deco, but we tried to keep everything more or less in that style: the curves, that feeling of Art Deco.”
The couple sourced an Ercol sofa with a curved shape for the living room; new seat covers for the built-in window seats —using the original cushions— a rectangular dining table with curved edges from the Ochre outlet; artwork for the walls.
They owned some of the furniture already, like art Art Deco sideboard in the hallway, which Gavriel had got from her landlord as a student.
“We absolutely love [the process of furnishing the house],” she says. “We spent a couple of years sourcing the right piece for the right place.”
The wall colours were inspired by the paintings, most of which were purchased locally. The colours, Gavriel says, help to pull out features like the Art Deco architraves around the doors.
“If it’s in white, you don’t really see that, but the colour makes those little features sing out.”
Today, the house covers 2,411 square feet over two floors. The property’s kitchen and living spaces are all downstairs, alongside a study facing out onto the garden, while there are three bedrooms upstairs.
Outside, the house is surrounded by a garden which contains the original air raid shelter. 20-feet deep, this extends several metres underground, with three flights of stairs and three chambers.
Although it has been used to host Halloween poetry readings, the Gavriels have left the shelter as it was built.
“It’s quite interesting – the thing is that we don’t know what to do with it,” she says. “People have suggested that we keep wine down there, but I’m not really up for going down three flights of stairs any time I want a bottle of wine.”
The shelter, though, has formed a talking point – as has the house itself. “People like the postman and delivery people ask to hear about the house. Somebody that comes to the house will always ask,” says Gavriel. “There’s definitely a lot of local interest in it.”
Including the Gavriels, the house has only had four different owners in its lifetime. Now, though, it is looking for its fifth.
The couple are in search of a smaller property —and, of course, another project— and have listed their home for £900,000 with Brickworks.
“The house is nearly 100 years old —it’s 90 next year— but it still feels so modern. It’s got all that airiness, the big windows, the spaciousness,” says Gavriel.
“I’ll miss the location, next to the sea, and all that space. It feels like you’re a custodian of something historic. There’s something lovely in every room.”
“I hope the next person appreciates it just as much,” she adds. “But I don’t think you’d buy this type of house unless you did.”
© The Standard Ltd