Ade's Renovation Collective - ARC

Ade's Renovation Collective - ARC Sustainable renovation - Turning heritage house we have into the 21st century family home we want

20/11/2025

After getting this stained glass window retouched, we had to wait for the rains to come to be sure that it actually worked.

Spoiler alert… It didn’t. But the guys from are on the job. Stepping in where the glazing “experts” failed.

Painting the walls is a whole lot cheaper than ordering a new fireplace surround and mantle!!
21/10/2024

Painting the walls is a whole lot cheaper than ordering a new fireplace surround and mantle!!

Grateful for the time spent with the team in the store in Marylebone, today. Super helpful explanations about the cool ...
01/05/2022

Grateful for the time spent with the team in the store in Marylebone, today. Super helpful explanations about the cool south facing light (in the Southern Hemisphere) and how it’ll impact the different hues we choose for our kitchen, the way choices we make with our triple story vaulted ceilings will play with the way all the other colours are perceived and the different finishes and applications available for our setup.
We left with this little bag of paint related goodies 🙂

Bit of a shame that the staff at the store around the corner were, initially at least, a lot less welcoming.

It’s these experiences, more than the cost difference, that impact who you want to work with.

We can fix up the house and fill it with love, to make it a home. But it helps when your neighbour’s do things like deli...
15/11/2021

We can fix up the house and fill it with love, to make it a home. But it helps when your neighbour’s do things like deliver a jar of honey harvested from the hive in their garden 😊

Hopefully, one of many milestones enroute to turning this old beauty into our ideal family home. A year, almost to the d...
12/11/2021

Hopefully, one of many milestones enroute to turning this old beauty into our ideal family home.
A year, almost to the day, after discovering this house, today we submitted the Heritage approval request.
A huge folder full of drawings and forms and stuff! Representing a year of meetings and proposals and ideas and reworkings with our fantastic architects
For 10 months, all of this has been managed with us on the opposite side of the planet.
We’re clearly not the easiest of clients, but hopefully we’re more fun than most! And our house is the coolest 😁

What inspired you to do this? To buy a house that would take so much time, effort and money, to turn into the home you w...
06/08/2021

What inspired you to do this? To buy a house that would take so much time, effort and money, to turn into the home you want?

Yesterday, we officially took ownership of this 1908 beauty.

We’re finalising the designs and will be submitting a planning request for a sympathetic, but transformational renovation.

There’s so much to do and I must admit, it’ll be more DIy than DIY. i.e. don’t expect to see me wielding a hammer. A paintbrush maybe, but certainly nothing more dangerous than that. 😉 I am though, invested in every single decision.

I’m guessing this’ll be an 8 or 9 month process, a couple of months to get the approvals and 6 or 7 months of renovations. However, in the midst of a pandemic, who knows how long it’ll take??

The house really is stunning, but it is also rather large (hence the page name) and was built in a time when servants kept the house going and children were to be seen but not heard. Clearly that wouldn’t work for us, as a home.

The layout changes will catapult this house right into the realms of ideal 21st century family living. And in our planning, we’ve been conscious of changes we’re seeing in the UK - such as electric cars and low emission homes - that will eventually make it to South Africa, whilst also thinking about the evolving needs of family life, it will need to accommodate.

Super excited about the journey we’re about to embark upon. Most happy to be doing this with and for my fiancé Prescillia. The day before we got engaged, I had no intention of buying a house. Our huge city centre penthouse, in the group, was good for at least another couple of years.

Something changed that day and, within a week, we found this place.

So, as to what inspired me? I blame Prescillia. It’s all her fault! 😉

Day 5 - Something old/new

What inspired you to do this? To buy a house that would take so much time, effort and money, to create the home you want...
05/08/2021

What inspired you to do this? To buy a house that would take so much time, effort and money, to create the home you want?

Yesterday, we officially took ownership of this 1908 beauty.

We’re finalising the designs and will be submitting a planning request for a sympathetic, but transformational renovation.

There’s so much to do and I must admit, it’ll be more DIy than DIY. i.e. don’t expect to see me wielding a hammer. A paintbrush maybe, but certainly nothing more dangerous than that. I am though, invested in every single decision.

I’m guessing this’ll be an 8 or 9 month process, a couple of months to get the approvals and 6 or 7 months of renovations. However, in the midst of a pandemic, who knows how long it’ll take??

The house really is stunning, but it is also rather large (hence the page name) and was built in a time when servants kept the house going and children were to be seen but not heard. Clearly that wouldn’t work for us, as a home.

The layout changes will catapult this house right into the realms of ideal 21st century family living. And in our planning, we’ve been conscious of changes we’re seeing in the UK - such as electric cars and low emission homes - that will eventually make it to South Africa, whilst also thinking about the evolving needs of family life, it will need to accommodate.

Super excited about the journey we’re about to embark upon. Most happy to be doing this with and for my fiancé Prescillia. The day before we got engaged, I had no intention of buying a house. Our huge city centre penthouse, in the group, was good for at least another couple of years.

Something changed that day and, within a week, we found this place.

So, as to what inspired me? I blame Prescillia. It’s all her fault! 😉



It’s not everyday that a member of your team makes it on to tv. Today it was two! Both our architects and our landscape...
19/01/2021

It’s not everyday that a member of your team makes it on to tv. Today it was two! Both our architects and our landscaper were featured on the SABC3 show, the Insider. Congrats guys!! Celebrating the celebrities in our midst.

This apartment’s entrance hall was designed to bridge building’s grand Art Deco styled communal spaces, with their beaut...
31/12/2020

This apartment’s entrance hall was designed to bridge building’s grand Art Deco styled communal spaces, with their beautiful chandeliers and wall to wall marble and granite, and the much simpler desired aesthetic of our client’s living space.
Whilst the client was more comfortable with exposed brick walls, recessed spot lights and herringbone teak parquet floors, we knew we had to create a flowing visual journey between the outside flamboyance and the inside calmness, of the apartment.
An immediate style change would have been too jarring and created a feeling of an under-finished space every time one entered the apartment.
Our solution was to create a mid-way space in the entrance hall. Or “de-bling in stages” as our client described it.
Topping and tailing a flamboyant wallpaper, with flooring and ceiling finishes that are repeated throughout the apartment was part of the solution. But it didn’t end there. We had to find a way to encourage a physiological reset, as one entered the hallway.
Adding a seating area with elements that encouraged exploration (in this case books and a map artwork), meant that entrance hall felt like a room in its own right. Where one was able to stop and take a moment.
By the time one ventured further into the apartment, with its upscale warehouse feel, the “bling” of the building’s communal spaces was a faded distant memory. And one could better appreciate the apartment.
—————————

Our first South African Heritage building renovation. Back in 2007, our client had a dream of turning 140m2 of what was ...
31/12/2020

Our first South African Heritage building renovation. Back in 2007, our client had a dream of turning 140m2 of what was the former Barclays Bank HQ, on the oldest street in town, into his Johannesburg home. One that reminded him of his native London, but suited his new African living style.
Single and with a job that meant he was away on business for more than half of his time, he needed a home that could leave for weeks at a time, but also didn’t feel like a hotel, when he returned.
Requirements included two bedrooms and a study, an open plan kitchen, sound insulation for the city centre sounds, some outdoor space, integrated whole home music system and a cinema screen to watch his beloved Spurs.
We’ll look at more detail with our next few posts.

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