Keeping What the Old Flat Already Got Right

The family had come in expecting a full gut. A relative had recently done exactly that to a similar flat nearby, and the assumption was that a 1970s interior is something you remove. But this one had a red oxide floor in good condition and original teak window frames that were better made than anything we could have specified for the money.

So we restored rather than replaced: the oxide polished back, the teak stripped and re-oiled, the ceiling fans kept. The budget went instead to the kitchen and the bathrooms, which were genuinely past saving. The flat now reads as considerably older than the work done to it, which was the outcome the family did not know was available to them.