We’re excited to share a new feature with you, the Rad Questionnaire. It’s an opportunity to get to know our community a little better and share insight and inspiration.
We’re incredibly lucky to have Greg Penn from @ManWithAHammer as our very first guest. If you’re looking for period property inspiration, Greg is your man! His account offers a realistic look behind the scenes of an extensive renovation project – setbacks and all. If you’re looking for community and support during your renovation, you need to be following Greg…
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My name's Greg, better known as ‘Man with a Hammer’ and I’m slowly renovating my forever home, a 30 room, ex-naval Georgian lump in Devon, pretty well single handedly.
Absolutely not – I was very much known as ‘the office wally’ at work when I took my first renovation on, but I absolutely love both the hard work of renovating, and the designing and have really discovered a previously very well hidden passion for both!
Evolving. I feel like I’m learning all the time, and most important for me is to listen to the house – its age and architectural style, the use of the rooms, then you use them, and the light that comes in.
In Admirals House, my style is probably best described as traditional, but with a bit of a modern twist, and it’s probably where I’m most comfortable. But if I found myself decorating something very different – say a mid century bungalow – I wouldn’t try and transpose this style upon it, and would want to be more sympathetic to the architecture. There would always be colour though!
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Haha, a cop out but… both! I love pattern, colour and detail and use a lot of wallpaper and patterned fabric. But at the same time, my house is relatively simple, being built by the Royal Navy. Lots of clean lines, simple architrave and cornicing and symmetry – I think the two work really well together!
Again, there’s room for both. I tend to splurge on the things that work hard or that you touch a lot, or are a massive amount of work to remove/replace (bathrooms, kitchen, flooring etc.) but where money can definitely be saved is in some of the finishing touches.
So much of the furniture here are wonderful antique pieces that I absolutely love, most of which have been under £100 from Facebook Marketplace or similar – a fraction of the price of something even from Ikea but in my opinion, more beautiful, more sustainable and far more satisfying!
Fireplaces are always my favourite things – I’ve 17 here – most of which were boarded up and uncovering them is always hugely exciting. Most were also covered in layer after layer of paint – beautiful original marble surrounds with magnolia gloss applied – so stripping them back (whilst a huge amount of work) is so satisfying!
Well, being ridiculously stubborn, I’d have likely not listened regardless, but I would say to people… take your time, give yourself breaks when you’re not in the mood… and take lots and lots of photos before and during – it’s great to be able to look back on your progress!
Instagram primarily. We’re so lucky that now, pretty well every interior designer or professional has pages where they share all their projects – it’s so accessible!
I’m currently working in the lower ground of Admirals. It’s got 5 floors in total, and the lower ground – that would once have been the working and potentially living floor of the household staff – has its own entrance so I’m slowly turning it into a luxurious holiday let. I’ve just finished the main bedroom and am about to move onto what will be the living room.
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