After noticing that sustainability in design is hampered by an ever-constant need to produce more stuff, but that people’s growing interest in curating their living spaces means they have a more transient relationship with what’s in their homes, design editor Henrietta Thompson and her husband Ed Padmore set up Harth, a rental platform for furniture and art that’s aiming to bring a circular economy to the world of interiors.

We met Henrietta and Ed at their Highbury home to talk to them about warehouse spaces versus period houses, why they’re addicted to swapping furniture and why they started Harth.

Henrietta: “Our last place was a warehouse apartment in Clerkenwell. It was fun when we didn’t have kids but we also had a lot of ‘nature moments’, as I call them. I remember at one point a squirrel extended its nest onto our roofs and then, after weeks of it scrambling around it broke through the ceiling, like that moment in The Shining!

“We loved the open, lateral space but it was a party flat, in a way, so not right for starting a family. We moved to this house when I became pregnant, which was interesting given it’s at the top of the hill and has three flights of stairs…”

Ed: “We fell in love with the house when we came to see it. We always like to live somewhere that’s a bit interesting or has some heritage and isn’t just a standard terrace, say. Because the downstairs of this house used to be a shop, it set it apart from the other houses on the street and, because there is now glazing where the storefront used to be, the living space gets a lot of light, which we were used to from the warehouse.”

Henrietta: “A more traditional layout has definitely been more functional, and there’s something nice about having different spaces for different things. Plus the storage is great – we have rooms and cupboards to chuck everything in, and, given the amount of washing we get through with two small children, I don’t know what we’d do without a utility room now.

“But moving home also makes you do an edit of your stuff, and we had so much from living in four different places together. We had things in storage, with our parents or in a garage we used to have and when we moved here it was the first time we could decide what we really wanted, and what worked.

“I think it was that process, of figuring out what things we had we really wanted to live with, and what we could do without but didn’t just want to throw away, fed into us starting Harth.”

Ed: “Design has raised the bar of our experiences with so many spaces, from restaurants to hotels, bars to co-working spaces, and I think people are wanting to match that standard in their domestic environments. With more people plugged into interior design, naturally they want to acquire pieces, experiment with different options and switch things out. I think people are less willing to put up with things they don’t love.

“That’s a concept that’s completely different from previous generations, who would find a house and buy furniture for life, or they would get it all as wedding presents. That idea, that you would have one sofa forever, is not around so much anymore, but, if that sofa has design value and is made to last, why can’t its lifecycle be extended by someone else using it?”

Henrietta: “We’ve started using the platform for the interiors here, and it’s become really addictive. The art especially changes all the time, which is great for all of us but especially for our three year old daughter who really notices and engages with the new pictures. There’s a sense of fun that comes with new pieces coming in all the time, like a playground made of furniture.”

Henrietta, how do you define modern living?
Henrietta: “Modern living for us is about creating a world where there is cross-over in all the right places of your life, giving you the ability to work smart, be productive, and thrive, but also to relax and find the spaces that let you unwind, relax and breathe. Physical spaces are so important to how we react and integrate with the world, so it’s important to make sure you think carefully about the decisions you make relative to that idea.”

Ed, is there a home on The Modern House website that’s caught your eye?
Ed: “Several months ago I printed out a picture of Ahm House and stuck it on the wall as inspiration.”