Projects

The brief

The brief was to create an open-plan kitchen and dining room with a separate utility room and to do something with the not very usable conservatory at the rear of the house.

The property

The property is a 1930s semi-detached house with the rear facing south and the English Channel. The existing galley kitchen had no room to sit down, it lead into the utility room and the garden beyond. The sliding doors divided the dining room from the conservatory were kept firmly shut most of the time. The conservatory with its glazed roof and lack of insulation was too hot when the sun shone and too cold in the winter to be of much use to the clients at all and this part of the house and the utility room created a barrier between the living space and the garden beyond.

The solution

The solution was to remove the conservatory and in its footprint build an extension designed to be part of the house, with bi-folding doors to the rear, insulated to the current standards and a flat roof with roof lights. Internal structural walls were removed to create an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room with direct access to the patio and the sun lit garden beyond. A utility room in half of the old kitchen keeps those essential elements of modern life accessible but out of the way.

The result

The resulting new room is spacious, light, and colourful and the alterations have transformed the feel of the house. Grey units match the new doors and window, a range cooker sits as a centre piece in the cooking area and the space flows from cooking to eating to relaxing and to the outside. The clients have already observed how much warmer the house feels in winter and they have no experience of the build-up of heat from the conservatory. All in all a great improvement to the house.