Projects

The brief

The clients have a growing family and they wanted to create a multi-purpose room in the house where they could live, cook, eat, play, socialise and be together as a family. They also required better access and visibility into the garden and a downstairs WC and utility room.

The property

The property is an end of terrace late 1880’s two-storey four-bedroom house. On the ground floor, the kitchen was at the rear of the two storey outshot. The kitchen had a single doorway into the garden and an internal doorway into the dining room located in the centre of the house. As the kitchen was the focus for adult activities the adjacent dining room acted as a playroom and art room for the kids. As an end of terrace the property has a reasonable sized side garden which gave significant opportunity as an area to expand into.

The solution

Squaring off the ‘side return’ and opening up the existing rooms allowed for the creation of a big living space whilst still maintaining good external access down the side of the house. The solution was to build a single storey extension in the ‘side return’ with roof lights, remove most of the structural walls between the kitchen, the dining room, and the extension, insert bi-folding doors to the rear and pop a WC & utility room next to the existing drain run.

The result

The project has transformed the dark dis-jointed back rooms of the house into a light and airy 35 sq. m. kitchen, dining, living and family room. This new space is the hub of the house where everything happens. There is direct and easy access to the garden and a downstairs WC. The kids can play inside and out and the adults can keep an eye on them where ever they are and whatever they are doing.
At the side of the elevation visible from the road, the new masonry follows the form, lines and colour scheme of the existing house and the new window in the utility room matches the existing timber sliding sashes. To the rear the masonry is plain and the bi-folding doors are new and honest.

“Martin took time to fully understand our requirements and desires in transforming our house. The solutions he came up with worked brilliantly; the work took about 4 months in total and has completely transformed the way we live in the house. Furthermore, it will adapt happily to our changing needs as time goes by. We love it.”

Mrs. A. Worthing