The Project
Extension of a 2,200 sq ft semi-detached family home in Barnes, London.
Lowther Road
What the client liked
Barnes, a leafy, village-like suburb in Southwest London, ideal for young families. The house had good bones, interesting architectural features and boasted an 85 foot garden, a good size for London. Situated on a quiet road with views over a cricket ground and the Thames beyond. The house layout was excellent with large rooms throughout.
The large sunny garden
The Brief
The owners wanted to upgrade the house and extend it as much as the Council would allow. This included:
Building a rear extension to create a kitchen/breakfast/family room, with large openings onto a wooden deck and garden.
Complete overhaul of the kitchen to include a large island with a seating area for children's homework time or adult social time.
The “nanny’s room” near the entrance was to be used as his study, so the bathroom attached to it wasn’t needed anymore. We needed to find a better use of the space.
A service entrance was needed on the side of the house.
Knock down the wall between the front lounge and the dining room to create a free-flowing living and entertaining room.
Add an en-suite bathroom to one of the guest bedrooms.
Convert the empty attic space into a Master Bedroom suite complete with bedroom, bathroom, dressing, her study and a laundry room.
Generally modernise the house.
All additions and renovations had to be sympathetic with the style of the house, maintaining continuity with materials and proportions.
Changing Layout
The ground floor
We created a roomy and light family room with access to a large wooden deck for easy outdoor living. An all new kitchen was installed, with a large L-shaped 2-level island. The kitchen side at the standard counter height and the eating side at the standard table height (photo below). That configuration worked well for the clients’ needs. Large Velux windows were inserted in the ceiling to maximise the light. 3 oversize French doors open onto the wooden deck, at the same level (no step) and in the same material as the family room floor, virtually doubling the size of the room when the doors are open – wonderful for warm summer days. Finally, we used reclaimed old pine floor boards in the extension to match the existing ones exactly, thus increasing the sense of space.
The new kitchen/breakfast room
We dug a large bay between the reception and dining room and left open the other side of the dining room into the family sitting area. This opened up the house and allowed uninterrupted flow between the rooms, as well as through light.
We made 2 rooms out of the bathroom: a cloak room that opens onto the front hall and a storage/pantry room with a door into the kitchen and one to the outside, thus creating a service entrance as requested.
The entrance hall
On the first floor, we installed an en-suite bathroom in one of the guest rooms.
The second floor
The conversion we made of the attic was substantial, in as much as we created an entire floor, similar in size to the 1st floor, by means of a full length/full height dormer. This way, we managed to fit all the rooms required, i.e. a large master’s bedroom with en-suite bathroom, dressing and Her study/6th bedroom. We also had room for a laundry, conveniently located upstairs. As a bonus, we put in floor to ceiling French doors for maximum light, leading to 3 balconies.
The master bedroom
The Finished Project
A house extended to 3,000 sq ft with all modern amenities, 5/6 double bedrooms, 1/2 studies and a bright and roomy family living area opening onto a beautiful garden. Every available square inch of the house was made to good use, the architectural style was kept throughout and so were the rooms’ proportions and volumes. Upon resale, the value of the house had increased by a ratio of 2.5. A very good investment indeed.