Our clients had lived in the area for many years and gradually increased the size of their property by buying adjacent apartments over the years, and expanding into them, but they still very much felt like separate flats.

Now a fully fledged family with four children they wanted to refurbish the whole property in full with a more holistic approach to create a family home.

The resulting space features an open plan ground floor living and kitchen/dining floor, with fabulous large windows on both sides enjoying great daylight all day. All the period features of this principle level have been lovingly retained and restored, including the portico and raised street entrance which enhances the 'whole house' feel of the property.

Downstairs, the double width lower ground floor enjoys 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a cloakroom, a utility room, and a large playroom, spilling out onto a large double width garden.

The previous staircase to the lower ground floor was in the classic 'understairs cupboard' location. We have repositioned this to divide the living and kitchen sides of the ground floor and provide a double height link between the two floors.

The living room occupies the street side of the floor, with the period features offset by bold splashes of colour influenced by the South American roots of the owner.

Viewed across the central staircase, the kitchen features a large central island with views onto the garden, and bespoke full height cabinetry offsets the period room beautifully.
A tiled extractor housing and glass cabinets give more of a ‘furniture’ feel to the kitchen, with only the range cooker on display.

Once down, the stairs led on to a new dramatic 1800mm wide central hall.

The hall is treated with asymmetric wall finishes, one side clad in painted V-groove panelling which conceals six doors to rooms at the front of the house. An inset desk recess offers a communal homework spot between the children’s bedrooms.

The opposite side features a series of glamorous 2.3m high doors with bespoke panel details and oversized architrave and skirting, all in deep blue contrasting paint - leading off to a further three bedrooms. The patterned and bordered floor tiles conjure up the feel of a French colonial hotel lobby.

The playroom borders the staircase with a wall of steel framed glazing, bringing light into the hall and allowing the light from the ground floor down into the playroom too. A large sliding pocket door spans the bottom of the corridor to close off the bedrooms from entertaining noise upstairs.