March 29, 2024

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Comfortable residential structure

Home renovation ideas: extensions and makeovers by award-winning architects to inspire your 2021 interiors projects

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    Colour inspiration

    A dark Victorian house was transformed into an open, family-friendly home with a colourful vibe, all awash in natural light. Highlights include customised Ikea cabinets colour-matched to a rose-pink Acne shopping bag and a brass splashback to match the panel set into the kitchen island.

    Penny Wincer

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    Stylish choices

    After a near-total rebuild, an open-plan kitchen/diner/gallery space overlooks the garden. A huge dining table, which owner David Harrigan found on Gumtree, is set with Eames chairs.


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    Cinzia Bruschini

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    Origami-style

    Louise Halsey and her husband, Adam, embarked on an epic project to create an open-plan “origami-style” kitchen and dining room, all carefully angled walls and faceted lines.

    Juliet Murphy

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    A complex project

    Crittall-style metal framed windows and a double door run across the entire back wall of the house and, rather than being straight across, the wall flicks outward on one side, creating an angled profile.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Insta-ready retreat

    Clever planning and a creative eye helped former hair stylist and make up artist for One Direction Lou Teasdale renovate her house in Hackney. Teasdale was able to move in with her daughter, Lux, now nine, while she planned a total gutting and renovation.

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    Centre piece

    The kitchen is the heart of the house and functions as the main family room, as well as an entertaining space. It was bought from Wren, with the functional units grouped at the back of the room, the dining table and chairs on one side and a lounge area with television and sofa on the other side.


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    Total redesign

    Owner Max Taylor bought a two-storey house in Camberwell in 2015 and, after three years, he wanted to redesign it to provide new cooking and eating spaces facing out on to the garden.

    Juliet Murphy

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    Blending old with new

    The light-filled ground-floor extension stretches into the garden, blending indoor and outdoor space, a side extension provides extra width and a window seat creates a relaxing nook.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Industrial chic

    This south-west London family home has been transformed after its ingenious industrial-chic renovation. The project involved excavating the basement and underpinning to increase room height by 20 inches, and adding a rear extension to make more space for the statement kitchen.

    Juliet Murphy

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    Clever details

    There’s built-in joinery, while the use of reflective materials — a microcement kitchen floor, a polished plaster wall in the living area — helps push light through the space.


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    Renovating a rental

    Marlène Fao, who runs @my_mindful_home interiors blog, and her boyfriend achieved a chic transformation of a Wimbledon ex-rental flat. Big ticket items included the kitchen but one of the most useful tricks in Marlène’s repertoire was free. “I use 3D software to design a room in advance. That is how we did the wall panels in our living room. I use Sketchup (sketchup.com) which is free unless you get the professional version.”

    mymindfulhome.co.uk

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    Outdoor space

    The garden was a mess. Now it is an elegant courtyard “room” with the repaired fencing painted grey, and white-stained timber decking. The couple built space-saving raised timber planters.


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    mymindfulhome.co.uk

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    Start over

    Interior designer Rachel Chudley and her husband Nico spotted a derelict workshop for sale in east London, “It even had a tree growing out of one wall. It was crazy but we put in an offer.”


    Their architects, vPPR, reconstructed the ramshackle building, increased its height by 1.5 metres and added a new extension.

    Juliet Murphy

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    Depth of colour

    A skylight lets enough daylight into the kitchen that a glossy midnight blue shade on the walls makes the room seem bigger.


    “We wanted to retain the old building’s original fabric and matched the new bricks with those of the old ones,” says Rachel.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Characterful home

    Interior design business Angel O’Donnell poured all their creativity into the challenge of remodelling this couple’s Brixton house that, though long, is only 9ft 8in wide.

    Pictured: JP Banks and Ed O’Donnell, co-founder of Angel O’Donnell, on their patio.

    Taran Wilkhu

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    New layout

    The front door opens directly into a cosy living room with a parquet wood floor and walls painted deep, moody green, while a new staircase sits opposite.


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    Taran Wilkhu

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    Clever design

    Interior designer Daniel Hopwood’s deceptively small Marylebone flat is designed like a stage set where, magician-like, he creates different scenes with the tweak of a cushion, a new sofa cover, or even placing a screen behind the sofa.

    Juliet Murphy

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    Bespoke

    To use every square inch, he studied how the Japanese live in small spaces. “I liked how they can make each room multipurpose by using sliding doors that can be opened to create open-plan living or closed to create an intimate space.”
    Here, a sandblasted reeded-glass sliding door in an oak frame can close off the kitchen space when needed.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Remodelling

    Emergency work to fix subsidence was the perfect opportunity to remodel this Victorian terrace house, providing contemporary, family-friendly space.

    Juliet Murphy

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    There are actually two staircases. One, rising to the bedrooms upstairs, is original, while the other, leading to the living area below, was rebuilt and enlarged.


    Light floods the new basement kitchen-living-dining room from tall windows, a large skylight and glass doors to the garden.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Multi-functional

    Stephen and Andrea Coates wanted their home to be a flexible, live-work space for the next stage of their lives. “We didn’t want a house with five empty bedrooms. I find that quite disheartening when the kids aren’t here,” says Andrea. Instead, hidden beds allow the house and annexe to accommodate a family of nine when needed.


    The main living space/kitchen occupies the rear of the house, with full-width sliding glass panels connecting with the garden.

    Elena Coates (@elenalaurenc)

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    Hidden space

    The Seventies bungalow in the garden had become cold and damp so they knocked it down and built a studio annexe/ guest house with an art studio and gym.


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    Elena Coates (@elenalaurenc)

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    Future-proofing

    This attractive mid-century Victorian terrace house had a wealth of potential, but it was long, narrow and dark with only two bedrooms on the first floor, plus a bathroom which the owners knew wouldn’t be enough for a family in the future.

    Nicholas Worley

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    Plenty of light

    The central structure of the house was stripped out and a glazed side extension was added, giving scope to create the open-plan kitchen and dining space that flows out into the garden, complete with a window seat and a large pivot door.


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    Nicholas Worley

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    A playful home

    Chantal Martinelli and husband Julian Desormeaux in their vibrantly decorated kitchen. The couple moved the kitchen to a larger room in the flat when they moved in, putting it at the centre of their redesigned home.

    Daniel Hambury

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    Heart of the home

    The architecture of their converted factory flat in Hackney is elegant, offset by witty touches and jolts of strong colour.


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    Photographer Jon Aaron Green. “Photographed for the book East London Homes by Sarah Bagner, published by Hoxton Mini Press”.

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    Top-to-bottom transformation

    Steal the style of this Victorian terrace renovation on a much smaller budget and add value to your home. Its top-to-bottom transformation cost £480,000 — but achieved a £1.9million sale price from the first person who viewed it.


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    Matt Clayton

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    Simple, unfussy solutions

    When homeowner Valentina’s mews house in Primrose Hill needed work, architect Peter Morris suggested her garage could be converted into a bigger, state-of-the-art kitchen and said she could add a large loft space, as a third floor.

    Juliet Murphy

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    Extending upwards

    Now the sleek space has been transformed with a new bright and light loft space. The loft with its leggy beams is bathed in sunlight from windows and roof lights.


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    Juliet Murphy

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    Open-plan living

    Owners Conor and Kate Hardy wanted to replicate the warehouse-style living they’d loved so much in their twenties.

    Daniel Hambury

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    Spacious

    So when they found a house near Clapham High Street, with loft space spanning the entire length of the house, they opened the space up and created a light-filled open-plan living and dining area.


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    Build Team/ Robin Bell

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    Slot House

    Wedged into a gap rivalling the width of a Tube carriage, the aptly named Slot House, in Peckham, is unexpectedly spacious.

    Jim Stephenson

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    Designer style

    Architect couple Sally and Sandy Rendel designed and built Slot House.

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    Built on a tiny plot of land

    Every millimetre of the 2.8 metre-wide plot has been maximised, while full glazing allows as much light as possible to flood the house.


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    Jim Stephenson