Creative Conversion

After buying a house they had initially written off, David and Magali set about adding a contemporary space to form a stunning family home

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Despite being in the market for a new home, David and Magali weren't impressed with the Art Deco house they saw for sale just a few streets away from their own home in Forest Hill, south London.

'We'd discounted the house in question completely based on how it looked from the outside,' he says. 'We thought we'd probably just buy a bigger version of the Victorian property we were currently living in.'

It was only when the couple went to have a closer look that they decided there were positives in buying the property. 'Our own house had practically no garden whereas this place had a big garden, and that changed my mind completely,' says David. 'We also realised that there was a lot we could do with the internal layout.' The couple and their two children moved straight in when they bought the house in March 2021. 'We hadn't initially decided what we wanted to do apart from knowing we wanted a kitchen extension,' says David.

FORMULATING PLANS

Word of mouth led the couple to local architect, Hugo McCloud from 1200 Works. 'I felt that he listened and was very flexible,' says David. 'He didn't talk about controlling the whole process, unlike some architects we had spoken to - we went in with a fairly blank slate and in a way he read our minds.'