Mix AND match

AS RENOVATION FIRST TIMERS, AMY AND TOM HAVE TRULY PASSED WITH FLYING COLOURS, TRANSFORMING A DARK, TWO-STOREY TERRACED HOUSE INTO A THREE-STOREY, LIGHT-FILLED CONTEMPORARY HOME

- 

This was about the eighth property we had seen,’ says Amy. ‘We were looking for something with plenty of potential, that we could put our stamp on. This house was super run-down, covered in pebbledash, with a conservatory at the back that was freezing. But we loved the location. We see this potentially as our “ten year” house, a place to enjoy for a while before taking on our next renovation project.

‘This is our first biggie and we had our work cut out. We moved in at the end of 2021 and Tom had these wild ideas that we'd be finished by January 2022. We only finished it in March 2024!’

MAKING PLANS

‘I did some initial drawings,’ explains Amy, who is an interior designer (amystoddartstudio.com). ‘It is a narrow house and I wanted to make sure that we could fit in a kitchen island and a bed in the loft conversion. After that we spoke to an architect straight away.’

The couple found Michael Langley of MLA-Architecture on Instagram. ‘On our brief were an attic conversion, an extension opening up to the garden and an open-plan living, kitchen and dining area. And we were keen to have the front living room as our evening chill-out space.’

CHANGING THE FRONT AND BACK

Planning discussions lasted about a year. ‘There were no issues, it just took a while,’ says Amy. The final design saw some of the Victorian charm reintroduced, but with a contemporary edge.

To achieve this, the plastic front porch and rear conservatory were demolished and the front and back were finished in reclaimed London stock brick, with black window and door frames and gutters.