Out Of The Ordinary

A clever redesign looked beyond the obvious to maximise the space and style of Ed and Sarah Burgess’ pre-war home

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Expanses of shag carpet and an avocado bathroom suite are not top of every house-hunter’s wish list. But for Sarah and Ed Burgess, the raw state of this Thirties house presented a great opportunity – even with its time warp decor. When they bought it, the ground floor was a cramped patchwork of small rooms. But on the upside, it also had a large attic space that was ripe for converting, was in a great location and came with a longed-for garden. As an architect – his practice is Burgess Architects – Ed could envisage ways to make this bland, boxy house into something more inspiring for himself, his wife Sarah and their children Clive, 16, Nell, 14, and Ralph, 11.

Sarah and Ed kicked off their redesign by agreeing what they didn’t want. ‘The standard conversion – a large impersonal space speckled with downlighters and sliding-folding doors – held no appeal,’ she says. Instead, Ed took a more creative approach, reimagining the jumble of rooms as a series of overlapping spaces. ‘Each area has its own character, but there is a strong connection between them,’ he says.