London’s Victorian terraces lead themselves in our times to being expanded through the well-known “side return” to better fit modern lifestyles, creating large open plan kitchens and family rooms, indoor/outdoor living when the weather permits, and eschewing smaller rooms with more limited use, such as dedicated dining rooms

our challenge here was to create these open plan spaces, allowing for an open and relaxed family life, whilst knowing that the lure of a kitchen/family room at the rear -opening to the garden - tends to lead to the rest of the ground floor - at the front of the house - being underused. and this sort of defeats the object of extending to gain floor space

so, instead, we worked from the centre out, literally, configuring the ground floor to create a kitchen in the centre of the house (both figuratively and emotionally) with the former sitting room becoming the adjacent relaxed family dining room, with the benefit of being able to use the beautiful existing fireplace in the colder months. its ease of use means that the family use the whole of the space, and don’t automatically gravitate to the rear garden areas

to ensure the house had that open flow to the garden, we opened up the centre, creating a spacious hallway leading down to the sitting room/garden area, with open pantry and concealed laundry off. this means that the kitchen is open to all of the ground floor, with a choice of eating areas, in the dining area, or in the outside kitchen/bbq area, just outside of the large french doors to the garden

a new guests wc was tucked away in the hallway, easily accessible for guests, and giving space for coats/shoes etc under the stairs, to keep the hallway free, enabling the emphasis to be on the original Victorian tiling from which the palette was taken