When we first met our Clients in 2019, they just bought this property. It is located on a quiet side street in Walthamstow, just walking distance from its fashionable Village Square High Street.
At the outset, we already had a loft space, however, it had been badly built and its height was not big enough. The interiors of the rest of the house were in a predominantly dark red hue and felt dark and dated.
Planning Permission from the Waltham Forest Council
We received planning permission from the Waltham Forest Council for a rear extension, as well as an L-shaped loft extension.
Starting from the top – the loft space became a light-filled space with improved head height and views across the neighbourhood through French doors. Thanks to the specific location of this house, coupled with existing trees in neighbouring properties, the roof extension as-built is not visible from the surrounding streets. The floor contains a guest suite with a shower room.
A new fixed roof light has been installed above the staircase. This brings lots of natural light inside the house. Additionally, more daylight can reach now even the middle part of the first floor, which usually tends to be quite dark, thanks to a glass balustrade on the upper section of the stair case.
The middle floor, contains a bathroom and three bedroom – two being used as home offices, plus a master bedroom. The family bathroom got a complete makeover, as did the front master bedroom. The walls in master bedroom, including the fireplace and two built-in wardrobes in niches, have been painted in Setting Plaster 231 from Farrow & Ball.
The rear bedroom/home office gained an extra factor thanks to removing the flat ceiling and exposing the sloping roof structure above, where a prominent roof-light was installed. This both increased the height and the feeling of space in this room.
Downstairs, the wall between the two reception rooms was removed and they were combined into a single, large area. The room benefits from a lot of bespoke joinery units, including shelves inside an old door opening that used to lead to the old kitchen. The wood-work has been painted in a rich, but still vivid, blue (Hague Blue, Farrow & Ball) whereas wall, and the fireplace surround, in a more grey-blue colour (De Nimes, Farrow & Ball).
Kitchen design
The back of the house opens onto the garden and contains an open-plan kitchen and dining area. The kitchen units were purchased from British Standard and hand-painted by the contractor (Carriage Green, Farrow & Ball) – who also created many other custom joinery in this house. The space benefits from plenty of day lights thanks to the full width sliding-folding doors and a long, rectangular roof light.
Quite unusually, the downstairs cloakroom doubles up as a walk-through utility space. The washing machine and other items have been concealed inside cabinets. A discrete, wooden washing line has been installed at a height.
End of terrace home transformation
The exteriors required updating as well, with the front of the house being repainted in a light grey colour paired with a dark green entrance door and brass ironmongery. This complements the traditional checkerboard front path tiling very well.
