Dalston Town House
A refurbishment and extension of a Victorian town house on a constricted site to provide a modern kitchen with industrial chic and a glamorous basement playroom.
Client: Private
Location: Dalston
Cost: £270,000
Status: Complete
Category: Homes, Interiors
Photographs: Peter Landers
Landscape design: Jeremy Rye Studios
The clients bought this house because they fell in love with the period features of the front façade and the principal reception room. They recognised, however, that the kitchen was small and the only dining space was poorly lit. The garden was also modest and the clients didn’t want to reduce this space by any significant extension. Our brief was to create a modern family kitchen and dining space with echoes of the industrial aesthetic of the client’s favourite local restaurant. To do this, we considered the outside and the inside as one: the steel and timber-framed extension was limited to filling in the side return, and identical finishes were used outside and inside. Triple glazing completed the transformation of a draughty back room into a warm, light, family hub.
The client also briefed us to make improvements elsewhere, so on the first floor we replanned a small dressing room as a family bathroom, allowing the existing bathroom to become a nursery. To create a fun family room, we excavated a basement out of the existing cellar. Here we added a small shower room and WC so the playroom could double as a guest suite. The clients wanted the playroom to function as a cinema room, so the detail reflects the heyday of post-war British cinema. Fluted timber panelling conceals full-height storage and discreet sliding doors for additional privacy. A lightwell on the front elevation is finished in raw concrete to tie in with the finishes in the rear garden.