While period homes are full of character, they are often not conducive to modern family living. At this property in Chiddingstone Street, the aim was to completely remodel the house to bring in more natural light and create a more open feel, implementing a full footprint basement, including excavating under 50% of the garden, adding a ground floor side return extension and loft pod addition. BTL Property managed all elements of the design and build.

Explains Clare Castle-Smith: “Bringing all of these extensions together completely transformed the house into a bright and spacious modern family home providing an open plan kitchen/dining area, living room, home cinema, two studies, wine cellar, utility room, plant room, two WC’s, 1 master suite with dressing room and 4 further bedrooms, all with en-suites.”

As the house is in a Conservation Area, planning regulations were tight. Achieving permission to extend the basement under the garden was only granted following a lengthy appeal process with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham council. Gaining consent for the front lightwell extension under the front footpath to provide a bike and bin storage was also a challenge.

BTL also faced technical challenges, in particular, the installation of the wine cellar, as the best layout of the basement meant the wine cellar was located in the centre. However, the wine storage cooling system needed to extract to the outside and has limits in how far away it can be from the cooler. It also needed to be hidden in a discreet location, the solution to this was to place it in the rear basement lightwell.

The resulting basement is truly stunning with a cinema room, nearly 3m floor to ceiling height and Crittall glazing framing the adjoining study. The ground floor is also breath taking as it was opened up and has exceptional floor to ceiling height throughout. Adds Clare: “Crittall glass was again used to keep light flowing through and maintain an open feel. The master bedroom on the first floor includes a free-standing bathtub in the bedroom and a unique corner double sliding pocket door opening. There are also two beautiful well-proportioned rooms for the children with en-suite bathrooms.”

“The end result was a very happy client and a significant improvement on the original space. In opening up the house and installing internal glazing the property now meets the family needs in terms of space and layout as well as providing clear sightlines through to the rear garden.”

Project budget for full design work and build circa. £1m. Project length approximately 20 months, including 14 months on site. www.btlpropertyltd.co.uk