A Victorian terrace redesign leads to improvements in the layout and quality of light
WORDS ALICE WESTGATE PHOTOGRAPHY GIANLUCA MAVER STYLING LETIZIA DONATI
After buying a three-storey house complete with a kitchen extension and loft conversion, Michael Webber’s focus was on the outside spaces. ‘I needed somewhere to store the bike I ride to work,’ he says. ‘The front garden was the ugliest in the street and the street boundary wall was collapsing. It made sense to redesign the whole thing to incorporate a bike shed. I also wanted to build a gym at the bottom of the back garden.’
To replace the crumbling wall, architect Francesco Pierazzi drew up plans for a bike store hidden behind a run of slatted timber. He had collaborated with financier Michael, 47, on a renovation project in the past. ‘I sensed he wanted to be more daring this time,’ says Francesco.
While Francesco worked on a design for the gym, Michael had a change of heart and decided to alter the house’s interior too. ‘I wasn’t comfortable with the inside after all,’ he says. ‘I wanted it to be more spacious and to change the layout and decor. There was no utility room or downstairs toilet, and the dated kitchen was badly organised. The first floor needed rearranging, and the loft bedroom needed more daylight and fresh air.’
Though the gym building came under permitted development (PD) rights, the rest of Francesco’s design required planning approval because the bike store alters the appearance of the front of house, and the new windows and streamlined guttering modify the back.
But the local authority approved everything without hesitation. ‘The council were especially keen on the bike store as they want to do more to promote cycling in the borough and thought that the design had kerb appeal,’ explains Francesco.
Michael stayed in a rented home nearby because the construction team had to strip away the walls and floors to fit insulation and replace all the windows with double-glazed wooden sashes. After taking down a wall between the front and rear living rooms and rejigging the kitchen extension layout, the ground floor became an open-plan space with new glass doors to the back garden. Medium-density fireboard (MDF) partition walls around the bottom of the staircase conceal a new utility room and WC off the living area.
Installing a new gas boiler in a cupboard at the top of the stairs meant moving the doo
