Taking down ground-floor walls provides one young family with a bright and spacious layout in a heritage home
WORDS JENNIFER GRIMBLE PHOTOGRAPHY RICHARD GILL
Vacant for almost a decade, the house Simon and Lucie Taillemix had their eyes on needed immediate attention. ‘It had no bathroom or kitchen and weeds were making their way inside, but it had potential,’ says Simon. As the asking price was not in line with the property’s rundown condition, the couple instructed the estate agent to let them know if it came down. ‘Around six months later, the vendor was ready to negotiate,’ Simon explains.
But only two weeks after securing the property, the couple – who have three children, Edouard, six, Margaux, four, and one-year-old Arthur – were facing the implications of the Coronavirus pandemic. ‘Many people paused their projects, but we ploughed ahead,’ says Lucie. ‘We couldn’t afford to own the house and not live in it and began the renovation as quickly as possible.’ They’d instructed an architectural practice three months before exchanging – a gamble that paid off by enabling the project to move forward. The architects’ focus on space and daylight won the couple over. ‘Wanting to get the interior dimensions right, we invested in the layout and light,’ explains Simon. ‘We knew the colours and fixtures could change later.’ As well as making architectural alterations, the couple’s priorities lay with repairing and replacing worn structural elements such as the roof and windows, plus the electrics and plumbing.
Working with Simon and Lucie’s wish to have a view through the house from the kitchen to the south-facing garden, project architect Robert Sterry’s proposal includes a side-return and rear extension and the removal of almost all the ground-floor walls. ‘The front entrance, kitchen, dining area and living space are defined by glazed screens and changes in the floor and ceiling levels,’ he says. ‘A big rooflight brings light into the centre of the ground floor, and a new picture window overlooks the garden.’ By taking down internal walls on the second floor, the main en-suite bedroom echoes the open-plan ground-floor layout.
An important new fitting is essential for safety reasons. ‘Usually, building regulations require the staircase and entrance hall to be separate from living spaces, to provide an escape route in case of fire,’ Rob explains. ‘But this conflicted with our aim f
