Real home: a colourful kitchen-diner extension

couple in their modern open plan kitchen diner with exposed brick wall

(Image credit: David Woolley)

published 18 December 2018

Project Notes

The owners: Rosie Foster-Carter, a freelance marketing consultant, lives here with her husband, Tom. Co-founder of a tech start-up, and their son, Freddie.

The property: A four-bedroom Victorian terraced house in Balham, London.

Total project cost: £108,700

When Rosie and Tom were searching for their perfect home, the right location was key – close enough to London to feel the bustle of the city, but far enough away to feel part of a smaller community. So, they chose Balham, with its quirky cafes, shops and bars, and this property with a garden completely won them over.

The house hadn’t been updated since the 1970s, but Rosie and Tom weren’t deterred by the work that was needed. They knew they could modernise the house to create the light-filled home they wanted. They asked CW2 Architects to design a scheme for a contemporary side-return and rear kitchen extension. They wanted an open-plan kitchen diner so their growing family could all use the space at the same time.

Find our what they did next, then browse through more real home transformations and find out more about extending a house.

colourful_kitchen_diner — The couple hired carpenter, Joe Chambers, to build a bespoke kitchen complete with peninsular island to double up as a breakfast bar . The bar stools are from Private Floor, and the flooring is from Havwoods

grey sofa exposed brick wall in a kitchen diner — *To create a loft-style look, a feature wall was built using brick slips. The large clock is from* *Amazon* *and the sofa is from* *Made.com*

colourful_dining_chairs — *The table is from* *Barker and Stonehouse. Rosie bought the Ercol chairs on* *Ebay* *and painted them in bright colours*

white_kitchen — *The kitchen area has a grey colour scheme and features large-format floor tiles to contrast with the wooden flooring elsewhere. For similar, try* *Mandarin Stone. The induction hobb and the oven are from* *Neff, the fridge-freezer is from* *Samsung, the tap is from* *sinks-taps.com* *and the sink is from* *Howdens*

colourful picture frames in a kitchen diner — *These colourful frames, bought on Ebay, brighten up the brick slip wall and match the dining chairs*

Removing an old lean-to that housed a downstairs bathroom and then extending to the side and rear has created space for an open-plan kitchen-diner, plus utility and WC.