02/06/2026
When we first walked through this house, much of it was hidden under decades of plastic-based paints and tar coatings, sealing in the historic fabric and stopping the building from breathing. The brief was twofold: restore what had been buried, and add something fresh that works for family life today.
The discoveries came slowly. Original brickwork, lime render and flint facades emerged from underneath the coatings, each carefully cleaned by hand. Lime mortar was repointed where needed. Conservation-grade sash windows replaced their tired predecessors, alongside a beautiful new front door, a new roof and lead-lined gutters. The kind of work that takes longer than you'd think and shows less than you'd hope, but it sets the building up for the next hundred years.
At the rear, a new extension clad in vertically fixed burnt timber sits in honest contrast with the original house, its cross-bar glazing nodding to the rhythm of the Victorian windows without imitating them. Inside, the ground floor was opened up into a warm, generous space for the family to gather. The first floor was reorganised to deliver four bedrooms and a generous family bathroom, with natural light prioritised throughout and a contemporary finish to bring a bit of fun back into the building.
Smaller details made the biggest difference. The brickwork was carefully stained using natural pigmented dyes to settle new and old together. The landscaping is low-maintenance but considered, with pleached trees lining the rear boundary.
A real pleasure to work on, and a building we look forward to walking past for years to come.
