This small and neglected 1970’s ex-council house is the kind of house you drive by and never take notice until we gave it a complete overhaul. The existing structural window openings in these houses are often generous. Recolouring and reducing the window lines made them ‘of the moment’. At ground floor a full width rear extension was added creating a sunny living space.

 

The remaining garden space was still big enough to become a ‘nordic forest’ to cross through to a converted garden studio. The original wood cladding had fortunately never been replaced with plastic cladding so we were able to refresh it with black oil. Oiling larch timber cladding a dark colour is more resistant to colour changes over time so black became the colour backdrop for the planting and the mid-century furnishings.
 

Black Valchromat was used to update the original staircase and for the kitchen units. A new small front porch gives the house a new face to the street and solves the issue of bin storage in an attractive way.