Petts Wood Family Home

The brief

The family had outgrown the back of their house. The kitchen sat apart from where everyone gathered, and the dining room, cut off from it entirely, was a room on its own rather than part of family life. The house as a whole was ready for a full refurbishment. What they wanted was one generous family space across the back, with the old dining room folded into it, in a look that would feel current for years rather than seasons.

The design

A large extension now runs across the back of the property, and the old dining room was drawn into it rather than left detached beside it. Three separate spaces became one kitchen, lounge and diner: somewhere to cook, eat, sprawl and talk, all in the same room.

The light decided how the room would be used. Dining moved into the brighter, newly extended end, where the glass doors run the width of the space and the garden reads as part of the room. The old dining area, darker and more enclosed, became a proper lounge, positioned around the fireplace and open to the rest of the room, so nobody is shut away from the conversation. The table sits between the two, with the kitchen at one end and the lounge at the other, so the family can cook, eat and settle without ever leaving the same space. At the heart of the kitchen, an island works as hard for homework and conversation as it does for cooking.

The front room was left as it was, a separate retreat away from the noise of the new family room. Beyond that, the rest of the house was refurbished throughout, quietly and consistently, so that nothing feels left behind by the extension.

The style the family was drawn to, and the one we created, is timeless contemporary: clean lines and calm materials, warmed by texture and natural light, so the house will still look considered in ten or twenty years rather than of its moment.

Every detail, considered

A room this open has nowhere to hide, so the detail had to be disciplined. Handleless cabinetry keeps the kitchen quiet against the living space, a mirrored splashback bounces the garden back into the room, and bar seating at the island gives the family somewhere to land without needing another table. Lighting was planned around the finished layout, from the pendants over the island to the softer layers that take the room into the evening, and the palette carries through the lounge and the rest of the house so the whole home reads as one.

The result

The back of the house is now the whole of family life: cooking, eating, homework and film nights in one room, with the garden a step away. The rooms beyond feel part of the same home, and as the day goes on the lighting shifts the space from bright and busy to calm and quiet.

Services: Full Interior Design, including Lighting Design, from the brief through to installation.