A small Georgian villa in south London doubles in size for a growing family

There comes a point for most of us when we outgrow a house, as more stuff arrives, our requirements change, and families grow. However, what do you do if that happens but you simply can't bear to leave behind the house you're in? Such was the case for the owners of this house in south-east London, who reached out to Golden co-directors Alice Bettington and Ellen Cumber in 2017. They had recently had their first child, and wanted to find a way to make their current house work for a family. The plan didn't work out at that time, and they decided to house hunt for something new instead, but fast forward to 2019 and they came back to Golden, now with another child in tow and a third on the way. Still in the same house, they were keener than ever to find a way to make it suitable for five.

The house is a particularly striking Georgian villa, a rare example of ‘a London house which actually looks bigger from the outside than it does inside,’ Ellen explains. With a lovely hallway, small kitchen, dining room and living room downstairs, and three not-so-generous bedrooms and a family bathroom upstairs, Alice and Ellen had quite the challenge ahead of them. Unfazed, working alongside RVA Architects on the structural design, they settled on digging down into the basement and extending out the back of the house to double its footprint. This rearrangement would add enough space for a generous living area on the ground floor and a new master suite in the basement along with a gym, spare room and snug, and they would have the chance to rationalise the upstairs layout.

From the outside, the house has retained all its charm but inside, it now unfolds like a kaleidoscope of warm, inviting spaces that suit the family's needs while neatly hiding all their stuff. This was all part of the plan – when Golden undertake any project, they start by coming up with a written reference of what they're aiming for; referring back to this throughout the project helps them stay on track. In this instance, the brief was ‘a warm, richly textured space that feels grown up while also being an inviting family home.' Alice adds ‘we had some keywords which were earthy, calm, eclectic, textured, mature, comfortable,’ and this informed the design throughout.

The clients trusted Alice and Ellen's judgment, which was fortunate given that the family moved abroad to an entirely different part of the world for most of the renovation project and decisions were often undertaken over WhatsApp. That move prompted a slight change of decorative direction, as the clients loved their time living in a dry, tropical location so much that they wanted to bring the colours they had been living with back into their London life. These appear in the form of the accent of deep purple in the living room, the sun-faded pink in the hallway and sunset peach in the dressing room, as well as a prevalence of organic materials and baskets.

Alice and Ellen have created such a clever design that at first glance you might never guess a single child lived there, let alone three. The evidence only appears when you start opening the drawers. ‘In terms of keeping the house decluttered,’ says Alice, ‘we really thought about how we could put very practical joinery in as many rooms as possible,’ noting in particular the sitting room with its generous cabinets, along with the gym and studies. Built-in storage was key, and nowhere is this more brilliantly executed than in the (rather enviable) kitchen banquette. Golden added smart, easy to access drawers for quick tidying as well as a final flourish: the armrest opens to reveal a charging drawer for all the family's tech. It's a small but mighty way to allow them to transform the house into a grown up space at the end of a long day.