The terraced house has always been a shapeshifter. Over the centuries, its floor plan has evolved to suit societal needs. In the 1980s we knocked through sitting rooms and bolted on side extensions. By the noughties we were blitzing through back walls, adding voluminous eat-live-cook spaces. Then came the pandemic: twiddling a glass of Chardonnay while perching at a kitchen island the size of a small lake became less aspirational. A home office – and privacy – was what we all craved.
Now, for anyone who has children, there is a new challenge: the boomerang years. Instead of quitting the nest after university, our offspring are bouncing back. The traditional narrative arc of graduating, getting a job and leaving home has changed. In England and Wales, the number of children residing with their parents rose 14% between 2011 and 2021.
Rents are one reason for the shift (in 2023 in inner London, rents climbed 13% in a year, according to a survey by Hamptons estate agency) along with the cost of paying off student debt. The increase in unpaid internships and the number of students studying for MAs before dipping a toe in the real world are other contributing factors.
This means that the average terraced house – Britain’s most prevalent building type – is having to work harder than ever. As one designer put it to me: ‘We’re seeing a return to the room.’ Snugs and studies, compact kitchens, separate loos, basins in bedrooms and reading nooks are all creeping back on to floor plans.
So if you are planning a stealthy re-do while the offspring are away - or starting from scratch – how can you future-proof your interior for the post-graduate years?
First, the caveat. Avoid making things too easy-going says interior designer David Bentheim. He compares the return of twenty-somethings, brimming ocean-blue Ikea bags in hand, to ‘brokering a deal…. You don’t want to turn your home in to a first year hall of residence. Children should fit in to your needs. Not vice-versa. It’s about striking a balance between flexibility and practicality. And that comes down to layout–which is where good design comes in.’
The dining room was usually the first to be sacrificed to knock-throughs. Now this once-endangered space is enjoying a comeback. For the ground floor of her new terraced house in West London, architect Aida Bratovic, who has two older children, looked ahead. ‘Our last apartment was a loft apartment,’ says Aida. ‘We spent Covid home-schooling, working and eating in one room. Here, I was determined to create a very different layout; a series of flexible spaces that will accommodate us all.’
On the ground floor she designed an office which metamorphoses into a dining room at night. Office paraphernalia is stowed in an antique haberdashery cabinet; the glowing rosewood dining table multitasks as a communal desk. Judicious lighting effects the transformation. ‘I used library lamps, wall lights, spots and chandeliers. I change the light setting after office hours to make the transition,’ she says.
(An aside on electrics. For the dining room of a Grade II-listed townhouse Melissa Hutley, co-founder of Hutley & Humm, included a floor socket under the table. To avoid non-aesthetic trailing cables, the wire is fed through the pedestal base of the bespoke dining table.).
‘I advise clients to keep, or even reinstate walls,’ says interior designer Tamsin Saunders, founder of Home & Found. ‘Whilst our homes are all about human connections, and ensuring you can live happily together, it is also important that everyone has their own space, and it’s essential that even in larger homes, each room has a use.’
In space-hungry times, the designated guest room has become redundant, as Tamsin notes. ‘I suggest designing spare rooms to work as a study, which can also double as a guest room, DJ booth or an extra room to watch TV and hang out,’ she says. David Bentheim champions box beds, which open to reveal storage for surplus post-uni bedding. If you are installing bookshelves in a study it can be sensible, as he suggests, to factor in a slim wardrobe. For small ‘box’ bedrooms – typically at the back of older terraced houses – Olivia Outred is a fan of flip-up desks and turning beds against walls into sofas with the addition of upholstered, wall-mounted panels.
In most terraced houses, the kitchen is at the back. Natalie Tredgett did things differently by putting hers in the middle: a walkthrough between the sitting room and extension which houses a library, study and family seating area at the back. The wall to ceiling cabinetry of the kitchen capitalises on the lofty space, but the ceiling, painted a soft lilac-pink, and the dashing vintage pendant make it feel less functional.
‘I have long believed that too much valuable real estate has been allocated to kitchens,’ says the Canadian-born, now London-based interior designer. ‘ If a restaurant can serve 200 a night from a galley, why do we feel the need to spread out in a residential setting? Most importantly, I want to spend more time in my living spaces. They’re more comfortable and inviting than the counter stool. We spend so much time in the kitchen–I think we should get out of it, rather than slaving over the stove.’
Designer Bianca Serrao Jones also capitalised on the layout of her 1890s terrace, in south London, to site her kitchen in the middle. ‘The footprint is unusually square, so it made sense to leverage its width. The second sitting room is often the forgotten room. Our architect presented us with four different options which really made us think about how we use the space, rather than just going for the standard done thing. To make the kitchen feel bright we positioned a skylight in the extension.’
For deeper properties, Kate Guinness – a designer with a knack for intriguing small spaces – advocates turning landings into places to study, read or conduct Zoom meetings. Bookshelves, a deep armchair and sheer curtains to filter afternoon sun will suffice. At Sibyl Colefax & John Fower, Lucy Hammond-Giles once converted a landing in to an impromptu guest room, with a curtain for privacy and the bed tucked under the window for tree-top views.
Looking to the past, as Lucy says, is a source of future-proofing ideas. ‘Basins in bedrooms are a marvellously old-fashioned way to make a house work really hard,’ she says, citing her favourites at the National Trust’s art-deco Coleton Fishacre, in Devon, built for the D’Oyly Carte family. ‘They are tiled using delicious powdered green glass left over from the Savoy, with Raoul Dufy skirts underneath. Who wouldn’t want that in a bedroom?’. Indeed.
To end on a more prosaic note, don’t forget the soundproofing. A robust stair carpet, to muffle the tramp of trainers on tread in the early hours, will do a great deal to maintain inter-generational relations.
