A Bungalow Reshaped for Everyday Living and Family Gatherings
A small kitchen, no utility, a dining room too small for the family table, and a double garage full of boxes. Two extensions and a garage conversion made every part of this West Kirby bungalow work for the way the homeowner lives.
The customer story
The Problem
The bungalow had plenty going for it, but several parts of it no longer suited the way the homeowner lived.
The kitchen was small, and there was no utility room to take the practical jobs out of it. The dining room could not accommodate a table large enough for the family to gather around. And the double garage had become a store for boxes rather than a useful part of the home.
There was no master bedroom with its own ensuite either.
The challenge was to solve all of these together, on a single-storey house where every change affects the rooms around it.
What We Designed
This was a Design & Build project, so we worked with the homeowner from the first problem-solving conversations right through to the finished design.
Rather than one large addition, we designed two single-storey extensions, each with a clear job. The first enlarged the kitchen and added a separate utility, with bifold doors opening the new space onto the garden. The second replaced the old conservatory with a proper dining room, under a roof to match the bungalow and sized around a larger dining table.
We then looked again at the garage. Extended forward so it could be reached from the hallway, it became a master bedroom with its own ensuite.
What We Built
The kitchen extension created a larger kitchen with shaker cabinetry and marble-effect worktops, opening into a bright space with bifold doors wrapping around the corner to the garden. A separate utility, with its own sink, tall storage and a door to the side of the house, sits alongside.
The conservatory was demolished and rebuilt as a dining room extension, with windows on three sides and a sliding door to the garden.
The garage was converted into a master bedroom with an ensuite, with a walk-in shower and a backlit mirror. Herringbone flooring and oak doors run through the bungalow, tying the new rooms and the existing ones together.
How It Improved the Way They Live
The kitchen is no longer the tight space it was. There is room to cook and move around, and the washing and everyday clutter now have a utility of their own.
The new dining room means the homeowner can finally have the larger table they wanted, so the whole family can sit down together when they visit.
And the double garage, which had been little more than a store for boxes, is now a master bedroom with its own ensuite.
Nothing about the bungalow was simply made bigger for the sake of it. Each part was rethought so that the whole house works better for everyday living and for the times the family comes together.
How we got there
The conversation
The homeowner's first conversation with us wasn't about a particular type of extension. It was about the parts of the bungalow that no longer worked.
The kitchen was small, with no separate utility to take the washing and the everyday clutter out of it. The dining room could not take the size of table needed when the family came together. And the double garage had become somewhere to store boxes rather than a useful part of the house.
There was also something missing altogether: a proper master bedroom with its own ensuite.
Problem solving
Because this was a Design & Build project, we worked with the homeowner from the first problem-solving conversations, before anything had been drawn.
We looked at the bungalow as a whole, not as a list of separate jobs. The question was how each part of the property could be made to work harder: where the kitchen could grow, where a bigger dining room could go, and how the space already sitting in the garage could become part of the home.
On a single-storey house that matters. Every room is on the same level, so how one change affects the next has to be worked out from the start.
Design
The design answered each problem with a specific change.
A new single-storey extension with a gable roof enlarged the kitchen, with bifold doors wrapping around the corner to open it onto the garden, and made room for a separate utility.
The old conservatory was demolished and rebuilt as a proper dining room extension, with a roof to match the existing bungalow, a wide bank of windows and a sliding door to match the lounge. It was sized around the larger dining table the homeowner wanted for family gatherings.
The garage was extended forward so that it could be reached from the hallway, then converted into a master bedroom with its own ensuite.
Designing with the cost in mind
With design and construction under one roof, the scheme was costed as it was designed, not handed to a builder to price once the drawings were finished.
That let the homeowner see what each part of the project would involve while it was still being shaped on paper, which is when changes are cheapest to make.
Build
The OPB project team coordinated the construction of both extensions and the garage conversion, sequencing each trade across the three areas of work.
The kitchen extension needed a steel frame to support the bifold doors as they wrap around the corner. The dining room was built up on the footprint of the old conservatory, and the old garage door opening was blocked up to form the new bedroom wall. New roof framing went onto both extensions, tied in to match the existing bungalow.
Finish & handover
Inside, the bungalow was finished throughout with herringbone flooring and oak doors, so the new rooms and the existing ones read as one home rather than old and new.
The homeowner was handed a bungalow with a larger kitchen and utility, a dining room built for family gatherings, and a master bedroom suite made from space that had previously held boxes.
Gallery
Inside the finished home
Get in touch
Start with a conversation
Planning something similar? Tell us what isn’t working about your home and the design team will be in touch to arrange a conversation — no obligation.