Turning a Traditional Three-Bed Semi into a Large Family Home

The family came to us with a traditional three-bedroom semi that no longer matched the life they were living in it. They wanted it to become a large family home.

Downstairs, the house was divided into a separate sitting room, a dining room and a small kitchen off the hall. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a single family bathroom.

Their list was clear from the start: a large open-plan living space, a downstairs WC, a utility room, and a fourth bedroom — a master bedroom with its own walk-in wardrobe and ensuite.

As a Design & Build project, we worked with the family from that first conversation through to the finished design.

On the ground floor, a side and rear extension opened the back of the house into one open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting space, with a roof lantern over the kitchen island and glazed doors to the garden. A walk-in pantry was planned off the kitchen, and the side extension took the utility and the downstairs WC so the practical jobs stay out of the main living space. The original front sitting room was kept as a separate snug.

Upstairs, the extension made room for a new master bedroom with sliding doors onto a Juliet balcony, a walk-in wardrobe and an ensuite, and the first floor was replanned around four bedrooms and the family bathroom.

A double storey extension changes how a semi looks from the street and from the garden, so the outside mattered as much as the plan.

The new roof was kept below the existing ridge line, so the extension sits comfortably beside the original house rather than overpowering it.

Rooms such as the pantry and utility were visualised before they were built, so the family could see how the storage and worktops would work and make decisions while changes were still easy to make.

The utility kept its layout from the visualisation — a sink under the window and storage around it — while the finish changed to soft pink cabinetry with a Belfast sink.

With design and construction under one roof, the extension and the renovation were costed as they were designed, not priced by a builder once the drawings were finished.

That let the family understand what each part of the project involved while it was still being shaped on paper.

Alongside the double storey extension, the existing house was renovated from top to bottom. It was completely re-wired and re-plumbed, fully re-plastered and redecorated throughout.

Every bathroom was replaced — the family bathroom, the new master ensuite and the downstairs WC — and the internal fit out included new fitted furniture throughout, from the kitchen and pantry to the snug media wall, the walk-in wardrobe and fitted desks and wardrobes in the bedrooms.

The OPB project team coordinated and sequenced every trade across the new extension and the existing house.

Because the old house was renewed alongside the new extension, there is no join between old and new. Panelled walls, walnut doors and the same finishes run right through the home.

The family were handed a four-bedroom family home with open-plan living at its heart, the practical rooms to support it, and a master suite of their own upstairs.