The customer story
The problem
A listed Parkgate building where the family had outgrown a very small kitchen, and wanted an open-plan kitchen-diner filled with natural light to gather in — with the constraint that anything new had to satisfy the conservation officer.
What we designed
On a listed building the design has to be agreed before it is worth costing. The orangery was drawn with a flat roof and roof lantern and taken through the conservation officer for approval, and materials were sourced like-for-like — timber windows and doors at sensible prices, appropriate to the period. Where the originally proposed sloping roof would have cut light to the upstairs windows, the roof was redesigned rather than accepted.
What we built
A traditional orangery with a flat roof and roof lantern, approved by the conservation officer, creating an open-plan kitchen-diner, finished with sympathetic timber windows and doors matched to the listed building.
How it improved the way they live
The family gained the light, sociable kitchen-diner they wanted inside the constraints of a listed building — and kept the daylight to the rooms above, which the original proposal would have cost them.
In their words
The client’s own account of the project, published as they wrote it.
We decided to extend our home as we were looking to add more space to accommodate our growing family. Our former kitchen was very small and we wanted to create an open plan kitchen/diner with plenty of natural light where we could gather together with friends and family in a sociable space. Our property is listed so we needed to ensure that the new extension was sympathetic and tied into the existing building. Paul assisted us with this in sourcing high quality like for like materials, such as timber windows and doors, at reasonable prices, perfect for our period property.
We had an issue whereby the sloping roof proposed originally by our architect would have considerably impacted the light available to the upstairs windows. Instead, Paul suggested that we amend our plans and incorporate a flat roof with roof lantern instead. This not only solved the issue with the upstairs bedrooms but has also brought a huge amount of light into the extension and created a real wow-factor which we were delighted with.
Once the plans were approved for this by the conservation officer, we then needed to design a timber fascia that would be sympathetic to the older parts of the building. Paul met us with his joiner, who had mocked up a proposed design that he could make for us out of lengths of timber. The end result looked fantastic and was much more cost-effective than buying an off-the-shelf version.
Paul arranged a plumber, joiner, plasterer and even put us in touch with our kitchen supplier which took away a lot of hassle for us. Paul has a very friendly and helpful team, all trades were very reliable and we were constantly kept updated on timescales etc. We did have an unexpected issue where we discovered that more extensive foundations were required than were initially thought by the architect. Paul arranged for one of his team to come in and make the necessary excavations over a weekend so that it did not delay our schedule.
We are absolutely thrilled with the end result, everybody who comes to the house comments on what a fantastic, light-filled space the kitchen is and we spend the majority of our time in there. We were very impressed by Paul’s professionalism and attention to detail and we have recommended him to many friends since. We would not hesitate to use Paul again in the future.
Gallery
Inside the finished home
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