A NEW ANGLE
The striking double-height atrium, plus clever use of glass, allows light to pour through this renovated Victorian house in London
Cheryl and Andy Taylor approached the task of renovating their London home from two different angles. They have peeled back the folds of its formal Victorian cloak to reveal something sharper and altogether more intriguing. Their masterstroke was slicing decisively through the house’s traditional core, inserting sections of glass and hard, crisp lines, so that the once buttoned-up 19th-century spaces now flow with renewed energy. Although not immediately obvious, the floor plan of this handsome double-fronted house is more trapezium than rectangle. The result is that the house’s two exterior side walls gently angle inwards, finally meeting in a point at the end of the garden. Given his work as a town plannerturned-property developer, Andy was unfazed by this. ‘I’m used to finding solutions to unusual problems and breathing new life into old buildings,’ he says. Cheryl, who is a surgeon, was less blasé. ‘Frankly, the irregular angles were a bit scary and had already put off several other buyers,’ she says. But neither one is in the habit of shirking a challenge. And Andy’s philosophy – to work with the problem, rather than trying to disguise it – has paid off. ‘In the end, the wall angles were the driving force behind the house’s redesign,’ he says. The
decorating tip ‘Don’t be afraid to add pops of colour or witty surprises that will make people look twice’
tapered, almost triangular floor spaces seemed to be crying out for a new central staircase. Which, in turn, naturally divided the lower ground floor into two zones – kitchen-diner and living area. Sometimes, the meeting of old and new is near-seamless: the tiles laid in the newly widened hallway have a touch of Victoriana, but are in punchier hues than would have been seen in the 1880s. But glass is the mainstay of this renovation, used for picture windows on each landing, bifolds and balustrades. Andy’s boldest move was removing two walls and a floor to create a double-height atrium to allow for ‘a dramatic dining space, where light can pass into every corner,’ says Cheryl. ‘Our boys, Barnaby, four, and Laurence, two, know what they can and can’t do – no throwing and no climbing are firm house rules.’ The fun feel in their family-friendly space is fostered by pops of neon, flocks of pink flamingos and Lacroix butterflies. In a corner of the living area, there is a set of framed photos that show ‘before’ and ‘after’ house images. The lower ground floor is unrecognisable. ‘It was dank and dark,’ says Cheryl. ‘The only things that glittered were layers of tin foil stuck on the walls – I’m not sure why…’ What they are sure of is that this gleaming, glass-enhanced update could not have been a more successful solution.