Ada Road SE5
Full reconfiguration of an existing kitchen and rear extension to provide an improved kitchen/ living space more suited to a couple with a young family. Alterations included the removal of an internal wall, formerly separating the kitchen and ‘garden’ study, and new sliding folding doors to replace an existing aluminium door and window. Both of these design moves help to provide an improved connection between the small south facing garden and the kitchen. A steel frame and two concrete pad foundations were required to facilitate the wall’s removal, the design of which was coordinated closely with the structural engineer to accommodate existing services and site constraints. The new beam was coated in dark grey intumescent paint and left exposed. The brickwork above (which tells the story of various alterations to the building over the years) was repointed and also left exposed - this expresses the junction between the older Victorian part of the house and new extension to the rear. The walls either side of the opening were lined out in plasterboard to conceal both steel columns. This boxing also allowed us to do a lot - we ran services within the boxing, cleverly concealed the existing boiler nicely within the increased wall build up, widened the sill and reveals to the existing glass block window (we clad the reveals and sill in plywood to make a shelf for planting and ran an LED uplighter behind) and on the far side it allowed us to slot in some new recessed shelving adjacent to the breakfast bar. A new vaulted ceiling and large triple glazed roof light to the existing extension add volume to the space and help to bring light deeper into the plan. IKEA METOD carcasses have been given laminate-faced birch plywood doors and drawer fronts. All joinery items including the window reveals, ledges, recessed shelving, ‘box’ shelving, wine/ tray racks, extractor enclosure, boiler enclosure, kitchen doors and drawer fronts, storage boxes and bench seating were designed in house.