How to renovate an Edwardian house: how a grotty Crouch End commune became a glassy, glamorous family home

Gutting an old house is a major step — arguably as big as tearing it down and starting again, because you still have to deal with the existing structure and period quirks.

Radically changing a house not only takes nerves and imagination but a great team: the architect, construction team and craftspeople.

It also makes sense to use an interior designer, who will do what Thomas Borsje, who’s French, charmingly calls “the heavy lifting” — otherwise you’ll squander months trying to source things that a good pro will do better and faster.

Now in their late thirties, Thomas and his wife, Heather, both work for Apple. They met in the US in 2012, and when Thomas moved to London they began house hunting.

This intelligent, thoughtful couple wanted to start a family in London’s airy, hilly north, around Highgate, where there are terrific views and noticeably fresher air. And now that they are the proud parents of seven-month-old twins, the whole family is reaping the benefits.

Back in 2015 they were based in Heather’s flat and spent a year searching. “We saw 50 houses,” says Thomas. The son of art dealers, he has a great eye and makes stunning solid-wood furniture. He found that all the viewings increased their knowledge.

This couple are definitely modern, but when they saw an Art Nouveau terrace house in a conservation area in Crouch End in late 2015, it spoke to them.

Built in 1906, still with some original fire surrounds with distinctive tiles, it had become a sort of commune and looked tatty. Over three floors, large rooms were subdivided. There were sinks everywhere, but only two bathrooms.

Yet it was still a solid brick house with a well-proportioned hall and nice staircase rising up, with a sunny back garden reached through rotting French doors.

The side return had been glazed over in a fairly basic way and in the garden there was a grotty shed. There was a dark, poky ground-floor kitchen and at the top of the house was an attic conversion with a bed on a raised platform.

The couple loved the period detail and knew at once that they’d want to reinstate missing things such as cornices, ceiling roses, dado panelling and encaustic tiling in the hall.

They knew they could open up all the little rooms on the ground floor, rebuild the side return and connect it to a big living space and bright kitchen that would look over the garden.

They also realised that since there was an attic conversion already, they’d likely get permission to modify it, increasing the views and adding a chic bathroom.

They bought in November 2015 and called in architect Hugh Cullum who drew up four designs. Cullum agreed about enhancing the house’s unique period feeling.

He saw that a tiny bedroom upstairs could become an en suite to the attic bedroom, enhanced with a glorious run of windows looking towards Alexandra Palace.

Cullum opened the ground floor in a way that kept the original fireplace and some walls, yet made a terrific modern family room. He streamlined the entire house, so that the space works efficiently and feels bigger.

Heather and Thomas had thought of doing the work piecemeal, but a friend advised them to do everything at once, which is always better logistically.

After getting planning consent in summer 2016, the year they married, gutting began in February 2017.

“You could see right down from the attic to the front room,” says Thomas. “All that was left untouched was the front room and the staircase.”

Wisely, the couple chose their interior designer at the planning stage. They hunted online and spotted Caroline Cobbold.

She had 30 years’ experience in TV and film design and her work — crucially — was sympathetic to their own taste. She skilfully melded a period sense with a modern one.

A brilliant use of tiles, from encaustic hall tiling to a stylish tiled splashback to eye-catching bathroom floor tiles, adds character.

For walls, Cobbold used sophisticated pale greys and off-whites, to which the couple added deep, strong colours here and there. A small bathroom is glamorous with deep-grey walls, a big gilded mirror and striking brass taps.

“Caroline found great ironmongery, as we had no idea,” Thomas says, pointing out some smart reeded ball doorknobs.

A mix of old and new; a bespoke rug here and a deco-effect cabinet there, all sit happily together, and solid oak floors unify the whole.

Heather left their still-unfinished house to go on a business trip to Germany in October 2017. While she was away, Thomas and a friend worked like demons to unpack all the furniture, get the house practically perfect — and heap up all the wedding presents, still wrapped, so that it looked like Christmas.

When Heather returned, she says: “I left a building site and when I came back all the lights were on, and it was a home.”