Kitchen extension design: epic 'origami-style' project totally transforms south-east London home

A kitchen extension is one of the most popular ways to upgrade. 

 

Louise Halsey and her husband, Adam, embarked on an epic project to create an open-plan "origami-style" kitchen and dining room, all carefully angled walls and faceted lines. 

 

The complexity of design is remarkable — and it did not come cheap. The couple's original budget trebled and the project took an age.

 

Marketing consultant Louise, 48, and Adam, 49, an accountant, live in Bromley, on the borders of south-east London and Kent.

 

The project was born in 2011 when they moved from a compact two-up two-down to a spacious, five-bedroom Edwardian house they bought for £730,000. It needed work, but that didn't bother them.

 

The biggest problem was the small, square kitchen with no storage and the "cheap and nasty" L-shaped conservatory that had been wrapped around it, blocking any view of the garden. Louise, who is also studying interior design, despaired of the space.

 

In 2016, with house prices on the up, the couple felt confident to make a start. Minifie Architects (minifiearchitects.co.uk) came recommended by a friend.

 

The brief was to do something unusual. "I didn't want just a box that looked like every other extension," says Louise.

 

 

Design discussions concluded with a zinc-clad extension pushing an extra three metres out into the garden. Crittall-style metal framed windows and a double door run across the entire back wall of the house and, rather than being straight across, the wall flicks outward on one side, creating an angled profile.

 

Then, to make this extension feel as spacious as possible, a section of the ceiling pitches upwards to an irregular peak, creating a double-height area above the kitchen island. 

 

Nothing in the room is a simple shape. The island, with its hefty grey marble worktop, is a parallelogram and the skylight above it is shaped to match. 

 

The house came with a brick garage that was accessed by a narrow drive down the side of the property. 

 

 

The couple rarely used the garage and Adam was all for demolishing it to give a wider view of the garden and the golf club beyond.

 

In the end they turned it into a contemporary garden room facing their new kitchen. This space, perfectly complementing the extension, is a secondary living room.

 

Despite its modern aesthetic the project sailed through the planning process.

 

Size was the main issue. Both adjoining houses had been extended so the only real constraint was not building out any further into the garden than the neighbours had. The garden room is built on almost the same footprint as the old garage.

 

 

Work began in spring 2017. The house was big enough for the couple to set up a makeshift kitchen and stay put, anticipating the job would be done by the end of summer. 

 

But this was a challenging project. Even with a team of engaged and skilful builders, the work went on, and on. By the end of 2017 they had a useable kitchen, but snagging went on throughout 2018.

 

Originally Adam planned on spending about £80,000. "I now know that was completely unrealistic." Louise thought it would be more like £150,000. She, too, was wrong.

 

In the end their desire for a high-spec, immaculate finish cost them £250,000. 

 

 

Adam admits the cost made him wince, but several years of strong price growth before work started gave him the comfort of knowing the house's value had increased to just over £1 million, making the expenditure worthwhile if they had to sell.

 

They found their builders, Tully Construction (info@tullyconstruction.co.uk), through their architect, while Tully put them in touch with a carpenter to build their kitchen. They would happily work with both again.

 

This is not to say the build was problem free. Getting the zinc panels and the doors and windows on-site caused delays. 

 

The process of cutting perfect geometric-shaped plywood cladding for their towering kitchen was painstakingly slow — as was the job of cutting the individual pieces of zinc to clad the extension and garden room. 

 

And once the structure was in place, the kitchen itself needed to be built bespoke to fit the room's unusual shape. "Each of the individual kitchen components had to be made by hand."

 

 

 

 

While the design was complex, the colour palette was kept very simple. The walls are white, window frames anthracite, and the floor has been laid with concrete-grey tiles which continue seamlessly out on to the patio.

 

The kitchen cabinets are a mixture of deep, rich walnut wood and modish navy blue-painted timber. 

 

A series of stand-alone sections, rather than a row of fitted cupboards, includes the asymmetric kitchen island with its built-in sink and neat shelves designed to hold mugs and hang tea towels. 

 

Then there is the pantry which has fold-back doors that allow the microwave and coffee machine to be hidden, and specially designed drawers that make the most of storage space.

 

As a change of pace there is a single, retro-inspired upper level wall cabinet with concertina doors, while their two ovens are built into a walnut wall unit. The final piece of the puzzle is a run of low-level cupboards with a built-in induction hob.

 

Every inch of space has been thought about and used. 

 

Even the "dead" area above the fridge has become a small drawer for appliance user manuals. 

 

The couple are thrilled with the warm, bright, light kitchen that is now the focal point of their home. 

 

"It has gone from a horrible space to a place we want to spend all our time in, and it's exactly what we wanted," says Louise.