For Flip House, the strategy from outset was to renovate and extend this Hertfordshire semi-detached bungalow to create a spacious family home and make best use of its south-facing garden with little overlooking.

So replacing an existing side/rear extension and garage built by the previous owner with a new one was the principal element of the project.  To maximise space, the kitchen has been relocated to this new extension as part of a generous kitchen dining area.  In its place a family room has been created as a buffer space between kitchen/dining and the separate living room.  A new staircase leads up to the upper floor, which will be turned into a master bedroom and ensuite in the project’s second phase. 

The family kitchen hugs the outer wall of this room – along with all kitchen appliances. This leaves the kitchen island as a completely free surface in the centre of the room and adjacent to dining, which is set close to views to the garden and sliding access doors.  Full-height glazing addressing the rear garden is protected from the most intense summer heat and glare by the ‘flip roof’, an over-sailing roof propped on a stainless steel post + angled to increase space + light in this principal room of the re-oriented house.

A new back door has been created which opens onto a new passageway giving access from the driveway to the innards of the house and from gardens front to back.  Adjacent to the back door is a new separate utility room to clear washing out of the way of the kitchen and an additional WC.  To the front, a new, cosy additional bedroom has also been created.

Sober grey panels to front + side give way to larch wooden cladding to the rear, above a robust concrete plinth – with oak fins supporting fixed glazed and providing screening at side angles.  For ventilation and some fun, a hatch has been set into the wooden cladding – and has already proved a cooling experience.

private client - Hertfordshire - completion photographs coming soon