Thank you so much for answering my little survey last night in my Instagram stories. Since 98% of you wanted to see more house tours, I thought I would kick in with this home in Islington (nice area in north London to visit if you’re planning a little trip).

Featuring a minimalist plywood kitchen, it’s a home I find really inspiring for several reasons.

First, it’s filled with natural light which in a city like London, is always a good thing.

We added a lot of large windows when we renovated our home in London and I can’t stress enough the positive impact it had on our well-being and the overall vibe of our home. So if you’re planning a renovation, think about large windows (I’ve compiled some great examples of windows here).

It has also a polished concrete floor, which is what I’m hoping to have in the next home we renovate.

A brilliant space-saving design concept

And then, there is this beautiful plywood module that hosts the kitchen, stairs but also includes a desk with adjacent shelving and a utility room + cloakroom tucked underneath the stairs.
Basically, lots of storage which is one the key components for an uncluttered home (that and not being a hoarder obviously!)

I saw a similar concept in the loft we stayed in last February in Lisbon. A plywood cube was created for the bathroom. The bedroom/mezzanine was accessible via a set of stairs. A brilliant space-saving design, don’t you think!?

If I was to renovate a small space or a cabin, I would defo think about something like this to maximize the space.

A home office cleverly tucked away on the top of the stairs

In this article on how to optimize your home office space, I wrote a while back, there were 4.2 million people working from home in the UK alone. I suspect this number has increased drastically since then.

Cleverly converting a corner of your home into n office, will increase your chance of selling your property.

Rather than being confined to a small room, this home office has been designed to fit on the top of the plywood cube on the landing. This left this family, the full use of the bedrooms they have.

Before the renovations, the bedrooms were on the ground floor level, dark and small while the kitchen was upstairs.
To create a connection with the rear external courtyard, Architect Larissa Johnston reconfigured the whole space. She moved the bedrooms upstairs and created an open-plan living space downstairs with direct access to the back garden.

The rear wall was removed and replaced by a floor to ceiling sliding window. The sky windows added to let more natural light in.

“The restrained nature of the material palette is designed to complement the simplicity of the spaces,” said the architect

Throughout the house, the use of material like plywood, polished concrete and white plaster added to generous high ceilings and tall windows contribute to give this maisonnette a feeling of space.

Downstairs, all the existing partitions were demolished and replaced with a supporting steel structure concealed within the walls. Last but not least, are these toilets which tick my box.

It’s a room that often gets the least attention in a house. So here to create more inspiring, design-led lavatories.

So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed this house tour. You can see more house tours here and this year, I’m adding a RESOURCES section (see below) to give you more info to dig into, which I’m hoping you will find useful.

I would love if you could leave a comment. Let me know what you thought or what topic re. home renovations would be of interest to you xoxo

RESOURCES: 

Furniture: 
CH24 Wishbone chairs (around the dining table) | similar contemporary white dining table (currently on sale) | copper pendant lights (above the kitchen table) | copper pendant light | Artek stool 60 (spotted in the home office).

Architect: Larissa Johnston

Examples of large windows, Interiors with concrete floors, high ceilings

Sources: Dezeen | Photography: Rory Gardiner

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