Rethinking a 21st-Century Home
Evidence of the total renovation of a northwest London house on a quiet cul-de-sac begins at the front step. A single eight-foot door replaced windowed double doors for a sleeker, grander entryway, and a memorable first impression. It’s just a hint of the comprehensive changes to come as you enter this beautiful home.
A massive central island seats six and houses deep drawers and cupboards
The family was a unit of three when they moved in nearly a decade ago. With two more children and a large dog added to the pack, they were finding it tight in the four bedroom, four bath house. It wasn’t so much a lack of space as a need for better functionality and more storage.
The homeowners searched for an alternative but nothing on the market ticked all the boxes. Living just off Sunningdale, they had come to love the neighbourhood. The house sits on a big lot with a pool they cover with a boarded ice rink every winter. There’s a three-car garage.
Instead of compromising, the homeowners decided on a complete transformation.
The 48” gas range has gold accents that echo the cabinet hardware, augmented by a matching pot-filler and impressive hood flanked by gold sconces
It began with a strong vision of how changes to the home would work best for their busy lives. Then they called in the experts. Melchers Construction brought functionality to areas that were ripe for redesign. A main floor hallway that was, to quote Elaine Melcher, “angled and awful” had to go. It ate up precious square footage without offering much in return. “Hallways can be architectural,” says Melcher, “but they’re often a waste of space, especially when you want function.”
A tall open area off the foyer, designed to create an airy ambience, also rendered useless the space above it, so they closed it in. And although the entire structure was taken down to the studs, only one wall was removed — at the dining room, also near the home’s entrance — to complete the main living area’s open concept design. Orange peel ceilings were replaced with regular, flat drywall for a cleaner look.
An expansive walk-in pantry is cleverly concealed by a cabinetry facade.
To address the storage issue, London Kitchen Studio (LKS) created cabinetry for nearly every room, including built-ins around the gas fireplace.
“It was a huge job, but a fun one,” says LKS owner Steve Hillman. “We worked on all the bathrooms, storage cabinets in the basement for the kids’ toys, a walk-in mudroom, and the massive kitchen.”
The gorgeous white-toned kitchen is a London Home Builders’ Association award winner. It won Best Renovated Kitchen over $75,000 in 2023 for Melchers, LKS, and Sloan Stone Design. It features plenty of upper and lower cabinets as well as a built-in refrigerator and wine cooler. Gold and black pulls and sconces add a touch of glamor against the serenity and subtle texture of the delicately veined quartz countertops. Cabinets are a complimentary mixture of Oyster paint on MDF and Cashew Stain on cherry wood.
A TV and gas fireplace with a surround echoing the kitchen countertops anchors the opposite end of the open concept living space, with built-in cabinetry and gold lighting completing the effect.
“It’s a lovely soft mid-tone,” says Melcher of the cabinet shades. She describes the kitchen as contemporary with some European flair.
“You have a blend of French inspiration between the hood, the light fixtures, and pieces of that are gilded, but not too much of it. It’s a nice mix, a French modern look.”
The family loves to entertain and now they have a large, fully appointed kitchen and can easily accommodate eighteen to twenty people for dinner. In addition to seating at the massive quartz-topped island, there is a large elliptical dining table in a sunny area nearby, with built-in banquettes on two sides. The aforementioned formal dining room can seat even more guests.
A large, walk-in pantry at the back of the house off the kitchen is a major improvement when it comes to hosting family and friends. Cleverly tucked behind a secret door constructed with a cabinetry facade, it conceals appliances and adds plenty of space devoted to food prep.
“Guests aren’t looking at dropped coats anymore,” says the homeowner. “The mudroom and pantry are separated now. There’s the area where everybody comes in versus when you’re entertaining and you need someone to grab you a lemon wedge or whatever.”
The mudroom is on the other side of the kitchen, separated from it by a door and a few steps. It’s a beautiful open space featuring a large built-in cubby with hooks and shelves for each child. Huge cabinets tuck away shoes, coats and sports equipment. The modern mudroom replaces a tight area where entering from the garage led into a small laundry area and “stuff” collected without anywhere to hide. A dedicated laundry room is now located upstairs.
The enlarged mudroom includes a roomy built-in cubby for each child, with generous cabinet space for shoes, coats and sports equipment. • A dedicated laundry room was created upstairs, with coordinated cabinetry and tuck-away drying racks
Connecting the design elements elevates each of the spaces. The twelve-by-twelve marbled porcelain tile laid in a checkerboard pattern in the mudroom area echoes elements in the rhombus lighting overhead.
“The rhombus is a diamond from afar,” explains Elaine Melcher, “but then you see you’ve got a square as well. It’s nice to have that continuity as well as the black and gold finish combination from the kitchen.”
She describes the step-bevel profile baseboard they used as “beefy.”
A spacious walk-in shower replaced a tub in the primary ensuite, with large expanses of glass, mirror and white cabinetry brightening the space.
“It’s larger than usual. The size works well with the scale of the eight-foot interior doors, and the step bevel adds a sleek detail that conveys a nod to a traditional look.”
Removing a shower and creating a two-piece powder room opened up more space for the mudroom and allowed for a small office area. Swimmers have easy access to a shower in the pool house.
Light flooring complements the tones of the kitchen as well as the rest of the home’s comfy, neutral furniture. The floor’s matte finish provides relief from dog hair and general family life.
“The old flooring was a shiny, dark reddish tone,” says the homeowner. “I’d wash it and as soon as someone walked on it, it was dirty again. You don’t want to be cleaning your floors all the time.”
The dining room, flanked by patio views on three sides, offers a more formal space that can flex to hold a larger group with banquette seating.
Windows are the only remaining aspects of the original home. Floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the back yard are now left uncovered to bring in loads of natural light. Only one window in the entire house was replaced. The new roomy pantry required a smaller window once it was converted from an office and lower cabinets were installed.
Upstairs, in addition to the new laundry room, the main functional changes include a bigger walk-in closet off the primary bedroom, with more cabinet doors and drawers to gather items out of sight. Every room has carefully selected chic lighting, including a large chandelier in the walk-in closet.
Bathroom storage is sleek and plentiful.
Continuity was key with flooring that ties together upper and lower floors. Twenty-four by twenty-four warm-toned marbled porcelain in the ensuite is a callback to the flooring and accent tones downstairs. They also removed the bathtub from the primary ensuite in favour of a large, walk-in shower.
The move-out, move-in process for a renovation is somewhat less of a hassle than packing to go to a new home, but there’s no question it’s still a pain point, especially with five people and a dog. But judging by their satisfaction with this renovation, it was worth the trouble. •
