20/10/2026
Every house on her street had done the same side return extension...
It’s a common move in Islington, open up the back, add square footage and spend six figures doing it.
So my client came to me thinking she probably needed to do the same £150k build, only she didn’t, what she needed was a much smaller yet smarter solution.
What she actually needed was a WC, a small utility space and somewhere to make a coffee in the morning, so we cut a 600mm opening into the wall, extended out minimally with glazing and created a window seat in that space.
A stud wall partitions the front section of the kitchen with a WC on one side and washing machine on the other, all closed off with a pocket door so it disappears entirely.
The result is a vision of a space that does everything she needed it to do, without needing to spend £150k on a build.
This is what function actually means in practice...
Not asking how much space you can add, but instead, asking what the space needs to do and finding the most considered way to make that happen.
If you are wondering whether you really need the extension everyone else is doing, this is what my Your Home Understood sessions are all about because sometimes, the your home might surprise you.