Double-Height Living Space & Bespoke Staircase in a 4-Storey Terraced Home

We were commissioned to revisit a 4-storey London terraced house, which we had originally extended over a decade ago. The brief this time was to deliver a bold internal transformation, focused on reconnecting the home’s living spaces and bringing in a new sense of light, openness and material richness—without expanding the external footprint.

With the clients’ love of their garden in mind, and limited opportunity for further extension, we concentrated on internal reconfiguration. Our primary goal was to better connect the basement-level kitchen and dining area with the ground-floor sitting room and TV space, enhancing flow, increasing usable space, and introducing the 'wow factor' the clients were after.

The centrepiece of the design is a new bespoke staircase connecting the sitting room to the kitchen below. By cutting back the floor of the sitting room, we created a striking double-height void that allows light and views to flow freely between levels.

A full-height fixed window spans two floors at the rear, wrapping up onto the flat roof of the ground floor to flood both levels with natural light. This vertical glazing creates a dramatic visual connection to the garden while adding architectural impact.

At both ground and basement levels, Corten steel-framed sliding doors open onto the garden and balcony, respectively, providing seamless indoor-outdoor flow and framed views of the landscaped space.

Through careful redesign of the staircase and circulation, we enlarged the kitchen and living areas, reducing wasted hallway space on both levels. This not only improved functionality but unlocked more area for entertaining, storage, and artwork display.

A custom timber slatted wall lines the new staircase, doubling as a bookshelf and display feature. It visually links to a timber-lined hallway, separating the stairwell from the sitting room and softening the interior.

To avoid enclosing the staircase too heavily, the timber screen breaks into slats with glazed inserts, offering glimpses into the garden and kitchen. Feature lighting within the stair stringers gives the stairs a sculptural, glowing outline visible from the living space.

The Corten balustrade to the staircase and living room edge echoes the exterior sliding door finish, introducing warm, weathered metal against polished concrete floors in the basement and large-format concrete tiles on the ground floor. The play between metal, timber, and stone is central to the experience of the home, balancing minimalism with warmth and tactility.