Handmade Clay Tile Puts the Finishing Touch on a Family Home Outside London

The leafy English town of Epsom is popular with young families like the Colemans, thanks to its generous lots, access to good schools, and proximity to London. Thinking they’d stick around a while, Stuart and Melody Coleman partnered with Oliver Leech Architects to redesign their interwar home so it included open living areas where they could spend quality time with their two young children.

To start fresh, the firm performed a gut renovation and added a two-story extension with a hipped roof at the rear. "We named it Hipped House for the striking roof form," says founder and firm director Oliver Leech.

Planning restrictions required the external material palette to adhere to what was previously on site, including dark clay tiles and timber, but Leech used the parameters as an opportunity. For the extension’s roof, he sourced clay tile by Petersen in a gray color that comes from earth pits in Eastern Europe, making Hipped House one of the first U.K. projects to use these elegant handmade tiles.

Complementing the muted palette is a timber cladding constructed of Siberian larch, which will weather to a silver-gray. The playful, alternating pattern of timber widths offsets the sharp lines of the roof and its large dormer window. "The same timber was used as shuttering to cast the concrete plinth at the base of the extension, repeating the pattern and re-creating the grain that is now fossilized into the concrete," shares Leech.

The extension includes a primary bedroom and en suite bath with vaulted ceilings and garden views. On the ground floor, a large kitchen and living space connect to an internal courtyard and rear garden.

Throughout the property, small step changes connect a sequence of living spaces, while a skylight draws in beautiful morning light.

Connecting the two levels is a new floating staircase made of solid oak. The material continues in the kitchen and throughout the floor plan, imbuing the home with a light, modern aesthetic.

More from Oliver Leech Architects:

A Painter and a Sculptor Craft a Gallery-Like Home in London

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Oliver Leech Architects / @oliverleecharchitects

Builder/General Contractor: Hirsen / @hirsen_limited

Structural Engineer: Corbett & Tasker / @cor_task

Kitchen and Joinery: Weymont & Wylie / @weymontandwylie

Landscape and Interior Design: Oliver Leech Architects