Pete and Daisy fell in love at their local rowing club. But when it came time to settle down together, looking for a family-friendly home in London felt like paddling upstream.

The couple wanted a four-bedroom residence with space for entertaining and a garden, but the available options came with a multimillion-dollar price tag—until, that is, they stumbled across a fixer-upper at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the corner of the city. It had a weird layout and a questionable color palette, but it also had the right bones.

“It definitely wasn’t a looker,” laughs architect Matt Loader, principal of London firm Loader Monteith. The original design had, as Loader so tactfully puts it, “idiosyncratic planning” with a warren of windowless corridors that led to equally dark rooms.

Despite the lack of light, the architect and the homeowners could clearly see the potential in the 2,300-square-foot property. “Pete and Daisy really wanted to make a house they could grow old in,” he says.

Before: Rear Facade

After: Rear Facade

Shop the Look

Because the athletic couple are quite tall, height and space were essential to consider in the renovation. “There was a strong desire to maximize the feel of light and space,” says Loader.

For that reason, the architect opened up the back of the house with large-format glazing, inviting the eye to travel beyond the house. The sliding glass doors are two meters wide, one on a three-track and the other on a two-track, and can peel away from the corner to open right up to the backyard. It slides open effortlessly all the way back in front of the original window, but a lot of sweat went into making sure the doors would be worry-free: “An awful lot of hard work to get the detailing right,” says Loader, who tapped Architectural Vision Systems for help on the finicky planning and razor-thin tolerances.

Another visual trick for making space? The exposed ceiling, which both showcases a playful, zig-zag beam structure and creates additional volume.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Loader also improved the circulation throughout the house, reconfiguring the placement of the entryway and dividing the ground floor into two halves: a granny suite on one side, and an open-concept family area for the kitchen, dining, and living room on the other. A large skylight above the stairwell allows light to pour into every level.

It’s a home full of smart, simple solutions: a space that’s practical but special and beautiful, with everything rowing together in unison, in a way. “We didn’t have a bottomless budget,” says Loader. “I think a good architect doesn’t spend money the clients don’t have, but lets money flow into the part of the house that makes the biggest difference.”

Before: Front Facade

After: Entryway

More Before & After:

A Sparkling Kitchen-and-Bath Renovation Elevates a San Diego Home

A Couple’s Careful Restoration of an L.A. Midcentury Earns It Landmark Status

Project Credits:

Architect of Record/Interior Design: Loader Monteith Architects / @loadermonteith
Builder/General Contractor: Premier Fitting / @premierfitting
Structural Engineer: Axiom Structures / @axiomstructures

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Before & After: A Rower Couple’s London Residence Amplifies Light and Space