From the dingy kitchen at the back of a Victorian terrace to the impending baby without a bedroom, our reasons for renovating tend to fit into a few familiar boxes.
The routes we take to get there, however, are increasingly divergent.
Had you considered, for example, removing the floor between the living room and the basement, reducing the number of rooms or even installing a freestanding tub a few metres from your kitchen?
These seven projects have all that covered and more, each showcasing radical ways to transform standard London housing stock and change the way you live in the process.
The Terrace Reborn
"We didn’t find what we wanted on Rightmove. Everything we saw was that combination of expensive and in need of work," said Rose Aldenton, recalling the hunt for the Victorian home she shares with husband Dan Roper. "Then we walked past an estate agent sign outside an absolute pit".
To the couple, who by that time had spent months putting pleading notes through the letterboxes of anything that looked suitably rundown, it proffered a rare chance to buy into their Lower Clapton postcode.
The sorry state of the terrace granted the pair a sense of freedom and they swiftly enlisted Emil Eve Architects to help carve out a double height library space from the core of the house – at the same time adding a rear extension, guest bedroom and bathroom.
The Fearless First Timer
"What I liked about it was that it was cheap for the area, because it was a really down-at-heel flat with a horrendous bathroom and a horrendous kitchen," said Alex Holloway of his Finsbury Park apartment.
If you ever visit the flat in question, don't mention the freestanding tub in the living area – he's heard it all before.
The co-founder of design consultancy Holloway Li told partner Elle Parmar Jenkins about his plan on their first date and rarely do guests fail to comment.
Focus too long on the bath and you'll miss some quietly radical decisions. Most of the walls have been removed, with a second bedroom lost in the process, and a stainless steel kitchen reminiscent of a chippie installed.
"It's a bit of a disco kitchen," said Parmar Jenkins.
The Half House
Hidden in plain sight behind shared entrances, London's Edwardian 'half-houses' are high on period charm but a little challenged on square footage.
While Stuart Youngs' home near Peckham Rye Park was spacious for one, the arrival of wife Aelia and their three children put the squeeze on the two-up, two-down.
"The neighbours had put another two bedrooms and a bathroom in the loft, so we were fixed on that as a plan," Youngs explained.
Instead, architect Henri Bredenkamp suggested something more radical – why not give the loft over to a generous main bedroom, and add a former extension and glass-pitched side return?
The Youngs almost doubled the size of their house in the process.
The Sixties Puzzle
There are a slew of tried-and-tested methods for extending your standard terrace, but what about a mid-century home in a conservation area?
Keen to carve out a fourth bedroom for visitors, Helena Rivera started to look into ways she could extract more space from the 1960s house she shared with husband Hernando and their two teenage boys.
"There were many restrictions on what could be done so the design had to be inventive to achieve the needs of our family," said Rivera.
Not dissuaded by the fact that no one had ever managed to add a fourth bedroom to neighbouring homes with the same layout, she conceived a slim extension to the rear of the property that could house the well used-kitchen – turning the old kitchen into the extra bedroom.
The Side Hustle
Strict limits on Airbnb lets and worries about lodgers have left some Londoners wondering how they can best utilise extra space.
Zoltan and Yana Bourne found a third way of using their Hackney home as an income-booster by turning it into a shoot-friendly funhouse.
"One day’s shoot is comparable to renting out a room in Hackney for a month or on Airbnb for a week," explained fintech entrepreneur Zoltan, a fintech entrepreneur.
After renovating a garage, adding a mezzanine level and moving the functions of a few rooms around, the pair painted every room in rich shades influenced by global travels – and now rent the house out for up to £900 a day.
The Wild Warehouse
Swathed in bubblegum pink, Gizzi Erskine's Hackney home is an antidote to the cold, gallery-like warehouse conversion.
"Everyone thought I was mad when I started decorating it – it is a bit like a giant liquorice allsort," said the chef and writer.
The former Carrara marble factory, which reportedly was used as a fridge store and pig abattoir in other past lives, now houses a professional grade kitchen with a double fridge freezer tucked in what was once a downstairs loo. The boudoir-style bedroom is upholstered in riotous House of Hackney fabrics.
"Most warehouses are on one floor, so they were like extreme live-works. This was like getting the best of both worlds for me," said Erskine, who has now sold the flat to move south of the river.
The Eco Extension
Dora Taylor and Danny Hubbard were drawn to the wide bay window and pretty front garden of their house overlooking Victoria Park, but soon hit a snag typical of Victorian terraces – the dark kitchen at the back.
As a chef, it bothered Taylor more than most. "We love to cook for friends but the kitchen was dingy and cold, and too cramped for people to sit with us as we prepared dinner," she said.
The solution was to sacrifice the small garden for a rear and side extension that could house the new kitchen, in the process creating a roof terrace above.
What's unusual here is the couple's commitment to doing it all as sustainably as possible, by eschewing a steel box frame for repurposed brick columns and exposed Hempcrete walls.
