Lucy and Marc Hudson’s sustainable renovation of a west London Victorian terrace successfully blends period style with modern textures and materials

TEXT Alexandra Pratt IMAGES Pierce Scourfield/Mitchell + Corti

With their first child on the way, Lucy, a doctor by profession and her husband Marc, a film editor, knew they needed a larger home. It was 2017 and “prices were skyrocketing,” recalls Lucy. “So, we were looking for somewhere to gut.” The solution was an end-of-terrace, Victorian property in west London. It was a former rental property, and, on paper, the house seemed very promising.

“It had tall ceilings, and we liked the light and height in the rooms,” explains Lucy. Yet, when she saw inside, Lucy’s reaction was disappointment.

“I thought ‘this is awful,’” says Lucy. The kitchen was an afterthought; tiny and cold. There was a 1970s fitted banquette in pine, which was hideous. We had wanted to move in and live with it while we saved up to do the work, so initially, I said ‘no’.” The project was saved by Lucy’s mum, who intervened and helped Lucy see that she and Marc could do something amazing with the house.

Naturally, Mum was right. After four years and two phases of renovation work, the couple now have an elegant and sophisticated home that successfully marries the original details of the Victorian house with modern sustainable and textural finishes.

The first of these two phases of renovation took place as soon as Lucy and Marc completed the purchase. As that was only one week before their son was born, they didn’t move in until he was five months old. The couple’s original plan was to be in before he was born, but the purchase dragged on for many months. 

Unsurprisingly, one of the first things to go was the banquette. Lucy and Marc then turned the cold downstairs bathroom into a utility room. Upstairs, the four bedrooms shared one shower room located off a corridor that was so poky, “we had to walk sideways to get into the room,” recalls Lucy. They turned it into an ensuite off the master, and made the tiny fourth bedroom into an ensuite for the second bedroom. 

With everyday life more tolerable, Lucy and Marc began to look for an architect to take the house into phase two.

Budget considerations and a sustainable approach were key, so Lucy and Marc approached RIBA for a recommendation of eco-minded architects in their area. Andrew Mitchell and Ester Corti of Mitchell + Corti were a great fit. “They have energy and understood us, our design goals and were open to our suggestions,” says Lucy.

The couple’s brief to Andrew and Ester was to extend without losing too much outdoor space. The solution was a loft conversion granted under permitted development rules to incorporate a new bedroom, which doubles as a work-from-home space, plus an ensuite bathroom. Downstairs, planning permission was required to extend the kitchen by widening it to incorporate the side return with a small projection into the garden. Ester and Andrew designed the scheme and layout in detail, managed the planning application process, put the building contract out to tender and project managed the build, although Lucy was onsite regularly. The family moved out during the second phase of building work but were lucky to save on rent by moving in with Lucy’s parents, who live close by.

The new kitchen and dining room is connected to the garden by large, glazed doors, a picture window, and a long skylight. The black framed Crittall-style glazing to the rear in this new space is aluminium, although the replacement windows in the older part of the house are all timber sashes. New radiators were installed throughout, except for the new kitchen and dining room, which has underfloor heating.

The new skylight runs the length of the kitchen to one side and underneath the architects designed a geometric lattice of slender oak beams, or “fins.” This intriguing design feature casts an ever-changing pattern of shadow and light across the space. “That part is south-facing and it adds a level of intricacy you don’t often see,” says Lucy. “Everyone comments on it when they come round.” 

Geometric shapes are a recurring theme throughout the new design of the house, as Lucy and Marc’s architects drew inspiration from the original Victorian tiles in the hallway, giving their home its unique identity. “At first, we weren’t keen on the tiles, but then we saw the interesting colours and shapes, which are now drawn throughout the house,” says Lucy.

The couple were keen on optimising space inside the home, too. “The amount of stuff we were accumulating with a baby and a dog was amazing,” laughs Lucy. Every inch inside is used, with extra shelves between boxed-in pipework and the upstairs of the loft staircase also turned into useful cupboard space. Outside, secure storage extends along the side boundary to the road, accessible from both the front garden and the kitchen.

With sustainability high on the agenda, Lucy and Marc re-insulated the house on all the external walls, using Warmshell wood fibre boards. Made from waste sawdust, these
dense ‘biocode-free’ boards are breathable, maintaining a cool home in summer and a warm one in winter. While this work hadn’t been strictly necessary, Lucy and Marc wanted to replace their gas boiler with an air source heat pump, which requires a well-insulated home to function effectively. 

Unfortunately, installing the heat pump became a bit of a “nightmare,” Lucy explains. Not only was the location of the unit a stumbling block, but to take advantage of the Government incentive scheme available at that time, the couple needed to find an accredited installer. With huge waiting lists meaning extensive delays to their project, Lucy and Marc investigated the possibility of paying for their builders to become accredited, but found the process would be too complicated and expensive. Finally, they had to admit defeat and install a new gas boiler. 

In the end, Lucy concluded that for them installing the heat pump in their period building was “too difficult, there’s too much legislation and no space.” Furthermore, adds Lucy,
“there was no guarantee it would produce enough energy to heat the house, despite the extra insulation.”

A stand-out feature of the Hudson’s renovation is their innovative use of materials, both inside and out. Lucy found inspiration for the interiors on a trip to Sicily in 2019. “We absolutely fell in love with the very old, glamorous architecture and their use of stark, modern textures and materials,” she recalls. Applying this juxtaposition of old and new to the Hudson’s own period home, Ester and Andrew suggested cladding the exterior of the kitchen extension and loft in Green Coat Plx. This sustainable steel cladding is finished in Swedish rapeseed oil
and is highly durable. Not only does the geometric design of the standing seams echo the tile-inspired theme, but this most modern of finishes delineates the new from the old in a sympathetic manner.

Internally, Lucy and Marc chose to simply seal the raw gypsum plaster in the kitchen/diner and use that as the final finish. This showcases natural variation and adds a softness to the room, which contrasts with the dark micro cement floor from Eco Porcelainic. This flooring is durable, flexible, UV resistant and seamless, making it perfect
for the couple and the demands of their busy family life!

The soft pink on the walls of the kitchen works also beautifully with the kitchen cabinetry. In a bid to keep costs under control, the architects suggested that Lucy and Marc buy standard carcasses off the shelf and have a joiner make the doors, which are painted in Green Smoke from the Farrow and Ball range and finished with brass handles from Dowsing & Reynolds. The beautiful green tiles on the waterfall sides of the island are from Mandarin Stone.

“Apparently, raw plaster and a green island are a new trend,” laughs Lucy. “I saw a photo of a green island and that was a trigger. Now, green flows through the whole house.” The stair balustrades are painted green and the attic ensuite shower room is tiled in various shades of pink, these all tie into the colours found in the hallway tiles.

“We like to be bold with colour and give the house some real character, but we also tried to make the most of the features in the house,” says Lucy. “We’ve kept fireplaces, tiling, etc. and pay homage to that. It works well.” The couple also incorporated vintage items, as they believe having a nice mix of old and new gives character to a home. “We have a lovely vintage dresser in our kitchen that works really well with the more minimal kitchen cabinets and concrete floor,” says Lucy, who also gave a great deal of thought to lighting. In the master bedroom, kitchen and living room they installed some big bold lights, such as modern chandeliers, bringing the rooms together.

Sustainability was a factor in all of the couple’s decisions, with the paint chosen from non-toxic manufacturers. Lucy also sourced reclaimed flagstone for the landscaping.

“We were trying to avoid cement. Drainage was also an issue. The garden was a mud pie, so we had to install new drains, as we wanted to keep a garden for insects.”

With so many details to focus on, it was one simple build decision that Lucy credits as the nicest thing the architect proposed, and that is creating a sightline from the front of the house to the rear. It meant changing their newly created utility room during phase one, but, “the vista does make it into a home.” The same is true for Lucy’s decision to open up the living room into the kitchen, which improves the flow. “That’s the nicest thing – everyone can do their thing, but we still feel like we are together. I love being in the kitchen.”

Although Lucy and Marc hoped to be back in their newly renovated home before the birth of their second child, it wasn’t meant to be. Supply chain delays caused by Covid meant the project ran over time by six months. Other issues also caused delays. Typically, when renovating a period home, these only became apparent when work begins and included mould, rotten woodwork and electrics that needed replacing. “That was a low point,” admits Lucy.

The high point, however, was seeing their show-stopping kitchen come together, with the skylight and the beams in particular making a real difference to the feel of the space. Marc took a carpentry course and hand-built their new kitchen table, using ash from Lucy’s family farm in Dorset. Celebrating the recent arrival of their third child, Marc and Lucy finally have the space they need to grow as a family.