RMD was appointed to review this four-storey town house in South Kensington pre-purchase and advise our client on its refurbishment potential.

Following a full survey we were instructed to gut the interior and propose a full redesign including an enclosed courtyard with glass roof to enlarge the kitchen. The design brief also featured a terrace added to the fourth floor sitting room and a new en-suite bathroom for the master bedroom on the first floor.

We also provided design management; liaising with the client’s builder on all aspects of planning, building control and structural issues as well as creating a full set of drawings for submission to the planning department and for construction purposes.

Our client’s brief was to create modern lines with clean and crisp architectural details. He asked that the four small rooms on the ground floor be opened up to one continuous open plan space terminating in the new enclosed courtyard and kitchen to the rear.

We created a focus for this new space by decommissioning two fireplaces, leaving a central fireplace with artwork niches either side. To visually tie the areas together we clad the floor in composite limestone with underfloor heating.

RMD in collaboration with its structural engineer designed a complicated network of steel beams to ensure the widest openings from room to room were achieved. We paid particular care to hide the structure within the ceiling void to create uninterrupted surfaces to the walls and ceilings.

The kitchen was supplied by our client and a specialist kitchen manufacturer to ensure the finishes matched the rest of the scheme. Having levelled the floor to the courtyard and prepared the four walls and existing roof line, new steel beams created an opening from the old kitchen which was enclosed by a simple structural glass roof. This gave the impression of the original 7 metre exterior walls piercing the glass roof structure, creating a visually seamless and almost invisible installation.

The second-floor master bedroom was enlarged with a new en-suite bathroom added to the new first storey extension. Clad entirely in limestone, this room was designed to be a wet room with a large shower with glass privacy screen, and a mirror incorporated in to the central basin pedestal.

Two further bedrooms with a single bathroom were installed on the third floor together with a family room featuring full audio-visual and television facilities. A series of folding sliding doors accessed a new terrace.

RMD used white limestone tiles, white lacquer, dark wood and stainless steel offset with a palette of different plaster finishes on the walls to add highlight colours.

Underfloor heating was installed to the hard floor finishes with bespoke wool and silk mix carpets laid down in the bedrooms.

RMD was responsible for the full specification of all the soft furnishings as well the design of some individual pieces of furniture.