Steven and Kayleigh Harp’s period home makes clever use of an 8m2 extension, adding personality and bespoke details

WORDS EMILY BROOKS

The extension is clad in Douglas fir laid in a chevron pattern and stained a forest green

PHOTOS MARIELL LIND HANSEN

When Steven and Kayleigh Harp bought their home in South London, it had been victim to some fanciful DIY from its past owners. The property’s major talking points included timber wall panelling, an odd-shaped bathroom dog-legging off the kitchen, and a transparent orange plastic structure built in above the stairs, lit from within to emit an eerie glow. The front of the property hadn’t fared much better, with flimsy aluminium windows and painted-over brickwork.The couple are both architects, working under the name Harp & Harp, so the dark and dilapidated dwelling was no bother to them - quite the opposite, in fact. “I was almost drawn to how badly it had been treated,” says Steven. “We were looking for a property we could bring back to life.” Underneath the dodgy DIY and various updates was a house with good bones, like the high ceilings and handsome bay window at the front, as well as the potential to extend. “We knew we had the ability to make quite a modern space at the back but retain the attractive period features at the front,” he says.

The couple lived close by, so they also knew the immediate area was undergoing lots of regeneration, plus, the house was under their budget. It was an easy decision to go ahead and buy it.

A modest extension

Steven and Kayleigh have added just 8m2 to the property, but it has made a huge difference to the way the house looks and functions.The rear extension slightly overshoots to the side to maximise space. Clad in Douglas fir stained a handsome forest green, it contrasts with the red-brick Victorian building, but the colour isn’t completely alien, either. “We’re in suburbia and actually you see loads of that shade here, on fences and sheds, plus we have a very green outlook,” says Steven. “I originally saw the colour used on a public bench in Berlin. We said afterwards, ‘shall we do an extension like that?’ We thought it looked really nice.”The chevron pattern of the cladding also picks up on motifs in the existing boundary fences.