Architecture studio Sevil Peach has overhauled a home after owned by Victorian painter and illustrator Frederick Barnard to generate an artist’s residence boasting period attributes and a patio-side bathtub.
The Grade-II listed brick developing is a single of a cluster of artist’s homes constructed in 1873 for Barnard, whose best recognized work consists of drawings for nine Charles Dickens novels published between 1871 and 1879.
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London studio Sevil Peach was tasked with converting the lower floors of a single of the historic residences, positioned in London’s Primrose Hill, into a single residency containing an artist’s studio.
The building had been split into two maisonettes in the 1960s, resulting in a cramped layout and redecoration that covered a lot of of the original architectural features.
The architects set about stripping away the internal divisions of the downstairs property to open up the spaces and reveal period characteristics, including oak beams and sash windows.
“Even though it was in a really neglected situation, the client had purchased the reduce maisonette as he immediately fell in adore with the studio and the fantastic garden,” mentioned the architects.
“The subdivision into two maisonettes was clearly not in the genes of the constructing and resulted in area layouts with lots of modest, awkward and stuffy spaces that concealed the original structure and spatial idea.”
A small brick extension was built to the rear of the lower storey to accommodate a generous en-suite bathroom for the master bedroom. Its flat roof provides a terrace for the kitchen that was relocated upstairs throughout the renovation.
A painting studio sits on a split level among the upper and decrease floors. Here, the architects uncovered original oak ceiling beams and a frameless replacement for a 1960s skylight was fitted.
A big sash window slides from ceiling to floor, making certain ample organic light for the studio and enabling an easel to be carried straight into the garden for outdoor painting.
Wooden methods lead down from the studio to the master bedroom, en-suite bathroom and dressing area that are positioned on the lower floor.
A single-storey extension houses the wet locations of the white and mirrored bathroom. A deep wooden bathtub sits by a glass wall that can slide the full width of the extension onto an adjoining patio. Red brick measures and a bank of planting connect the patio with the garden.
Upstairs, the straightforward kitchen features sparse white walls and storage units, and a carved timber dining set.
A row of disk-shaped pendant lights hang from the ceiling, whilst copper and stainless steel cooking utensils are displayed on a extended hanging rail that runs above the kitchen counter.
An adjacent street-facing living area can be rearranged into a guest bedroom by repositioning the daybeds that sit in the bay window.
A flight of external measures, added throughout the 1960s refurbishment, have been replaced with an enclosed steel staircase with coppery handrails. The stairs lead residents of each the upper and lower maisonette flats to their arched brick doorways.
Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher
Project credits:
Architecture and interior design and style: Sevil Peach Architecture + Style
Project architect: Carla Rocneanu
Decrease floor program 
Upper floor strategy
Dezeen
