This small seaside cottage refurishment and extension was created in Ballyholme,
Bangor. Northern ireland. Originally a Groomsmans Cottage of half the size to
the adjacent stables, now converted. The house was extended in later years to double the accommodation and in contemporary times was suffering from poor insulation, a leaky roof and damp. The homeowners brief was to take the existing floor plan, create a contemporary Kitchen / living / dining space, an extra bedroom
and retain as much of the existing character as possible.

The house had two poor quality bay windows which were replaced with new
contemporary glass bays with centilevered roofs, and a ‘glass box’ sun room to
the rear providing a much needed family dining space and access to the secluded
garden running round three sides of the house. The proposed modifications and
extension ran into Planning difficulties due to the extreme contrast in
materials, but our intention of “keep the old bits old, and new bits new”
finally won through with the support of a local Conservation Architect. The
home was gutted, updated and insulated to provide a warm cozy cottage with wood burning stove and under floor heating. The sun enters the house for most of the day providing a bright, light interior in contrast to its very low original height ceilings. As many original features as possible were retained including the painted exposed timber eaves and hardwood windows were replaced with new double glazed hardwood sliding sash windows, the hallway was tiled with a victorian aesthetic and the pannelled timber front door was replaced with new.