Victorian Terraced House
Location: Westbury Park, Bristol
Project type: Interior Architecture | Ground Floor Extension / Work in Progress
Interior Design Bristol: Victorian Terrace Brief
Our clients had just bought a Victorian terrace in Bristol. The rear extension was long, narrow, and more corridor than kitchen. It didn’t work for cooking or dining, and it felt cut off from the rest of the house. The brief asked us to rethink the extension and also unblock the typical “long front room” arrangement so living and dining felt connected and useful day to day.
We start with how you live. For this couple: cooking together, hosting a few friends at weekends, a quiet place to switch off — and a safe space for their cats. That shaped four anchors: a kitchen–dining space for everyday meals and hosting, a cosy snug for evenings, utility, and a compact internal courtyard between the dining room and kitchen.
Victorian Terrace Layout Reimagined
The courtyard is central to the plan: it visually and physically links dining to kitchen, draws clear daylight into the dining space and frames views of greenery and sky, and breaks down the massing so the extension doesn’t read as a single linear volume. It also supports cross-ventilation and provides a sheltered, cat-friendly outdoor spot.
The dining room remains separate for atmosphere and acoustics, but we opened it to the hallway to borrow more light and make the route upstairs intuitive.
Interiors — with period features
Circulation was re-routed away from prep zones so the kitchen no longer doubles as a corridor. We widened pinch points, aligned openings for clearer sightlines, and opened living to dining so the ground floor reads as a single sequence rather than a chain of dead ends. We also closed a redundant hallway door to simplify furniture layouts.
The brief: keep original features and add back where possible, while layering something quietly modern. We paired restored mouldings and fireplaces with simple cabinetry, warm timber, and a restrained colour palette — mid-century classic notes without shouting. Lighting is layered for cooking, dining mood, and that end-of-day snug.
“Emilie helped us bring to life the vision for the entirety of our downstairs. Emilie helped create a space that is unique and tailored exactly to us. We really valued her creative ideas and style in bringing our vision together.”
