Architectural Residential Case Studies
Find inspiration through our property features, showcasing real homes and home improvement projects, filmed & featured by HomeInspire, in partnership with homeowners, architects, and interior designers. Each feature and video tour takes you inside the story of a property transformation, exploring design ideas, materials, and practical insights behind some of the UK’s most inspiring renovation work and home projects.
Bottlebrush House: Inside Danny's Restored and Extended Late Victorian Home in London
Danny bought this late Victorian London home in 2023 planning to move in, do a bit of wallpapering and take it room by room. When the plaster started crumbling off the walls, it became a full renovation — the house stripped back to brick, the facade freed from sixty years of burgundy paint, and the Victorian cornicing and fireplaces carefully reinstated. At the rear, a green zinc extension by Studio Collab houses a kitchen with a green quartzite island, Crittall doors and an oriel window reading nook. When the budget ran out, Danny picked up the tools and did the panelling, skirting and picture rails himself — a proper labour of love, right down to a staircase that took a year to restore.
Looking Glass Lodge: Inside Rik and Lindsey's Elevated Woodland Retreat Near Hastings, East Sussex
Rik and Lindsey spent years eyeing up an 8-acre woodland clearing on family land near Hastings before building Looking Glass Lodge - a self-tinting glass retreat raised on 22 screw piles to avoid disturbing a single tree root. What began as a single-bedroom shepherd's hut idea became a RIBA award-winning lodge, built around an ancient redwood and a planning process that ended up taking longer than the build itself.
Hackney Terrace: Inside Reiss and Dan's Renovated and Extended Victorian Home in East London
Reiss and Dan bought this Victorian terrace in Hackney in 2021 as first-time buyers, choosing a property they could live in before renovating so they could properly understand the space first. What followed was a renovation that touched almost every room — a side return and rear extension with a stainless steel kitchen island, a vaulted bathroom and study, and a confident use of colour throughout that sits comfortably alongside original floorboards and cornicing. This is a home built by two people with no design background, who knew exactly what they wanted.
The Chatterbox: Inside Andy's Contemporary Self-Build on a 14-Acre Farm in Suffolk
Andy bought a derelict 14-acre dairy farm near Southwold at auction in 2015. What followed was a stunning self-build that transformed the central farmyard into a stunning five-bedroom contemporary home: three barn forms, a glass entrance hall framing the Suffolk countryside, a 6.5-metre apex kitchen, a sunken garden, and a ground source heated home that barely announces itself from the road.
Black House: Inside Lynn's Renovated and Extended Georgian Home in East London
Lynn and her husband bought this six-bedroom Georgian home in East London in February 2020 from a family who had lived there for over 60 years. What followed was one of the most ambitious renovations we've featured — a loft extension, a basement dig, a brick-built garden room and a former pottery studio transformed into a striking all-black kitchen extension. This is a home that embraces dark colours, original period detail and flexible, creative living in equal measure.
Hawley Square: Inside Architect Sam Causer's 200-Year-Old Home & Restoration in Margate.
When Architect Sam Causer bought a crumbling Georgian townhouse in Margate in 2015, it had spent decades as a solicitor's storage facility. What he has done with it since is not, by his own definition, a renovation. Guided by SPAB principles of light-touch conservation, this is the story of a 200-year-old home — and an architect who decided that every layer of its history was worth keeping.
Dacres: Inside an Architect-Designed Sustainable Home on the South Downs, East Sussex
Award-winning architect Duncan Baker Brown returns to the South Downs home he designed a decade ago — a 100% electric, EPC A-rated eco home that began life as a two-bedroom bungalow, and still looks as remarkable as the day it was completed.
Triangle House: Inside Rose's Fully Renovated and Extended Edwardian Home in SW London
A serial renovator on her third project, Rose project managed and designed every element of this Edwardian home herself — transforming a tired, 40-year-unchanged property in SW London into an eclectic, light-filled family home, complete with a rear extension, a reimagined loft, and a glass wine wall that her builder suggested and she'll never regret.
The Old Mission Church: The Contemporary Conversion of an 1860s Heritage Church in the Cotswolds.
What do you do with a redundant 1860s mission church in the heart of the Cotswolds? If you're the owner of this remarkable property, you convert it into one of the most characterful homes in the region — preserving the original stone walls, lancet windows, and soaring ceiling height while building an entirely contemporary life inside.
Bold & Beautiful: Inside Patsy's Fully Renovated and Extended 1850s Victorian Home
Homeowner Patsy O'Neal and Smith & Newton Architects took a tired 1850s Victorian terrace in North London and gave it something it had never had — a bold, confident identity. The result is a home that doesn't shy away from colour or contrast, with a contemporary rear extension that opens the ground floor up to the garden in a way the original layout never allowed.
Eco Self-Build in West Berkshire: A Sustainable Family Home
Built from scratch on a modest plot in West Berkshire, this self-build family home proves that sustainability and good design aren't a compromise — they're the brief. From the structural system to the heating strategy, every decision was made with long-term environmental performance in mind.
Notting Hill Maisonette: A Colourful Three-Storey Family Home by Kelling Designs
Kelling Designs turned this three-storey Notting Hill maisonette into a masterclass in layered, considered colour — a home that feels bold and playful without ever tipping into chaos. Every room tells a different story, and yet somehow the whole thing holds together beautifully.
The Black Mews: A Beautifully Renovated All Black Mews Home in Central London.
Mews homes are among London's most charming building types, and this Paddington example makes a strong case for going all in — every surface, inside and out, finished in black. The result is a home that's striking from the street and surprisingly warm within, proving that a single committed palette can be the most sophisticated design choice of all.
Wandsworth Renovation: Inside Lucy's Renovated Three-Storey Victorian Home
Lucy's three-storey Victorian terrace in Wandsworth had the bones — it just needed someone willing to strip it back and rebuild it properly. The renovation reworks the layout across all three floors, opening up the ground-floor living spaces and creating the kind of calm, considered family home that period properties so rarely start as.
Langham Road: A Beautifully Designed New Build Home in Teddington, SW London.
On a plot in Teddington that once held a very ordinary house, this new build sets a very different standard — a carefully proportioned, design-led home that sits thoughtfully within its suburban setting without disappearing into it. It's the kind of project that makes you reconsider what new residential architecture in South West London can actually look like.
Meadowbank: A Contemporary Addition to an Arts and Crafts Home in Manchester by Guy Taylor Associates
Guy Taylor Associates faced one of architecture's most delicate briefs: how do you add something contemporary to a home with this much existing character? The answer, at this Arts and Crafts property in Manchester, is with restraint, precision, and a deep respect for what was already there — producing an extension that feels inevitable rather than imposed.
Tonwell Tower: A Conversion of a 1960s Brutalist Water Tower into a Family Home in Hertfordshire.
Most people look at a decommissioned 1960s Brutalist water tower and see a problem. The owners of Tonwell Tower looked at it and saw a home. The result of that vision is one of the most extraordinary domestic conversions in the UK — a cylindrical, raw-concrete structure transformed into a striking, liveable family home in the Hertfordshire countryside.
Bowerdean House, Fulham: A Full Back to Brick Renovation & Extension Project by EMR Architecture.
EMR Architecture took this Fulham terrace all the way back to brick before building it back up — a rigorous, no-shortcuts approach to renovation that's evident in every finished detail. The rear extension adds considered new space without disrupting the character of the original, and the quality of the outcome speaks directly to the discipline of the process.
Victorian Terrace Reimagined: Inside Interior Architect Emily Pun's Beautifully Renovated Home in London
When your profession is interior architecture, your own home is the most honest portfolio piece you'll ever have. Emily Pun's London Victorian terrace is exactly that — a quietly confident renovation where every material choice and spatial decision reflects a designer who knows precisely what she's doing, and why.
Norman Park, Bromley: A Renovation & Extension Project by AURA Architecture & Interiors.
AURA Architecture & Interiors brought their characteristic blend of spatial clarity and material warmth to this Bromley property — a renovation and extension that reworks the ground floor plan to create a home that flows properly from front to back, with a new rear volume that connects the interior directly to the garden.