Three years ago, newlyweds Billy and Tom Boland, a psychiatrist and journalist respectively, began the search for a house in which to build a life together. They were up for a project of sorts – and they got precisely that when they bought an Edwardian house in north-west London with a dingy north-facing kitchen crying out for renovation. The biggest challenge was figuring out how best to illuminate the darkest side of the house. The answer, the couple discovered with the helping hand of Studio McW, lay in using warm pinkish materials, incorporating a sizable extension and, most crucially, a series of apertures that allow streams of light to move across the space throughout the day.

The back of the house is now brightened by cleverly positioned skylights, windows and bespoke joinery with cut-out voids. And what a difference it’s made: the building’s focus has subsequently moved with the extension to the rear, where the couple now largely live and work, due to the distinct zones played into the design. As they reflect on the project Billy and Tom recall the task from start to finish, sharing their most memorable moments and the profound impact the completed space has had on them.

Billy: “The moment we walked through the door here we were bristling with excitement. We just knew that the house was for us –  its proportions blew us away. It was such a loved home; you could see a family being brought up here.

“The house is north-facing and Edwardian. The front has great height and lots of light. The kitchen, however, was lost because it was so small, dark and closed in, but you could see the potential. We really wanted to find a way to bring more light into the back of the house. We’d previously visited the Tin House, which I found really inspiring. It was built within a courtyard, so it had no light, but inside, it was so bright.

“I also wanted to find a way to bring a villagey feel to the place. Tom and I both grew up in rural places – Tom’s from Norfolk and I’m from County Durham – though we have lived in London for years and years. We were previously living in an open-plan flat just 10 minutes down the road and we wanted to find somewhere where we could be outside a bit more and do some gardening.

Tom: “This place was liveable, which was really important, because we wanted a house we could do in stages. It was the first time we’d ever done a project like this. We were total novices; we didn’t even know where to start. We ended up spending ages on the Instagram profiles of different architect practices. We eventually had calls with four of them, one of which was Studio McW, founded by Greg Walton and David McGahon.

“Of the architects that looked at our original floorplan, Greg and David were the only ones that drew something that went right out to the boundary line in the garden. Although we weren’t sure about that at first, we were intrigued by it. They thought differently to everyone else. We also just liked the fact that they were the directors of their practice, yet relatively young. It’s was cool to work with them. Plus, Greg and Billy are both northern, so they bonded over that!”

Billy: “He’s from County Durham too – I spotted his accent. It was funny to have that little connection. I remember when he and David came to visit the house, they stood in the space where the extension is now, looking at where the sun would come in from the street. You could see the cogs were turning. It was really interesting to watch that creative process and learn how to go about something like this. One of the things that came from that day was the idea of having a pryamind-shaped roof on the extension, so that daylight would also flow into our north-facing garden for as long as possible.”

Tom: “I love the structural elements of McW’s architecture, but I knew I wanted the materials to be softer than what they usually work with – and they were totally up for it. They did four very different plans for us and then we worked out what we did and didn’t like. We were ruling out concepts.”

Billy: “None of the four ideas were completely quite right, but we could see elements in all of them that we did like, which Greg and David then pieced together. We had an image of what the final design would look like in our heads – but when they came back to us with it, it wasn’t like what we thought at all! We had a moment of uncertainty, but then all of a sudden, we realised it was the one. We really didn’t alter much after that.”

“There was a time during the build when Tom was talking to the architects almost every day about materials. There was a constant conversation. Tom was really fastidious and meticulous throughout the process and he spent loads of time on design websites. We’ve got our own collection of material samples now – boxes and boxes of tiles. I found it overwhelming at the time, but Tom found it really helpful.”

Tom: “It was all about creating softness and warmth, because the house is north-facing. It’s why we went for pink terracotta over, say, polished concrete, because it would have felt too cold.

“The work took a lot of time, but it was a Covid build. There was a period when there was no one on site because everyone was wiped out. It was a journey – a journey of washing up in the bathroom sink and all that stuff! It was totally doable, but it was a really mad time to build. One of my highlights was when the builders knocked the first hole into the side of the house. We just thought, ‘There’s no going back now’. For us, having never done anything like it, it was really exciting.”

Billy: “Mine was seeing the shell of the space for the first time. The walls were up and they’d started to plaster them. Only then I was able to visualise exactly what the house was going to be like. By that point, we’d been working on the project for a good year and there had been so many delays. There were certainly moments when I thought, ‘This is never, ever going to happen’. So the first time I came back from work and saw that progress, I thought, ‘Wow. It’s been worth it.’”

Tom: “We came out of the project with an understanding of not only how to live together, but how to live apart too. In a weird sense, the house was actually created with Covid in mind. The pandemic reinforced some of our decisions, such as wanting to have separate zones in the house. There are different areas within the kitchen, for example, so you can be at the dining table and not be with the other person who’s cooking. It’s open plan, but it doesn’t feel like a void.

“Since we finished the project, our lives have moved to the back of the house. We have a connection with each other down there, one we had lost beforehand, when I’d be watching TV in the living room and Billy was cooking in the kitchen.”

Billy: “With the new access to the garden, I’m out there all the time, doing my middle-aged vegetable growing and pottering. The extension has stepped up our quality of life significantly. I have a memory of chopping veg one time and looking outside. The difference it had suddenly hit me. That moment was pretty special.”