The home of Robin and Bronwen Burgess is remarkable for many reasons – one being its relationship to Hampstead Heath. There’s high chance you’ll have to cross its expanses to reach the house, which is shadowed by the leaves of its trees. When persistence won the couple this site in the woods 12 years ago, it was the plot they fell for, rather than the building, which then was a curious timber studio that the former owners had attempted to extend this way and that. They took the plunge but as time went on and the couple’s daughters, Isla and Romilly, grew, so did their frustrations with the space, though planning their own addition proved uninspiring. Finally, a different kind of idea came from architect Geoff Shearcroft of AOC: why not knock it down and start again?

“Don’t look at my hands! I’ve been doing a bit of painting,” says Bronwen, as she slides open the great glazed door to her home and ushers us into an airy open living space warmed by two wood burners. Built on a strict budget, this family home continues to flex and evolve – and the couple isn’t afraid to do the work themselves. “I’m a big believer in just getting out some paint and my old Makita drill,” adds Bronwen, who reveals that a wall has already come down (and gone up elsewhere) since completion three years ago. Sat around the dining table, Robin and Bronwen – a professor and PhD student respectively – discuss life among the leaves and being spirited on a shoestring.

Robin: “I’d always wanted to return to Hampstead. I rented a room here when I was a master’s student at LSE, and then a flat near South End Green after a stint in the USA. Then I met Bron and we bought a Georgian house in Tufnell Park and did it up together. We had looked and we looked in Hampstead, but it was just too expensive.”

Robin: “Bron spotted this place with its tiny studio, but there was a question mark over the freehold. Any development had to be agreed upon by the neighbour, which is why it hadn’t been snapped up by a property developer. In the end, we managed to get it for around the same amount we sold our Tufnell Park house for – but it must have been a third of the size.”

Bronwen: “We’d sacrificed space for location, thinking that with a wing and a prayer we might be able to do something with it. When we moved in we’d all pile into the sleeping area under the roof, the cat would jump through the Velux skylight with stuff in her mouth – it was total mayhem.”

Robin: “The boiler was on its last legs, so we just had it on for hot water and used to use the old wood burner we’ve still got for heating. The children would run downstairs in the morning to light it. It was all a bit of an adventure.”

Bronwen: “Eventually we started approaching architects and got talking to an old friend whose house had been renovated by AOC. We liked what they’d done and ended up going on a recce with them to Turn End.

“They were the first practice that gave us the option of totally blowing our budget and creating something that would deal with the light and space issue once and for all. I’d hardly been able to grow anything in the garden because the old studio blocked the light coming in from the south.”

Robin: “It was important to us that the house should feel very open, but also usable, with proper-sized bedrooms and bathrooms.”

Bronwen: “I did most of the stuff on the ground. I used to work in film production and I think doing a build is similar – it’s your job to work with the team to clear any problems. Gill Lambert at AOC had worked with our brilliant builder, Valter Nezaj, before and that reminded me of the director-crew relationship. When you’ve got to come in on budget, that’s a really important one.”

Robin: “We agreed on a very pared-back palette, with lots of plywood and raw blockwork; then it was just a case of adding the odd bit of luxury, like the lights and the glazing.

“All the glass makes you feel so connected to the heath. It’s particularly nice here as we’re not in the main bit, but an area called Sandy Heath – they used to quarry sand here and it’s got a slightly untouched feel. There are lots of owls and foxes and hedgehogs.”

Bronwen: “Our number-one priority was having doors that we could open up to the garden in summer. I just love being barefoot, coming in and out and feeling no distinction. The second was having two fires. I think the reason people have televisions now is that they’re used to gathering around a fire as a focal point. We have a projector screen for curling up and watching movies, but it’s really nice to be able to put that away.”

Robin: “Every Friday and Saturday there are about four or five children here, so we’ll feed a lot of kids. They eat whatever’s going.”

Bronwen: “I grew up with that kind of atmosphere. I really like a house where nothing is breakable. Red wine on the floor wouldn’t be great, but everything else you can mop up. A house is for living in and I want people to be comfortable.”

Robin: “We got rid of pretty much everything from the old house, although we did repurpose a lot of the materials. Our old dining table is now my desk and our new one is made from a huge plank of cedar by a workshop in Essex.”

Bronwen: “We needed to find somewhere to put all the books, so we made lots of shelving in the big stairwell using oak reclaimed from the old house. We finished that after lockdown, when we couldn’t get enough plaster, so there’s some slight ghosting on the blockwork there. Raw blockwork in a hot country is fine, but in a British winter, it’s a bit too much. That said, Isla opted to keep hers. My mum let me try whatever I wanted in my room when I was a child, so I let mine do their own thing too.

“I’ve started experimenting with colour paint from Bauwerk. I love that Spanish plaster look – I grew up in the 1980s, so I like a slightly distressed aesthetic; Bauwerk is great for that as it isn’t perfectly flat or matte. I’ve gone for ‘Hortensia’ in Romilly’s room and ‘Pussywillow’ in the spare bedroom. I tried ‘Marrakech’ but it was too strong, so I put another layer of whitewash over the top. I’m a ‘mix up your own colours’ person.”

Robin: “In the evening you get astonishing light in the living area once the sun gets past the chimney. Light just streams in.”

Bronwen: “We had a topping out ceremony and filled a box with special objects, including some little wood sprites inspired by Princess Mononoke that the girls made, plus various things that felt talismanic. It’s buried in the foundations of the house.”

Robin: “We’ve heard a lot of chat about the house from people who live on the lane, especially in lockdown – we didn’t have the trellis up at that point so people would peer over. Some people love it, some people don’t.”

Bronwen: “It’s a house that can expand and contract with us. I suspect I’ve got another build in me, but I’ve planted a lot of unusual varieties of apple trees here, so I’d like to get some fruit first.”