Residential ArchitectureApartmentsWestbourne Gardens Apartment by Nimtim Architects

Westbourne Gardens Apartment by Nimtim Architects

Westbourne Gardens

Designed by Nimtim Architects, Westbourne Gardens is an ambitious internal refurb of a first floor apartment in London, UK. The flat itself is small (less than a new 1-bedroom apartment according to new housing rules) but with generous ceiling heights and a strong sense of its grand past.

Project description: How to make the most with what you’ve got Westbourne Gardens is a first-floor apartment within a grand early-Victorian Terrace facing the triangle of Westbourne Gardens in Royal Oak, West London. The flat is only 45m2 which is less than the current London Housing Design Guide’s minimum for a 1 bedroom flat (50m2).

Westbourne Gardens 1

The existing flat had been divided into 3 long, narrow spaces with a false ceiling and none of the original features exposed. Nimtim were approached to assess how the flat could be modernised and amended to make better use of the existing spaces for a children’s heart surgeon who splits her time between London, Leeds and Southern Egypt.

Westbourne Gardens 2

She was looking for a pied-a-terre that could offer sanctuary from a busy schedule in the heart of London. The brief was to create a workable and liveable flat that still retained the generosity of scale and detail of the original spaces.

Westbourne Gardens 3

The proposals sought to retain this sense of space by maintaining the existing ceiling heights and allow a reading of the entire flat as one. Three new distinct elements were added: a small and compact kitchen, a stone-clad/ marble-lined bathroom and a bedroom with in-built wardrobes formed in dark cherry-wood veneer. These elements form an elegant and considered three-dimensional composition of forms.

Westbourne Gardens 4

They retain the grandeur of the main space at the front of the flat but still provide all of the requirements for a contemporary living space. The bedroom/ dressing area is conceived as a darker more intimate space at the rear of the apartment with a fold-down bed and bespoke fitted wardrobes. The central bathroom pod is set down from the ceiling, to allow light to diffuse through the apartment from the front to the bedroom at the rear. High level acoustic glass provides invisible noise separation and a large acoustic door folds back to appear as one with the walls.

Westbourne Gardens 5

The bathroom is clad internally in white Carrera marble and externally with a grey marble. The kitchen backs onto the bathroom pod with it’s marble becoming the kitchen splashback. The front of the apartment is more colourful and playful with teal coloured kitchen units and a single piece of green marble forming a bespoke dining table.

Westbourne Gardens 6

The floor is finished in white-stained large format chevron oak which runs throughout the connecting the spaces. The finished project provides a comfortable living space within an exceptionally small footprint whilst still retaining the spaciousness and generosity of the original Victorian interior and architecture.

Architect: Nimtim Architects
Project: Westbourne Gardens Apartment
Location: London, UK
Photography: Megan Taylor

Westbourne Gardens 7

Westbourne Gardens 8

Westbourne Gardens 9

Westbourne Gardens 10

Westbourne Gardens 11

Westbourne Gardens 12

Westbourne Gardens 13

Thank you for reading this article!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Casa Spiga / Pepe Cabrera Arquitectura e Interiorismo

Pepe Cabrera always banks on quality furniture, an example of sophistication and classical lines, adapted to the personalities of the Casa Spiga proprietors.

Modern Vacation Cabin Modeled on Traditional Scottish Longhouses

A strikingly modern vacation cabin modeled on traditional Scottish longhouses of the region, Glasgow based architects Dualchas have captured the cinematic quality of the landscape through a simplicity of gesture, spearheading a bit of a renaissance in architecture in the Highlands region.

Doncaster House – Like Living in the 70s / Steffen Welsch Architects

Architect: Steffen Welsch Architects Project: Doncaster House Location: Doncaster, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Photography: Rhiannon Slatter Doncaster House is a single family house designed by Melbourne-based Steffen Welsch Architects. From...

Brick Cave House by Vietnamese Studio H&P Architects

The Brick Cave house by H&P Architects is located in a suburban commune of Hanoi which has undergone a rapid process of urbanization. It is designed in a philosophy that it will help shape a place similar to the natural environment in an artificial manner.

Lode House in South East England by Henry Goss Architects

Henry Goss Architects' Lode House extension in East Cambridgeshire has finally reached completion. This is a small but exquisitely detailed addition to a house providing the owners with an extended internal living room and generous covered external living space.

Recommended Stories