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Transforming your home doesn’t always mean a massive extension – it can be led by careful consideration of the layout, and reframing of the home based on how you and your family really live.
In this home in the heart of Lansdown, Bath, the family were in a location they loved, surrounded by greenery and the perfect mix of accessible and peaceful.
However, something wasn’t quite right. The home didn’t suit the way the family lives, and didn’t encourage the family time and connection that’s so important to them.
In this project, the Tom Howley team worked closely with architects Hapticity to reimagine the whole ground floor of the home and create a space where the family can live life together.
The original layout of the home was disconnected and narrow, with the kitchen positioned at the opposite end of the house from the garden, terrace, and the available space to extend. This meant that the kitchen never felt sociable, and that the rear terrace, surrounded by ancient woodland and greenery, didn’t get used as much as the family wanted.
The layout also left considerable underused space, a cardinal design sin in in any busy family home, and one that our clients really felt the impact of.
Working closely with the architects, Tom Howley designer Lucy Nash created her kitchen design to align with the flow of the rearranged ground floor.
Her design aligned the kitchen so that walking paths and sightlines are all directed outward to the garden, keeping the room open and bright, while a spacious central island provides an additional zone for prep, cooking, casual dining or children’s homework. Cooking tasks are also streamlined with the hob and sink stationed along one wall, while full-height pantry cupboards and a newly built utility room space maximise storage so nothing in the main kitchen space feels obstructive, cluttered, or cramped.
One of the key considerations in this kitchen design was around zoning and the creation of multifunctional spaces. By laying the island and workspace in parallel, Lucy has made it easy to move between zones and functions while cooking or socialising.
The details of a Tom Howley kitchen are sometimes the most special parts for our clients – they’re the elements that actively make the little things easier, and give each kitchen a completely unique stamp.
The cabinetry in this kitchen was from our traditional Shaker-style Kavanagh range. It contrasted oak wood tones with neutral Tansy painted perimeter cabinetry, and a dramatic Green Meadow painted island, all seamlessly finished with Satin Nickel hardware.
Due to her work as a nutritionist, our client required lots of storage and a kitchen that could handle a huge amount of cooking day to day, which was key to the design process. The client also asked that the extractor fan be hidden to open up the cooking space – we chose to hide it in a wall cabinet, meaning the cabinetry row had to be positioned higher on the wall than an average kitchen design. This is a perfect example of where truly bespoke design gives our clients to make their unique vision a reality.
Colour was also a key part of the design in this kitchen, with the coloured island acting as a focal point to incorporate warmth and character into the design, while the neutral cabinetry works to make the space feel calm and balanced. Using a stronger colour on the island makes it feel almost like a piece of furniture, while the deeper paint tone makes it appear less bulky. The result is a kitchen that invites you to relax, without blending into the background.
The decision to rearrange the ground floor and relocate the kitchen entirely isn’t an easy one, but for this home, it was absolutely the right choice.
The kitchen is now filled with natural light and looks out onto the terrace, garden, and treeline. In this space, cooking, dining, and socialising can all happen together, with space for every member of the family using the room both together and apart.
The colour palette also draws on the natural tones of the trees and garden to create a calming, grounding backdrop against the chaos of family life.
Finally, the newly built adjoining utility space now functions as the practical ‘engine room’ for laundry, cleaning and everyday storage, allowing the kitchen to remain a calm, central hub for the family to enjoy.
“Working with Tom Howley, there’s a shared focus on thoughtful, well-crafted design.
In this project, planning constraints meant the utility had to be smaller than originally hoped, so the joinery needed to work particularly hard.
Our architectural approach, centred on timeless aesthetics and bespoke solutions, aligns well with the craftsmanship and functional expertise that Tom Howley bring to kitchen and utility spaces they make.” – Claire Drake, Architect at Hapticity
“This kitchen design was originally developed from the space drawings provided by the architect, who were an invaluable resource during the planning and design stage.
By changing the architectural footprint of the home’s ground floor, Hapticity opened the metaphorical (and literal!) doors to allow me to design a kitchen that our client wanted to live in, and that made sense for their busy, social family life.” – Lucy Nash, Tom Howley Designer & Regional Sales Manager
The kitchen now sits comfortably within the wider plan of the house, with a clear link to the garden and the natural light and views of the trees forming a steady backdrop.
Each part of the room has a defined role, but none feel fixed. Cooking, dining, daily life, and entertaining all happen alongside one another, supported by a layout that allows for movement without interruption.
What has changed is not just the location of the kitchen, but how it is used. The space now reflects the patterns of daily life, rather than working against them. It feels aligned with the house as a whole, and with the setting that first drew the owners to it.
Explore more of our case studies to see how collaboration and careful planning have reshaped other family kitchens, or speak to a local designer about how your own space might evolve.
Credits:
Photography: Charlie O’Beirne – Lukonic.com – https://www.lukonic.com/
Architect: Hapticity Architects Ltd- https://www.hapticity.co.uk/
Kitchen & Utility : Tom Howley
Contractor: Core Construction – https://www.coreconstructionofbath.uk/
Structural Engineer: Mann Williams – https://www.mannwilliams.co.uk/