The Grange

A Georgian revival — family-ready, future-proofed, and full of soul

2022

Private Residential

Heritage

A grand house with a bad history of quick fixes. We helped a young family strip it back, put things right, and make it theirs.

Brief

The original house had charm in its bones — but only just.

By the time we arrived, The Grange was clinging to its Georgian roots under layers of bad decisions: cheap laminate floors, plastic fixtures, and a general lack of love. It was damp, draughty, expensive to run, and miserable in winter. The clients — a young family with kids — saw through it all. What they wanted was a proper family home: warm, characterful, and built to last, not just survive.

Our brief was to rework the house sensitively, with a clear nod to its origins but fully upgraded for a modern lifestyle. This wasn’t about gutting it. It was about giving it its dignity back — and giving the family a house they could actually live in, entertain in, raise children in… ideally without freezing.

Location

South Derbyshire

Status

Completed

Client

Private Client

Services

Architectural Design

Planning

Project Management

Area

3,050 sqft

Reworking the Layout

We reinstated lost features, reopened bricked-up doorways, and restored proportions — all while introducing a layout that works for real family life. That meant a large open-plan kitchen diner with a direct connection to the playroom, a formal drawing room with its own hidden bar, a quiet study, a home gym, and a media room for movie nights that don’t spill into bedtime routines.

Upstairs? Generous bedrooms across three floors, dressing rooms, a guest annex, and enough circulation space to make it feel like the grand old home it’s meant to be. All supported by hardworking spaces — boot room, laundry, plant room, utility — tucked neatly behind the scenes.

The Design

Every light switch looks like it’s from 1805. It just happens to run on ethernet.

Reclaimed tiles. New sash windows. Historic detail with a 21st-century IQ.

The house may not have been listed, but we treated it like it was. Original cornices were replicated where they’d been lost. Quarry tiles found under laminate were cleaned and reinstalled — one batch now forming the lid of a concealed hydraulic floor hatch down to the wine cellar. All new work matched the old in style and quality.

Every material was chosen to feel honest and appropriate. But behind the period styling, it’s thoroughly modern: Control4 lighting, heating, security and sound, column radiators with smart valves, and networked switches that look like old brass toggles but send signals back to the central server.

Built for Real Life

Warmth. Comfort. Efficiency. Without compromising the look.

We fully upgraded the building’s envelope with new windows, insulation, and airtightness measures — hidden in walls, floors, and ceilings to preserve the original aesthetic. The result? A home that’s warm, quiet, and economical to run, without a single compromise on character.

Energy efficiency wasn’t tacked on — it was integrated. The Control4 system brings heating, lighting, and automation together under one digital roof. It's a traditional home with modern brains — and all without the clunky ‘tech house’ aesthetic.