This stunning home in Croydon is the freshly renovated property of David & Millie.

The story behind this project starts with born and bred Londoner, David, looking into buying his first property from his rental in Limehouse, and being faced with a big decision. Did he want to maintain the lifestyle he had living close to Central London near his friends, which meant buying a one bed flat, or did he want to move further out to the suburbs to get more bang for his buck?

After careful consideration he chose to relocate, and purchased this Croydon property in 2017 after being won over by the extra bedrooms and garden space, plus excellent transport links into Central and Croydon's own lively food and music culture. David could see that, with a little renovation magic, this house was a fantastic canvas for him to put his own stamp on.

David & Millie came across Resi online and decided we were a great fit for them, as we felt less traditional and they liked that they could get everything they wanted in one place.

So, what did the house look like before? The kitchen was dated and only half the width of the house, with an alley to the side of it. The only source of natural light was via a post-stamp window, wasting the property's south-facing attribute - the garden would get flooded with light throughout the day, posing a huge opportunity. The middle dining room was windowless and got absolutely no light at all, and the downstairs lacked a WC.

Our designers gave them two entrances from the middle room into the kitchen, opening up the property to make it feel less narrow and more open plan. We designed a skylight along the left side of the extension where the alley previously was, which floods the kitchen and dining room with natural light. The extension has large bifold doors to help brighten up the back of the room and, most importantly, provide easy access to the garden for making the most of sunny days. We also added in a downstairs WC, filling unused space under the stairs.

'The house is great, we love it. It's so nice to finally have it the way we wanted it, it's made such a difference to our lives here.'

'Having no prior experience, renovating was a scary thing to do. It was great being able to handle the whole process from one place with Resi, with people I could ask a million questions to, and that was okay. Everyone we spoke to was really informative every step of the way.'

Photography by Matt Gamble.