Interior design in Surrey

Surrey interior design: a Dorking family house with a whole new layout

Surrey interior design from first sketch to handover: how we reworked the whole layout of a family house in Dorking so it works for a young family, and what we'd do for yours.

Location: Dorking, Surrey
Building: Detached family house, about 2,400 sq ft
Scope: Whole-house layout, extension, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms
Services: Interior architecture and interior design

The brief

Our client had just bought the house, but the layout was all wrong for a young family. An upstairs lounge, a separate dining room and a kitchen at the back didn't suit the way they wanted to live.

So we redrew almost every room, moving the living spaces to the side of the house that opens onto the big garden.

Woven pendant lights over the dining table

What we changed

Layout

A new open-plan kitchen, dining room and lounge, flowing straight out to the garden.

Guest wing

The old kitchen became a guest wing, with a new extension wrapping round a small courtyard garden.

Bedrooms

A calm principal bedroom with a decorative headboard and full-length curtains.

Bathrooms

Geometric tiles, double basins and a bathroom with a starry ceiling.

Around the house

Principal bedroom with a decorative headboard

Surrey interior design: what to plan for

Most of our Surrey work is in larger family houses, where the biggest gains usually come from rethinking the layout rather than redecorating. That often means extensions, moving walls and new structural openings, so we involve a structural engineer and check planning early. We travel out from our London studio for site visits. We plan for all of this from the first meeting, so it doesn't hold up the job.

We've been designing homes in London and the Home Counties for 18 years. In that time, our bathrooms and kitchens have won national awards. The first conversation is free, and we can usually meet within a few days.