Sustainable Home Renovation in Golders Hill, North London

When the clients of this Golders Hill family home considered downsizing fifteen years after moving in, they reached a different conclusion. Their house, originally designed by Schneider Designers in 2006, was already where they wanted to stay. The location still worked. So did the spaces. Their children had grown, and the cost of moving no longer made sense. What the home needed instead was a careful update — a 21st-century reset that brought sustainability, comfort and a new layer of detail to a house that had served them well.

A sustainable refresh

The brief was to modernise without erasing. Our first move was to replace the heating and hot water systems with an air-source heat pump. Photovoltaic panels were installed on the flat roof to support the home’s electricity supply. In addition, all windows were replaced with thermally efficient double-glazed aluminium frames, refining the original profiles for a cleaner architectural line. Throughout the house, we redesigned the lighting in collaboration with London Lightworks. As a result, the new LED systems work with the existing architecture rather than competing with it.

Interiors and outbuildings

The interiors were lifted with the same restraint. A new kitchen was installed, alongside redesigned bathrooms with large-format porcelain tiles. Furthermore, the joinery was reworked to match the home’s evolved character. The result is a house that feels current without feeling new — familiar to the family, but ready for the next chapter.

Outside, garden designer Lynne Marcus reshaped the landscape entirely. Her layered, naturalistic planting scheme flows between the house and garden. Two new outbuildings sit within it. One houses a gym and yoga space. The other is a ceramics studio. Both were custom designed for how the family wanted to use them.

This is one of several long-term residential projects Schneider Designers has completed in north London. Designing for the long life of a home — and being trusted to come back to it — is at the heart of how we work.