Back-to-brick renovations · Althrop Grove, Stoke-on-Trent

Back-to-brick renovation — Althrop Grove

A communal living space built around a slatted feature wall

Location: Althrop Grove, Stoke-on-Trent

A finished communal living space with a slatted charcoal feature wall, wall-mounted television and built-in bench seating

The brief

A renovation with a communal living space at the centre of it — somewhere for the household to sit that isn't a bedroom.

The challenge

Making a shared living room feel deliberate rather than left over. Communal space in a shared house is usually whatever is left after the lettable rooms have been carved out, and it looks it.

The result

A living space built around a full-height slatted feature wall, with the television recessed into it and bench seating built in below.

What we actually did

The feature wall

The whole room is built around one wall.

Full-height slatted charcoal panelling, with the television recessed into a lighter panel set into it rather than hung on the front, and bench seating built in along the base. Recessing the screen is a small amount of extra joinery and it’s the difference between a feature wall and a wall with a telly on it.

The slatted panelling has an acoustic backing, which in a shared house takes the edge off noise carrying between the communal room and whatever is next to it.

Built-in rather than bought-in

Bench seating built into the wall does three things freestanding furniture can’t: it keeps the floor clear, it can’t be dragged out of position, and it gives storage underneath.

In a shared house that last point matters more than it sounds. Somewhere to put things is usually the thing communal rooms lack, and it’s why they end up looking untidy however good the finish was on day one.

More photographs from this project to follow as we get back to site.