Delivered by the Ashecroft founding team
Surrey
Dorking
Kitchen extension and ground-floor reconfiguration, Dorking
Location
Dorking, Surrey
Project type
Kitchen extension and ground-floor reconfiguration
Investment
£150,000 to £220,000
Scope
Rear extension, structural reconfiguration, bespoke kitchen, glazing, lighting, flooring
Contract
Fixed price contract
Guarantee
Six-year structural guarantee on qualifying structural work
The brief
The house had the potential but not the coherence. The rear ground floor was too segmented for the way the household was now living, the kitchen felt disconnected from the main living space and the relationship to the garden was weaker than the footprint suggested. The aim was not simply to add square footage. It was to make the whole rear of the ground floor calmer, lighter and better organised as one connected piece of work.
What Ashecroft delivered
Ashecroft treated the project as one piece of architecture rather than a kitchen purchase attached to an extension shell. The ground floor was re-planned to improve circulation, a structural opening was widened to create a more natural sequence between kitchen and living space, the rear was extended where the brief justified it, and a new kitchen was designed around how the household actually uses the room. Glazing, lighting, flooring and the garden threshold were coordinated so the finished space reads as one composition rather than a collection of separate upgrades.
The process
The project began with the Budget Guidance Document, which established the likely investment level and prevented the brief from drifting further than the house or budget justified. The Discovery call clarified the priorities: better daylight, a stronger cooking and living layout, and a room that could support both daily routine and entertaining without visual chaos. The Provisional cost proposal and design development stages resolved structure, kitchen layout, glazing positions, lighting and material choices before the fixed price contract was signed.
The result
The finished ground floor feels generous without becoming loose. Light reaches deeper into the plan, circulation is cleaner and the kitchen supports weekday routine and entertaining without taking over the entire room. The project works because the rear of the house now behaves as one settled environment rather than a sequence of unrelated improvements.
We did not want a louder room. We wanted a better one. Ashecroft understood that very quickly. The budget clarity was useful from the beginning, the process was unusually calm and the finished space feels as though the house finally makes sense.
