“First investment flat, not forever home. Top budget of £30k for all renovations. Willing/capable to do much DIY work ourselves.” So began the brief that Celeste Bolte and Peter Fisher presented to London architecture firm Loader Monteith. They were not exaggerating about the latter.
Celeste runs her own public relations firm Salt, which specializes in architecture and design (and happens to represent Loader Monteith) and Pete is a mechanical engineer—they’re both Australian and moved to London together from Melbourne. After spending six months getting to know their place, they took on the majority of the labor on their one-bedroom apartment remodel themselves, working on weekends for a year—without moving out.
The couple’s place is just under 500 square feet and situated on the ground floor of a low-rise structure in the Haddo House Estate, a complex built in the 1960s and ’70s as public housing in London’s Kentish Town in Camden. And though their budget was modest, they envisioned a “full gut refurb”: overhauled floor plan, new kitchen and bath, streamlined bedroom and an added work from home space, among other things. “None of the internal walls were structural, so we had freedom to redo the layout,” says Celeste. She and Pete recorded their progress along the way: join us for a tour of their results and scroll to the end to see their Before, During, and After captures —and to hear their final tally of costs.
Photography by Jim Stephenson, courtesy of Celeste Bolte (@salt_press) and Peter Fisher.
Above: “Must get permissions from Camden to do anything (even replace floors), so want to go in all at once to get quick approval,” continued the couple’s proposal to Loader Monteith. After permissions were secured, the couple tackled a lot of demolition. One of the things Pete installed himself during a two-month break from his day job was an under-floor heating system in place of radiators and new oak flooring, in place of “four different types of lino.”
The sofa has several pet-friendly slipcovers and is a custom design by Fallen & Felled, a London lumber mill and furniture company that makes use of felled urban trees. Celeste and Peter named their place after their beloved dog, Percy.
Above: “This is the first space we’ve lived in that’s really ours,” says Celeste. “It’s a perfect size for two people and a dog, but it has to work really hard for us.” The compact living room and kitchen, formerly separated, are now one open space, thanks to lead architect Matt Loader. Celeste designed their Valchromat dining table and oak storage bench: they had the pieces cut with a CNC machine and flatpack delivered. The stackable Rey Chairs are from Hay. The black and white print is by UK artist Mark Wheatley aka Marko.
Celeste says she and Pete “leveled the floors, rebuilt walls, and installed new architraveless pocket door systems. Very fiddly!” They hired pros to plaster the flat, and to tackle the electrical system and some of the plumbing.
Above: “Given the tight footprint, we wanted to create a very calm, warm, and light interior,” says Celeste. During construction, she adds, “Our kitchen was a trestle table with kettle and toaster. We ate lots of Greek salads and finally, about three months into the work, we got a slow cooker to have hot meals—game changer.” (They slept in the bedroom, which they did their best to keep a dust-free, safe space.)
Above: The Luca white handleless kitchen cabinet “carcasses and doors” were supplied by DIY Kitchens (£1,995, including delivery); MPM Engineering built the “custom orbital-sanded stainless-steel worktop with welded-in sink” (£3,670). The backsplash tiles are Kerastar in Chalk from Johnston Tiles.
The arrival of the stainless counter, Celeste says, was a game changer: “We had installed the kitchen the weekend before and it was quite amazing to see the space in its real scale, not just a bare room.” The fridge stands opposite the stove and there’s a half-size dishwasher. Because drawer space is limited, flatware is kept neatly on the counter in a restaurant stainless-steel utensil organizer. In lieu of an exhaust fan, they open the windows at either end of the apartment.
Above: Open shelving of American oak (with dimmable under-shelf lighting) continues from the living area into the kitchen and office: here, it’s over a living room Ikea cabinet.
Above: The bathroom was given all new fittings, including a pocket door, Nôsa Lagos Shower with Riser, and terrazzo-like ceramic Diavoletti Mint tiles from Claybook, as well as the same square Kerastar tiles used in the kitchen.
Above: Formerly swallowed up by giant mirrored cupboards, the bedroom now has a curtained-off closet area and a headboard ledge made from the bathroom’s leftover MDF (the bed also has built-in side tables). Creating this new setup entailed rebuilding the entry way with a newly centered doorway for a walk-through dressing area: they have his and hers sides, each with Ikea Pax Wardrobes. 
Above: Early sketches of the project Loader Monteith are framed over the bed. As for the final tally of costs, not surprisingly Celeste and Pete went over their initial £30K budget—all told they say the renovation ran them €38,500, so still impressive given all they were able to do.
Before, During, After
Above: “We were originally planning to do the reno in two stages; kitchen/living, then bedroom/bathroom, but quickly realized all the dust was going to wreak havoc on our lives. So we undertook it all at once,” says Celeste. “We moved our possessions into a nearby storage unit, keeping one suitcase each for the duration. We camped in the apartment, our mattress on the floor, while we worked at our regular jobs full-time and renovated on weekends. It was rough!”
Shown here, the installation of the under-floor heating system kit.
Above: The original kitchen was closed off from the living area. Much of the couple’s work involved removing walls, cabinets, and old metal radiators and pipes.
Above: “Weird layout; cupboards seem retrospectively added, so the bench space [counter] is not well-utilized…Keen not to move too much plumbing to save on costs,” wrote Celeste to their architects. Starting with a blank slate involved: “removing a bank of cupboards—an old pantry and disused boiler cupboard—to make way for an open-plan. This was the biggest priority of the brief.”
Above: There were previously six doors in this tight nexus off the living room. The new work space occupies what had been a bedroom cupboard and linen closet—and there’s still a place for everything: the couple keep extra bedding and towels under the dining bench.
Go to Never Too Small for a full video tour of the apartment.
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