A new house without moving: how one savvy north London interior designer added much-needed space to her family home

When Mel Massey and her husband Simon bought a four-bedroom Victorian house for £500,000 in Finsbury Park in 2005, they fell in love with the area.

“We’ve got lovely neighbours and a real community spirit. There’s lots of dog-friendly cafés and co-working spaces. My boys go to school with a wealth of nationalities and cultures.”

But, 14 years on, with two teenagers, two cats and a dog, space had become a premium. “We started looking at houses in London and thought, basically we’re going to be spending double our mortgage on something we can’t afford to decorate. What is the point?”

So instead they decided to invest £300,000 in renovating the property. “We wanted to move everything and turn it into our ‘forever’ house.”

Mel is well qualified for the job, being an interior designer and stylist who has appeared on BBC One’s DIY SOS, as well as having designed living and work spaces in London, Italy and New York. So she knew she could pull together a crack team of builders, plumbers and electricians.

In 2006 the couple had made a wet room on the fourth floor but they decided to build on a loft space as a fifth floor that doubled as her office and a play area for the boys.

She also wanted to streamline circulation in the house by remodelling the ground floor so she extended the back of the house by six metres.

“We evened up the back of the house as the previous owners had extended a little but it wasn’t symmetrical. It’s a small extension but it’s made a huge difference. And I like the way we’ve played around with different levels and kept it very neutral.”

They exposed the brickwork on one side and added a fireplace from Focus Fireplaces. On the white wall hang two ornate mirrors. “I had them made for a project and they were not used so I kept them,” she says.

There are classic Robin Day sofas and a cowhide rug by Mineheart. The TV is hidden in a cupboard. Full-height sliding glass doors open on to a patio and the garden.

She coveted a 1950s copper and walnut pendant lamp from ABC Home. “It was beyond my budget, so I found it on eBay for £50. I’m quite a canny shopper,” she laughs.

“And we found the Tom Dixon Jack lights in a shop in Kingswear in Devon. They were a tenner each because they didn’t have any fittings, so my husband fitted them.”

A sitting room they rarely used is now part of the main kitchen/diner, which slices through the house. It’s a light and sunny space with a huge table — “a wedding present from my granny” — and an outsize Normann Copenhagen light.

She found the walnut unit in a random shop in Manor House. An original McIntosh sideboard, bought on eBay for £240, displays curios and her husband’s grandmother’s lamp.

She loves clean lines but has added quirky objects — swans, skulls, dogs — found on her travels to create wit and personality.

Every piece earns its place. A pair of antlers is used to display her husband’s guitar. A vibrant painting from Brazil is displayed opposite a collage by Dan Baldwin from Brighton’s Art Republic. “They let us buy it on a monthly basis.”

The kitchen is from Magnet. “I wanted a very simple kitchen with Corian worktops.” She can be cooking while the boys do their homework at the table.

Steps lead into the garden room: “I went to Bert & May for reclaimed tiles and came back with two massive stone slabs. The builder went, ‘Oh my God.’ When I came home they’d cleaned and filled every gap, so I said: ‘No, you’re going to have undo all that because I want the steps to look knackered.’ ”

They spent time and money perfecting the Victorian features — unpicking ceiling roses (“My husband got a frozen shoulder”) and painting fireplaces.

The hallway is a gallery filled with family photos. “Every anniversary we have a photo taken, so you can see how we’ve grown up as a family.”

Mel places colour for greatest effect. The tiny downstairs loo is Liberace gold: “Because it’s tiny I thought it has to be quite mental.”

On the landing you’ll find Roxy, the John Lewis mannequin. The boys style her using Mel’s dressing-up box. “She scares the living daylights out of guests!”

The upstairs bathroom has stained-glass windows, a yellow coat rack from Blu Dot and a lightbox where you can add cheery messages. “If we’ve got someone coming to stay we’ll put their name on it.”

In the wet room one-way glass means you can gaze out over the London skyline as you shower. The Spanish floor tiles are from Bert & May; the industrial-style radiators are actually for greenhouses. “I thought, how can we create warmth?” Mel says.

The couple’s bedroom is black and white: “I wanted it calm and full of textures.” The pendant lights are by Lee Broom. A friend painted the nude. “I wish it was me!”

In the boys’ bedrooms she found playful ways to include classic design. Lettering from the Williamsburg flea market in New York spells out POW. Vintage skateboards become books shelves.

A Mr Bingo print from Nelly Duff on Columbia Road recreates the hairstyles of the Star Wars actors.

She built high bunk beds with a bucket on a pulley to haul up books and sweets. One room has concrete wallpaper from Surface View — “I wanted something he wouldn’t outgrow” — and an orange feature wall.

In her younger son’s room a wall of blue cupboards has a cut-out “den” with a 1970s Slim Aarons beach print (mural wallpaper from Surface View) and a Lego wall.

The New York-style loft conversion was inspired by a six-month stint the family spent in the city when Simon’s work took him there. Mel has created a speakeasy vibe with a vintage cocktail bar and desk. But the brickwork and view reminds you that you’re in north London and a family home.

“Even if I had all the money in the world I don’t think I’d ever move.”

Build cost: £310k