Contemporary Brick Extension with Black Sheerline Heritage French Doors in Kingston

Set within a leafy suburb of Kingston in South West London, this contemporary brick extension creates a confident connection between the character of the original home and a lighter, more open style of modern living. Warm stock brickwork gives the structure a natural, established appearance, while the sharply defined gable and black aluminium glazing introduce a cleaner architectural rhythm. At the centre are black Sheerline Classic Heritage French doors, paired with matching glazed sidelights and triangular glazing above to fill the new interior with daylight.

This is not an anonymous glass box attached to an older building. Every line has been considered so the new work feels purposeful, proportioned and comfortably connected to its setting.

The slim black frames sit beautifully against the textured brick, creating a distinctive steel-look appearance without making the elevation feel heavy. When the French doors are opened, the room flows naturally onto the garden terrace, making the extension feel wider and more sociable. Closed, the generous areas of glass preserve views of the leafy Kingston surroundings and help daylight reach deep into the living space.

Art Deco inspiration with an industrial edge

The design draws strongly on the steel windows and doors associated with the early twentieth century. Art Deco developed during the 1920s and 1930s, combining geometric forms, crisp lines and modern industrial influences with a sense of elegance and luxury. Its defining moment was the 1925 Paris exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts, where designers presented a bold new visual language suited to the machine age.

In architecture, this translated into strong symmetry, stepped details, repeated horizontal and vertical lines, and slender metal-framed glazing. These features brought structure and order to buildings while allowing architects to create brighter interiors. The style became especially effective in doors, screens and windows, where narrow glazing bars formed striking graphic patterns against clear glass.

Today, the Art Deco and steel-look aesthetic is enjoying a major revival. Homeowners are rediscovering its ability to work across different architectural periods. It can add definition to a contemporary extension, introduce an industrial note to an open-plan kitchen, or provide a sympathetic contrast within a Victorian or Edwardian property. Rather than copying the past, modern heritage glazing takes the essential ingredients of the style and quietly updates them for present-day homes.

Classic style with modern aluminium performance

Sheerline’s Classic Heritage Door has been created to echo early twentieth-century steel doors, with a period-inspired lockbox, a consistent stepped appearance and sightlines as slim as 60.5mm. The system is available as both single and French doors, with internal or external opening options.

Behind the heritage styling is a thoroughly modern aluminium system. Sheerline uses its Thermlock multi-chamber thermal-break technology to improve insulation, helping the Classic Heritage Door achieve a double-glazed U-value of 1.4 W/(m²K). An optional Secured by Design upgrade is also available, and the range has achieved PAS24 accreditation for enhanced security.

A natural choice for a Kingston home extension

For this contemporary brick extension in Kingston, the black Sheerline Heritage French doors provide the perfect finishing detail. Their slender profiles maximise the glazed area, while the matching sidelights give the elevation greater width and balance. Above, the triangular glazing follows the pitch of the roof and turns the rear façade into a dramatic architectural feature.

The result is refined rather than showy: warm brick, clear glass and precise black lines working together in harmony. It is a design rooted in Art Deco history, revived through modern aluminium engineering and perfectly suited to relaxed twenty-first-century living in South West London.

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