House designer reveals how he added an extra bedroom, bathroom and swanky new decor to a London flat for £70K - and instantly saw the value rocket by £265,000

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A dramatic £70,000 re-vamp of a one-bedroom flat - that added a roomy bedroom and an extra bathroom - has garnered the owner nearly £265,000 in profit.

House designer Julien Prieto snapped up the property, in booming Fulham, South-West London, two years ago for £515,000.

While it may seem like an eye-watering price for a one-bed flat, Prieto invested in a re-vamp after he bought it and says a few simple decisions has unlocked even more value. 

Transformation: House designer Julian Prieto reveals how investing £70,000 into his ground floor flat in Fulham, South West London dramatically transformed the property from a one-bed flat into a two-bedroomed home with 'liveability'

A little piece of paradise! Despite being on a busy road in London's Fulham, the property has huge appeal for those looking for a slice of urban life...with some tranquil touches

The property on Harwood Road in Fulham from the front; Home designer Julian Prieto says it's still possible to make a home on a busy urban road into a peaceful city retreat using space and design creatively

Clever design ensures that despite losing a chunk of space to house the second bedroom, the courtyard space is still sizeable - and ensures the property can be called a two-bed garden flat

Adding an extra bedroom and bathroom...and completely re-working the style of the flat has seen its value soar. Pictured: the swish new living area of the flat, which was moved from the front of the property to the middle

How the Harwood Road property looked before some lateral thinking - and a chic makeover - saw Prieto transform the layout of the flat, switching the dowdy living room to the enlarged back and transforming the properties bathrooms

Good sound-proofing and the decision to move the living room area to the back of the house sees this bedroom now come with an attractive bay window

As the ground floor flat looked before the extension, the outdoor patioed space is now part of a second bedroom

The dull bedroom before it was transformed by some simple architectural drawings - and some on-trend interior design

All about the side-return! The dead space to the rear of the properties back door became part of the new lay-out adding an extra bedroom, and hundreds of thousands of pounds in value

With a tired interior and wasted exterior space in the side-return, the designer set about re-nosing the lay-out to create a two-bedroom blueprint, with plenty of outdoor space still available and, crucially, an extra bathroom added.  

It's a move, he says, that takes properties from a single person's dwelling to something a family could actually live in, which translates into bigger money when it comes to putting the home back on the market.  

The re-design significantly added to the property's value, improving its 'liveability' and creating plenty of outdoor space to escape urban life.

He told MailOnline: 'The number one objective was to create a versatile and comfortable home which would appeal to a wide audience of potential buyers.' 

With a sizeable living room, two bathrooms and separate kitchen-diner, where eight can comfortably eat, there is plenty of room to manoeuvre so residents can co-habit harmoniously without living on top of each other. 

Some lateral thinking helped too, Prieto swapped the living room and the bedroom, changing the flow of the property.   

The most complex part of the build concerned the development of the side-return to incorporate the planned extension which would include a kitchen diner, guest bedroom or study and a second bathroom.

For this, Prieto's own company, MyEdge2.com, got to work digging deep foundations - down to four foot - to find 'good soil' in order to meet building regulations.  

Out with the terracotta tiles! The kitchen was a huge part of the refurb, with dining now possible for up to eight people. Right: The stylish new kitchen has a monochrome colour scheme with trendy marble tiling

Light abounds: the property's separate dining area at the back of the kitchen, which leads out onto the garden space

Budding Nigellas can whip up a storm, with a five-hob cooker among the upgraded features in the kitchen

Sliding doors add light and a rustic wall, once the exterior wall, give the property individual character says Prieto

The two bathrooms were both given an individual make-over to ensure there's heaps of character in the property. Prieto describes the home as 'urbane and modish'

While one bathroom is decked out in Turkish-style marble, the other has a more 'meditative' decor - and a top-notch shower

Showhome! The decor is vital to attracting potential buyers, says the designer, with premium-end equipment in the bathrooms and kitchens essential to ensuring a quality finish

And the décor, describe as a 'modish, urbane aesthetic' marries 'Japanese minimalism with a cosy sensibility' will help to attract well-heeled buyers.

In the second bedroom, the decision to keep one wall exposed nods to the building's Victorian heritage. And each bathroom was also given character. One is tiled in gleaming, Carrara marble-effect tiles with clean lines a-plenty and sparkling chrome fittings: a cool, calming sanctuary.

The other was designed with a more meditative mood in mind, a space for relaxation and reflection.  

Knowing how kitchens can sell a property, Prieto didn't scrimp, using premium brands for the kitchenware including a five-ring Bosch precision gas hob and Hotpoint hood.

Commenting on his motivation, Julian says, 'With the amount of money you pay for a flat in London, at the very least, you need a great kitchen in which to entertain and live around.' 

With the side-return swallowed up by the extra living space, Prieto won back some outdoor space by ripping out an embanked flowerbed and paving over it, using concrete-effect slabs both indoors and out to keep the property's flow going. 

Harking back to the 19th century, the brickwork in the garden housed a dull-looking patio and plenty of overgrown foliage. Right: embanked flowerbeds around the garden's edge robbed inhabitants of vital inches of space

Huge concrete grey tiles widen out the space, with olive trees and rattan sofas heightening the tranquility

Having built into the side return, there was a risk the central living room would be denied light, not an ideal situation for the flat's central communal area. 

The solution? A light well which, when combined with a set of French windows, allows plenty of daylight to flood in, keeping the room bright and airy.

Floor-to-ceiling windows at the rear of the property, strategic use of skylights and a large bay window in the master bedroom, at the front of the property, ensure the whole property receives plenty of natural light.

Soundproofing was also essential, says the designer: 'Harwood Road is a busy thoroughfare, bridging New King's Road and Fulham Broadway. With a number of bus routes running through and regular traffic, minimising the noise pollution at the front of the property was essential as this is where the master bedroom is located.'

A combination of acoustic shutters and fencing significantly reduced the impact of noise on the property. 

Prieto says while many people want to live within close commute to major city centres, they don't have to compromise on peace and tranquility when they close the door at night: 'We all live fast-paced, busy lives, so I want my properties to be like urban oases. Shutting out the noise of the city and neighbours is a big part of it. I never compromise on this when we do a project.'