Property editor Caroline Culot takes a look at a 1970s house given a new lease of life for the 21st century

It's hard to remember how tired this house, built at the start of the decade of flares and Abba, looked when I visited less than a year ago.

It was a good sized house on Mile End Road so on the edge of the Golden Triangle and with a reasonably sized garden but probably not terribly more inspiring than that.

When I viewed the house, it was at the start of its re-birth at the hands of property consultant Dean Heaviside who walked me through it, very enthusiastic at how he was going to give it a new lease of life.

It reminded me of a house I used to play in a lot as a child of the 1970s, belonging to one of my best friends, but yes, while the years had rolled on, time had stood still here. But now...take a look at its gleaming contemporary interiors with a huge kitchen/entertaining/sitting room which opens out to a little oasis of a garden area at the rear.

It's been extended and rooms knocked together and new ones built to create three/four reception rooms and four/five bedrooms with three bathrooms (two en suite.) The kitchen has been moved over to encompass the former living room and garage and is now large and open plan with luxury units and a central island opening to the garden room. Then there's a separate 'grown ups' drawing room, a study, bedroom and wet room.

The fittings include Villeroy & Boch fittings and digital showers and you have bespoke circular 'porthole' style windows adding a contemporary touch. An enormous amount of work has been done which you cannot see including the house being re-plumbed and re-wired as well as a new central heating system and lighting system added.

Outside has been transformed equally with mature specimen trees imported from Italy added as a screen with extended terracing ideal for entertaining.

Dean Heaviside, the property expert behind the project, said: 'The vision for the house was to create something very special, a radical redesign - something that took on a whole new persona, that was eye-catching and could truly connect with its sense of place. In some respects, the five-bedroom house has been virtually rebuilt. I mean this both metaphorically and literally.

'With a nod to the case study homes from the US, those fabulous Californian and Palm Springs houses of the 40s and 50s, together with an admiration for some fabulously unique properties around the Mediterranean, I wanted to explore and reflect the connection between the inside and out, how the exterior and interior can captivate. I spent a lot of time looking at what homebuyers aspire to in their next homes and have tried to respond to the functionality and adaptability people seem to demand today, so that there is flexibility to use every bit of the house for what really works for them.'

• Fairlight House, 1B, Mile End Road is for sale for £875,000 with Humberts on 01603 661199.