Pinner Road, Watford, WD19

On Pinner Road, moments from Bushey Station and as little as 17 minutes from London Euston, sits an exceptional example of a two-bedroom Victorian terraced house. Homes of this kind tend to follow a familiar plan. This one departs from it, quietly and in all the right ways. The first sign is at the front, where the porch has been drawn forward to sit flush with the bay, so the façade reads as a single, composed line. Behind a low-maintenance garden, the front door opens onto a proper threshold, somewhere to leave coats and shoes before the house itself begins.

The living room is dressed in pale blue, with bright white coving, skirting and architraves framing the original doors and calm, neutral floors. The bay is generous enough to hold a sofa of its own, with ample room beyond for a larger one and a table between. The two reception rooms are kept apart rather than knocked through, and the house is better for it. The dining room gathers around a cast-iron fireplace set into a chimney breast of deep green, with coving and pendant lights continuing above, before opening to the kitchen and the light that pours in beyond. The staircase rises from here, out of sight of the living room, with storage tucked beneath. Off the dining room is a downstairs cloakroom, anthracite tile below and a vivid teal above, which also discreetly houses the boiler. With the only bathroom reached through the main bedroom, it more than earns its place. The kitchen keeps everything to one wall: a gas hob and built-in oven set into a single clean run of cabinetry, beneath a skylight that lifts the pale blue opposite, with white doors at the far end opening to the garden. Upstairs, both bedrooms are good-sized doubles finished in a soft blush pink, each with pendant lighting. The rear room is the main bedroom by virtue of its en-suite, and the quieter of the two. The front room is the larger, with a cupboard built in above the stairs that also gives access to the loft, and many will choose it instead, keeping the rear for guests. The en-suite is immaculate, with white tile from floor to ceiling, a freestanding bath and a walk-in shower.

Outside, the doors open onto a small patio with planters directly ahead, and steps rise to a raised terrace for sitting out. Beyond, the garden is laid largely to lawn, and rather than ending at a fence, it closes on a brick-built outbuilding. Set apart from the house, with its own door and window, it is a studio, a study or a gym in waiting, or whatever the next owner has in mind.