Our plans for our homes have changed dramatically in recent times. In the last 6 months in particular I have noticed how people are finally accepting for one reason or another that the home they are in now is where they are going to be staying. For some this is a relief and others a dilemma, because they had not planned it to be their family home so cannot see how it can possibly be the home of their dreams.
But with the right advice, it is possible to change your situation and improve your surroundings to find a solution that suit’s most budgets. We recently completed a project for a couple who had recently gotten married and intended to sell their previous homes and trade up. However the property market worked against them and they decided that it would be best to renovate instead.
The house was a modest sized 2 bedroomed terraced property and the brief was to get the most out of the space available whilst maximising the amount of light getting into the house. We planned a small extension to the rear of the house to accommodate the kitchen. The couple enjoyed their garden which was not very large and as the extension took up a significant amount of space the design of the out side was just as important as that of the interior.
The extension was to run along one side of the house leaving space in the garden for bench seating. We ran the same floor tiles out from the kitchen into the garden which helped to give the illusion of additional space both inside and out by blurring the lines between both areas.
With any extension project it is extremely important to try to maximise the amount of light that gets into the centre of the house. What you want to avoid is your lovely new extension blocking light getting into the original house. With this in mind we created a void on the landing above to let light into the sitting room from the existing Velux roof light above. This worked really well and provided a lovely feature both on the ground and first floors.
On this project we had a very fixed budget to work with. We set about prioritising key areas and looking for cost-effective solutions where possible. Wardrobes were recycled and adapted to work in their new home. Existing furniture items were reupholstered to work with the new colour scheme and our client managed to sell a significant amount of furniture items and fittings to raise additional funds for the project. This is a fantastic idea and well worth trying we’ve had clients who have managed to sell entire kitchens, bathroom suites and even one client who sold their patio doors.
Space was very important with this project so things like the glass sliding doors between the living room and kitchen gave separation without taking up space. The bench seat in the kitchen allows for a lot of guests to be accommodated but is much more economical on floor space. And the use of a continuous colour palette throughout the ground floor gives continuity to the space and extends out to the garden drawing the eye out as far as it can go.
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