All posts filed under: Final Reveal

The Coach House – Phase 2 – Open Plan Kitchen Diner

Published by Karen Knox

Hello summer 2023! (it’s raining today). You may remember a couple of years ago, I shared the completed living room at The Coach House project in Harrogate. Here it is… Before, this room, along with the rest of the house was rather dull and uninspiring. Having been recently “flipped” by a property developer, it was presentable enough to sell, but in order to make it feel like home for its new owner, it needed a little love and inspiration. Before – 2020 And now in July 2023 Before During phase two of the project, the glazing throughout the house was upgraded to black Crittall style frames. Much more in keeping with the period of this property and newly updated interiors. After If you’d like to see more photos and read about the process behind this particular room, head over to the designated final reveal post. But to continue reading about Phase two, scroll on down… In March 2021, Niche Design Architects began working on plans for a modest extension and remodel of the rest of …

Tewit Well Road – Harrogate

Published by Karen Knox

Hello everyone! I’m back with some updates and final reveal pics from one of my slow burner projects. It’s been hard, but something I’ve had to accept is that when things really picked up for Making Spaces a few years ago, it meant I didn’t have time to sit down and write about my job, because I’ve been so busy doing it. The projects I love and am trying to focus on are full house renovations, extensions and builds and how to create real impact with those at planning stages. These projects require layers and layers of work for numerous rooms at once. I’ve got several similar sized projects to share over the coming months, all that have been underway since 2021. So with that in mind, let me introduce you to the Tewit Well Road project over in Harrogate. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Renovating Harrogate (@renovating_harrogate) You may remember The Edwardian Project in Harrogate a few years ago? I’ve been working with these guys since 2016 and over this …

The Purple Brown Master Bedroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Good day! How are you all doing out there? It has been exactly six months since I last wrote. Hopefully it gave you enough time to read my previous post though, as that was quite a long one. Today’s instalment is the final reveal for the Master Bedroom at The Ilkley Project. Yay. Let me show you the Purple Brown room! If you’re not aware of the Ilkley project, then here is a little refresher of some of the rooms we’ve done so far: The Striped Guest Bedroom The Kitchen/Dining Room with the yellow ceiling Which you might have spotted on page 168 in last month’s Homes and Gardens magazine…. There are also two home offices i’ve not photographed, mainly because they’re in use most days. But if you’d like a more thorough look of the room’s i’ve photographed at the Ilkley project so far you can click over to the project’s portfolio page. For those of you still here, let’s see the master bedroom as it was when Mr & Mrs C moved in in …

The Victorian Kitchen and Dining Room - the one with the yellow ceiling

The Victorian Kitchen Dining Room – the one with the yellow ceiling

Published by Karen Knox

Jumping back onto the blog today to share a recently completed project. I’ve been working on this one since the beginning of the year, the final piece of the puzzle going in just last week. With a last minute visit earlier this week to see it all finished and capture some photos, it’s time for a new project reveal! Welcome to the Victorian kitchen and dining room… the one with the yellow ceiling. Before Here’s the kitchen side of the room as it looked when the homeowners had moved in. The cabinets were actually good quality solid timber and were in good nick, but this kitchen needed some TLC . Namely: a new cooker extractor worktop over the island (as it was rotting around the sink) The lighting needed addressing too, these 3.3m high ceilings were not happy with this naff Ikea paper shade nearly 2m above the bloomin’ worktop. The room’s overall colour scheme also needed a good talking to. The brief (which i’ve edited to make a nice paragraph): “We’d like a room …

How to add personality to a new build

Published by Karen Knox

Hello everyone, it’s been photoshoot central of late so i’m back with my second post of the month. It’s another final reveal post, plus I’m sharing some tips on how to add personality to a new build property. The homeowners, a young couple were keen to put their stamp on their new four bedroom home so contacted me to help them with the ground floor. We worked together remotely during lockdown Mk1, me finally visiting for the first time in summer 2020 once the project was underway. Before I’ve written before about how new builds are some of the hardest properties to re-design as there can be very little to be inspired by. There are no fireplaces, chimney breasts, no alcoves or nooks and crannies to build shelving into, no high ceilings or period features such as cornice, dado and picture rails. The rooms in a new build are often purely functional, rectangular rooms which have been kitted out in low-mid range fixtures and fittings. One of the reasons people opt for new builds is …

The Victorian Terrace – Games Room and Home Office

Published by Karen Knox

Hello there, how are you all doing, I hope you’re keeping well and enjoying the glorious British summer!? Today i’m sharing some final reveal photos from a sloooow burner project; The Victorian Terrace. A house I started work on back in April 2019. Yes, that’s how long full house projects can take, especially when you’re living at the property during the works and you need to save ££ between rooms, like most of us do. The whole of this four bedroom house needed tackling (new windows, new roof, external doors, rewiring, re-plumbing, all of the floorboards restoring and finishing, plastering throughout and of course decorating and furnishing). Two and a half years on we’ve completed the Living Room, Master Bedroom, Bathroom and Guest Bedroom but today i’m sharing the Games Room and Home Office which I photographed earlier this week. The Home Office – completed February 2020 Now this room is small. You can see how the estate agents tried to make it look bigger here by using that big ole wide angle lens… Before Mr …

The Victorian Coach House - Final Reveal

The Coach House Living Room – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Hello! Three months it’s been since I last wrote. A whole season. A quarter of a year. 13 weeks! I thought it was about time I got back into the swing, and what better way than to offer up the final reveal of Victorian Coach House Living Room; one of my favourite rooms to work on since starting this crazy ass job six years ago. Before What once would have been the tack room next to a stable, this property was converted into a two bedroom residential property many years ago. The room was ok as it was, but it could certainly have been better. Things that needed addressing were: The really small fire opening which just looks like a mistake The terrible 80’s polystyrene coving and plastic ceiling rose The lack of period detailing The terrible radiators with awful polypipes and sideways valves The white UPVC French doors and window (which hasn’t been done yet, but will be done as part of the next phase of this project – the big build!) The brief for …

The Old Forge York – Two Years in the Making – Final Reveal Part 2

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello, how are you all? Thanks to everyone who read Part 1 of final reveal for The Old Forge. I’ve heard from Karen (the owner) that bookings at the newly renovated holiday cottage have been going swimmingly since its launch with Next Door @ The Old Forge now being fully booked until the end of September, so get your skates on if you’re looking to book a break in North Yorkshire over the October half term or fancy an autumn/winter break. So, where was I on the final reveal tour? I think I was about here… Corten steel cladding with a slither of hallway peeking through By their very nature of generally being long and narrow, hallways are spaces where people don’t tend to push the boat out design wise. However, a hallway is a place (much like a downstairs loo) is a place you can have plenty of fun. It’s somewhere you pass through fleetingly on the way from one place to another, not often somewhere you hang about for shits and giggles. But …

The 70’s Flat – Open Plan Living Space – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello – how is everyone? Slowly adjusting to the new norm? No, me neither really. However, I tried my best today to do what I normally do and write up a post for the blog. Another final reveal from the 70’s apartment project to be precise, purely as an attempt to provide some kind of distraction for a few minutes. Today it’s the open plan living room. Let’s start with a before photo as taken by the estate agent: Before – February 2019 As you can see it’s a rather lovely, big room with ample space for a seating area, dining table and small home office. The small room behind the sofa is where the kitchen is, which if you’ve missed that, I recommend that you quickly catch up over here. A bit of background about this project; Mr J, the homeowner, contacted me as the decorators were already in prepping the rooms to be painted. No pressure then. I did advise Mr J that he’d jumped several guns already by choosing to decorate before …

The 70’s apartment – Final Reveal of the Marble and Black Bathroom

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello! From kitchens to bathrooms, today i’m back with another final reveal post from the 70’s flat. This time it’s the marble and black bathroom, and thankfully despite bathrooms always being the most difficult spaces to design, plan and implement, this room (unlike the kitchen) went swimmingly. As this bathroom is in a flat, things like relocating the foul pipe onto another external wall or altering the size and shape of windows were not allowed. Basically anything that affected the external appearance of the building as a whole was a big fat no. We also couldn’t move or take out any internal walls within the flat, which was pretty frustrating as the bathroom housed a huge, floor to ceiling cupboard which took up about a 1/6th of the floor space. Before – Massive storage cupboard which originally housed an old water tank We did however, relocate the washing machine (originally in the kitchen) and added a drying space into the massive cupboard, meaning the flat never needed an airer setting up in the spare room. The classic …