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The Drawing Room – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Am so excited to share the final reveal of this project with you. I’ve been working closely with the homeowners for the last five months and i’m kind of wow-ed with the final design. If you’d like to read all about the beginnings then, jump over here for a catch up. Today’s post is all about the final photos and a shopping list for any of you out there that fancy any of these pieces for yourself. Let’s go. Before Here is their large Edwardian front room at the beginning of July this year. These guys had just moved in and were wanting a formal, but statement front room fit for drinks, music and entertaining. After And here it is now. It’s just so cosy isn’t it? In fact, after doing my final hour of faffing and half way through me taking photos, I was desperate for a quick cat nap on the sofa in front of that roaring fire. So nice. Before Everything in the room was going. Apart from the two made.com Ritchie sofas and …

A design icon – Giveaway with Houseology

Published by Karen Knox

**Iconic design klaxon** I’m constantly learning about all things design through my interiors projects, endless research and writing. When something out there in ‘interior design land’ really resonates with me, I kind of have to share it with you guys. It’s like the law. Today, it’s the Lampe Gras light. La Lampe Gras 304 You might not have heard of Bernard-Albin Gras, but you will have certainly seen his lighting before if you’re an interiors lover like moi. In fact i’ve put a little Pinterest board together to show you his designs in action. Take a look. Gras designed the La Lampe Gras light in 1921, making the design so very nearly 100 years old today. I hope I look as sleek, relevant and desirable when i’m a centenarian. Idolised by interior designers and architects worldwide (and little ole me in Leeds), La Lampe Gras combines a timeless aesthetic with genius engineering making it a much coveted design classic. I’ve admired these lights from afar for ages, never really thinking I’d actually be able to own one of my very own. Although …

Black Wednesday – Week 11

Published by Karen Knox

If you’re in or close to Leeds, you may have heard me on Wednesday last week. You might have mistaken the noise for a small pig being squeezed in a vice, but no, it was me. Screaming. I don’t remember the last time I felt so angry (it was probably the week before) but you know you’ve completely lost your shit when your husband comes home from work early. Without you having to even ask. Don’t jump! We’ve been waiting patiently for our staircase for 11 weeks now. Keep getting told, they’ll be started on it soon and it’ll be another week. Each and every time a new trade comes in to crack on with their job, I get; “When’s the staircase coming?” “Where’s the staircase? “Haven’t you got your staircase yet?” Erm, yes, don’t you like it. It’s there. We’ve had an aluminium staircase made to look just like a bloody ladder. **eye roll** The last we were told (Monday 14th November) is the staircase was being “made right now”. Factor in two weeks to make …

The elusive black tap

Published by Karen Knox

As you may have twigged by now, we’re currently in the middle of our loft conversion. The design of the two new spaces are a mix of Scandinavian and industrial design. Simple, raw materials, paired back with mainly a monochrome scheme. It was easy to add black to the bedroom. Sliding timber doors, furniture, window frames, bedsides… but it was more difficult to add it to the bathroom. Bathrooms by their very nature have a lot white in, what with 99% of ceramic sinks, loos, shower trays and baths being white (why is that?). Pair that with the chrome finish of nearly all taps, bottle traps, wastes, showers etc. and you’ve got a pretty restrictive palette to work around. I knew I wanted a black bathroom tap, but man, they’re not an easy find. And the more difficult it was for me to find one, it just made me want one more. I WILL FIND A BLACK TAP (and waste, and bottle trap). Around the same time as I was on Tap Hunt, one of my …

The Loft Extension – Wk 8/9

Published by Karen Knox

As you can see, i’ve been keeping really upbeat since my last loft post. Full of the joy of life I am. Honestly, i’m a pleasure to be around right now. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) We’ve just finished week nine and if i’m honest, I thought we’d be done by now. Not 100% done, but I thought the actual build would have been winding down. Alas, that is not the case. Things here are continuing to move slowly, but we’re certainly moving now. And there is a teeny tiny sliver of light shining at the end of a long, dark (and snowy) tunnel. That’s me sounding positive btw. The plastering has finally commenced (hooray!) and our plasterer has been busy working his way around the bedroom and all the way down our new gable wall. Still no staircase. STILL. It’s quite bizarre, but as soon as the plaster goes on the whole place goes from looking like a building site to an actual room. Of all …

The Edwardian Bedroom(s)

Published by Karen Knox

The last time I wrote about this project, we were round about here: The entire room had been ripped out, wallpaper stripped, carpets ripped up, radiator removed, floorboards being repaired. Technically a building site. The room was about to be skimmed from head to toe in preparation for its new look. What I didn’t tell you, is that the homeowner, in her excitement to see her own bedroom transform, also began ripping out another two bedrooms. In for a penny… This the the second double bedroom after prising off years of wallpaper and flooring . Alas, I didn’t get proper before photos of the room, as this and the third bedroom were originally planned for 2017. Every square inch of wall, floor and ceiling needed work. Not to mention new radiators, sockets and switches. Here is the same room after it’d been skimmed with its new matt black radiator (from Screwfix of all places) leaning precariously against its new home. The magic of freshly plastered walls never fails to fill me with joy and happiness. And I say …

The devil’s in the detail

Published by Karen Knox

There are some things when you’re redecorating a room or redesigning a space that get forgotten about. They’re not normally on our list of considerations. Your builder, electrician, plumber will just fix in the most obvious, industry standard items. These items are in every room. They’re functional. They do the job and they’re fine. Just fine. But what if you don’t want fine? If you just stopped to consider these small, often unnoticed details, it can have a massive impact on a space. The devil is indeed in the detail. And there’s nothing like a build to highlight just how many small seemingly “none-decisions” can make a big difference to the design. We’re now at the point where the build is kind of complete. The rooms are getting plastered next week, first fix plumbing going in and door casings being built by the joiner. Which focuses my mind on: Skirting boards & architraves Door handles Lights, switches and sockets Skirting board and architrave We’ve (and when I say we’ve, I mean I’ve) uhmmed and ahhed over …

What is interior design?

Published by Karen Knox

Well don’t ask me. I’m just making this all up as I go along. But it is something i’ve been asking myself a lot since I started “treading the boards”. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) I have no formal training in interiors or design whatsoever. As you may (or not) already know, my background and training is in dance and it went on to be my career as a teacher and project manager until I became a mum nearly four years ago. But. I have learnt A LOT about what it is to be an interior designer since setting up Making Spaces and it might not be what you’d expect. Partly why I started this blog I guess, to share some of the realness behind all the lovely glossy photos you see in magazines. Those photos are about 2% of what an interior designer does from day to day. Most people i’ve worked with on a design project have been reluctant to tell others they’re …

The Loft Extension – Wk 6/7

Published by Karen Knox

Firstly, i’d just like to apologise for the radio silence over the last week. I think it’s fair to say, this loft conversion is starting to get to me. Like, properly. It’s not the mess, dirt, cold, the fact I can’t walk down the hall without banging my knee on a boxed toilet or the plastic floor covering that crackles when you trot over it. No, not these things. It’s the fact I can’t actually sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time and concentrate on ANYTHING as our front door is moving continuously with various trades coming in and out. I’ve never made so many cups of tea. I’ve also never got through so many bags of sugar. They’re all “two sugar” guys. Two! The other thing my busy mind is struggling with, is the continual trouble shooting. Overall, i’m a negative, pessimistic person. I focus entirely on worst case scenarios which makes me really good at project management. How does that help? I combat anything that might go wrong before it actually …

The UK Bathroom

Published by Karen Knox

Did you know, the average size of a bathroom in the UK is around 2.4m x 1.8, or 4.4m2. How mad is that? Not much bigger than a king sized bed. Now, consider the average bath size is 1.7m x 700mm it is clear why space can be tight. And clear why they’re a bugger to plan for. The bathroom layout (small room top right of the floor plan) has been tweaked and fiddled with several times over the past 4/5 weeks. It’s mental how much difference 5cm can make. Which is why i’ve rinsed the internet for pieces perfect for our UK average sized space. Here it is (will be) with our newly fitted aluminium windows. At approximately 1.9m x 2.1m, every cm counts and i’ve found some key pieces for bijou spaces at soak.com. Let me show you what’s arrived this morning, bright and early at 8am. Sabrosa II Toilet The first item being a small footprint loo. Ideally, I would have liked a hidden cistern, but that meant boxing in, and boxing in meant lost floor …