All posts filed under: Property

Tewit Well Road – Harrogate

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 …

Mood Board Pink Interiors

In The Pink – Is there a better way to end 2020 than some pink interiors?

Well it seems I have done all my Christmas wrapping and have a bit of time to share some pink interiors to end this year, what a rosey treat! Let’s start with this room: Before – sales listing This will soon be the guest bedroom on the top floor of a lovely big Victorian house in Ilkley. You can probably fathom it was a teenage bedroom, and whilst it looks in half decent nick, the room was tired and needed stripping back and starting again. Carpets up, fitted wardrobe removed, walls stripped, and re-skimmed and floorboards sanded and re-stained. And of course I had to choose a ‘new outfit’ for it to wear too. During the big rip out, carpets up, floorboards revealed and room ready to be stripped before being re-skimmed Working around the client’s existing metal bed and two pine bedsides, I went for a slightly bonkers, yet Scandi take on a traditional Victorian striped wallpaper. The stripes giving a gentle nod to the Victorian style bed frame but the scale and colour …

The Old Forge York

The Old Forge York – Two Years in the Making – Final Reveal Part 1

And so, today’s blog is partly an opportunity to emotionally offload (when isn’t it?) and more importantly celebrate over two years work. I’m very pleased to be able to share the news that after approximately 698 days since my first consultation at The Old Forge, it’s finally time for the official opening of Next Door @ The Old Forge; a two bedroom, family and dog friendly holiday cottage in the pretty village of Sand Hutton, just 8 miles outside of York. Kettle on – it’s final reveal time! Before – My first visit, March 2018 I introduced you to The Old Forge back in May 2018 where I was completely inspired by the ramshackle buildings, excited by their potential and eager to get stuck into creating the design concepts. Since then there has been a relentless amount of work going on behind the scenes to transform an old Victorian blacksmith’s cottage and its outbuildings into a beautifully unique yet sympathetic two bedroom holiday cottage. Architects plans with suggested layout I could write a book about the problems, nightmares, …

The Victorian Terrace - The Living Room

The Victorian Terrace – The Living Room

Hello 2020! How are you all? Settling nicely into the new decade? For my first post of 2020 i’m introducing you to a project i’ve been working on since April last year; A four bedroom Victorian terrace in North Leeds. House floor plan The house was previously a rental property, and so was more than a little unloved. It looked “ok” from the estate agent pics, but in reality it needed a lot of work to bring it back to life: New windows throughout Re-wiring Re-plumbing Floorboards refurbed Walls stripped and re-skimmed New joinery New kitchen New bathroom Complete redecoration Fixtures, furniture and furnishings for the whole house In fact, it was this project that prompted me to write this blog post last spring: A Guide for New Homeowners – Where to start, the dos and don’ts. This new homeowner, let’s call him Mr H, is a complete noob to home ownership. Knowing where to start and what order to work through the renovation across several rooms at once had him in a bit of a pickle. …

Georgian Apartment

The Georgian Apartment – New Project Time

Time to introduce you to a new project today. It’s a two bedroom apartment situated inside what was once one of the many impressive mansions built in Leeds, 300 years ago. This Georgian property certainly has the scale and proportion you would expect from this period. Just looking at this photo from the recent sales listing, you can see there is a real gem waiting to be loved, revived and restored. The new homeowner is VERY keen to get the works done as quickly as possible, understandably. But as ever, i’ve had to put the brakes on a little in order to give this special building what it deserves. Because, whoever fitted this kitchen was clearly high on solvents: Who on earth would fit a blue formica kitchen in a Georgian mansion? Definitely someone from the late 80’s early 90’s me thinks…. Here’s the apartment’s original floorplan to give you an idea of what rooms and spaces we are working with and how they all relate: As you can see, the floorplan suggests there would have …

New Homeowners

A Guide for New Homeowners – Where to start, the dos and don’ts

There’s an epidemic afoot everyone. It’s called “first time home owner syndrome”. As we already know, people are getting onto the property ladder later in life. Renting well into your 20’s and 30’s, even 40’s is becoming the norm. House prices are mental and mortgages are a nightmare. I was one of the lucky ones, I got my grubby mitts on my first house, a 3 bed, ex-council semi, back in 2003. It felt like a HUGE amount of money at the time. £38k. I have no doubt anyone would bite your hand off to be able to buy a property for that now. The current property climate has led to a high number of long term renters, many of which have never been hands on with a property. Maybe getting as far as hanging pictures, a shelf perhaps. But when it comes down to learning about the nuts and bolts of a house and how to look after a property, renters tend to leave that job to the landlord/lady. That’s what you’re paying for …

vine bleu

The Vine Bleu Room – A Remote Design Project

Today is a special post for me. I’m sharing some before and afters of a remote design project I worked on at the end of 2018.  The homeowners had moved into a new family home, but not your average property, their new pad formed part of a Grade 2 listed Arts & Crafts mansion, designed by the architect George Morley Eaton, a follower of Sir Edwin Lutyens. As you would expect, architecturally, it’s stunning. However, one room in particular left them feeling somewhat overwhelmed; The Drawing Room. Estate Agent Photo Here’s how the room looked when it was sold. As you can see, it’s a huge at over 5m by 7m. With rooms like this, you don’t need to work too hard to make it look amazing. But what you do need to do is know how to use Scale and Proportion.  You can’t put an average sized sofa, rug or ceiling light into a room like this, you’ve got to supersize everything so it matches up to that fireplace, the beams, those door frames…. …

Project in progress

Project in progress… The Mulberry Red Room

Hello there, wasn’t sure if i’d make it onto the blog this week, but i’ve managed to squeeze a little one in.  I’m catching you up on another project. It’s the master bedroom of a house i’ve been working in for about 10 months now. The homeowner moved from a flat into a four bedroom Georgian property. The plot this beautiful stone built house sits in had been bought by developers, the property then chopped to make three individual houses. From the outside it’s beautiful and full of character, but internally, it was somewhat lacking so we’ve been working hard to bring it back to life. Living Room in Little Greene Grey Stone We’ve just about completed the living room (still got to take proper photos of that) and made progress on the stairs, landing and guest bedrooms but now we’re onto the top floor. This is (was) the master suite, on the second floor set in the eaves of the house. Can you see what would have originally been the real height of the ceiling …

Why consultations are REALLY important – New project time!

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about when to get an interior designer on board which went into some detail about what we do and why we really should be involved from the beginning of a project.  If I had a pound for every person emailing me to say they’ve just completed a build and now want some help with the interior design, well i’d have at least £100 by now. Not a lot of money admittedly, but that’s a lot of people thinking I just do sofas and paint colours. Incorrect. This brings me onto a consultation I did at the beginning of July at a beautiful, five bedroom, double fronted, 1930’s house. Original ground floor-plan The homeowners had been there for about four years already and had made a brilliant start at putting their stamp on the place. With most of the messy, building works already done, I was asked to go over for a consultation for the hallway, stairs and landing. Always the last place you should decorate peeps, because they …

wall lights

Planning a build? When do I get an interior designer on board?

I’ve always hated the job title, interior designer, most people still don’t really know what we actually do, but as i’ve mentioned before, paint colours and cushions really are about 0.6%. Cushions in the Upper Brook Street Project I’ve noticed more interior designers referring to themselves as ‘interior architects’. I can’t class myself as that by any means, i’m certainly no architect, but I do make decisions around spatial planning, flow, lighting plans, first fix wiring and plumbing… Here’s what Google has to say about Interior Architecture V’s Interior Design: Interior architecture is the balancing of the art and science of designing an interior space taking into account all elements of the build.  Interior design is a broad ranging profession taking into account all aspects of planning and designing interior spaces in the built environment. I kind of see myself as being somewhere in between the two. One of the things I get BIG kicks from is solving layout problems. It might be as simple repositioning a dining table so it runs lengthways instead of horizontally, …