All posts filed under: Renovation

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 …

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 Georgian Apartment – Bathroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Hello May, how are you all doing? Your umbrella been getting a good outing this month? Today i’m back at the Georgian Apartment for for the final reveal of the bathroom. Hoorah! This is what we started with… Before A very small and narrow space indeed which surprisingly (or not) the previous owners had squeezed in a loo, basin, bath and a separate shower, but absolutely no storage whatsoever and not a lot of room for “people”. When planning a bathroom, always allow space for you, the user(s) to move around, especially family bathrooms as they often have the whole clan in there at bath-times. Original Layout Initially I gave Mr B a few layout options, which looked at providing a walk in shower next to a plunge bath (a smaller footprint bath with much higher sides so you sit up and soak rather than lie down), but as Mr B also needed to use his bathroom to shower off his little Yorkshire Terrier after long muddy walks, we stuck with a shower over bath …

The Georgian Apartment – Open Plan Living Space Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Well it’s been a while since I posted about this one hasn’t it? A project I introduced back in June 2019; ya know, the one with those ceilings. It’s time for the final reveal of The Georgian Apartment. Whoop! Before – May 2019 All the major works for this room were completed in time for Autumn 2019 with a list of smaller, fiddly jobs left to sort before it was #instaready. Then 2020 arrived… say no more. Before Back in June 2019, it all kicked off with the wall coming down between the tiny kitchen and the main living/dining space. This really opened up the space, creating a greater sense of width whilst allowing light and views from the wrap around gardens to enter from two aspects. During As the works were already underway during my initial consultation, I had a week to come up with the design, specification and plan for first fix electrics and plumbing for the living space and kitchen. The new homeowner, let’s call him Mr B, was set to move in …

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 …

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

Published by Karen Knox

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 …

Making (lots of) Spaces with five projects in progress

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello! Yes I know it’s been a while since I last wrote, but I have an excellent reason, I promise. In short, i’ve been mega busy keeping lots of plates spinning since lockdown has eased and now i’ve got five projects in progress. So I just wanted to check in and let you know what’s keeping me busy til the end of this year. Here are some of the rooms in progress, the before photos and design concepts we’re working towards. Looks like there will be lots of final reveal posts coming in January 2021! No. 1 – The Georgian Apartment project Before – The Bathroom As you can see it’s in a bad way, is a really awkward shaped room, with a hideous UPVC false ceiling and no storage whatsoever. Time for a re-jig: Bathroom Concept Before The brief: A sleek bathroom with bath, shower, storage, wood details, underfloor heating and seamless concrete look walls and floors. Completion date: December 2020 No. 2 – The 1980’s Project – The Ground Floor Remodel Before …

The Harrogate Master Bedroom – (very nearly) Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Hello everyone, how’s your August going? Today I’m sharing a (very nearly) final reveal of the master bedroom at the Harrogate project. It’s the last room to be completed after a four year long renovation of a large, five bedroom Edwardian property. I’ve learned and gained so much from working with Vanessa and Andy and it feels quite emotional knowing this will be one of the last rooms I share from their house on these pages. Anyway, moving along… First Floor Floor Plan – Before The first floor is the one that had the biggest layout change, with only a few walls remaining where they once were. The first floor layout as it is now. As you can see, the first floor is where the Upper Brook Street Guest bedroom is, probably one of my most shared and liked projects to date, winning the best bedroom tour on Houzz in 2017 – that was really exciting! Today’s master suite is across the landing at the back of the house in what was this space: It …

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 …