All posts filed under: Renovation

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 …

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

Published by Karen Knox

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 3 Bed Semi Extension – The Site Visit

Published by Karen Knox

Hello everyone, how are you all doing? It’s been a while since I last posted, for lots of reasons I won’t go into today, let’s just say there’s been a lot of (a bit too much) “life stuff” going on. Alongside that, i’ve been rolling along with three of my five live projects and wanted to share the progress we’ve made on the 3 bed semi extension over in North Yorkshire. It’s the one i’ve been working on remotely since the end of last year. The Ground Floor Plan Since January the whole house has been getting ripped out, extended and remodelled and as the property is empty, most of the works have luckily continued (albeit a little slower) throughout lockdown. My suggestion to totally change the ground floor layout was given the thumbs up and has now been realised. And it’s looking pretty good. I made my very first visit to the property yesterday and took lots of in-progress pics to share with you. Let me walk you around… Before The previous homeowners had …

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 …

Remote working, it can be done – Remote Design in Action

Published by Karen Knox

So with all that’s going on in the world right now, I am sure I am not the only small business that is feeling the strain. I posted something on Facebook last weekend about how working remotely is going to be the saviour of a lot of small businesses. In particular the service industry like mine. If we’re all sat at home, staring at our four walls, wishing we had time to finally tackle that wallpaper stripping, bathroom remodel, gallery wall, playroom, kitchen reconfiguration (delete as appropriate), then THIS is a really good time to consider remote design. Our homes are a place to nurture, a place of safety and comfort, so there’s no better time to throw your energies into something creative and productive. And if you need some input, then there are lots of businesses like mine that can help. As an example of how it can work, I wanted to share a project I have been working on remotely for the last few months. A couple, let’s call them Mr&Mrs S, recently bought a …

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 …

The 70’s Kitchen Final Reveal – And an Ikea Kitchen review

Published by Karen Knox

We’re back at the 70’s apartment this week for another final reveal – it’s the kitchen. An Ikea kitchen to be precise. Read on for before and after pics, a detailed breakdown of the what’s where’s and why’s… and the cherry on top, an Ikea Kitchen Review. As you can see from the floor-plan the kitchen in this two bedroom apartment is bijou small. It leads straight off the large living space, so it was important the new design connected to the space around it. Here’s how it looked back in March 2019: Before The budget for ripping out and replacing with a new kitchen cabinets, worktop, appliances, flooring and tiling was £6k. This needed to cover labour too. It was tight, which limited where we could “shop”. After looking around at several kitchen options, we took a punt on Ikea as they offered the fitting and wrap around service of supply, build and fit. The kitchen concept was based around the Ikea VEDDINGE range. Simple, light grey slab doors and drawer fronts. The small space meant …

The 70’s Apartment – The Green Guest Room – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Well it’s been a while since I’ve written about this project. The two bedroom, 70’s apartment was introduced over ‘ere back in July ’19. You can read the intro to it here where there are all the before photos and the floor plan. Since July last year, there has been A LOT of work going on behind the scenes; A new kitchen, new bathroom, two bedrooms, a large open-plan living space and long hallway all redesigned, refurbed, decorated and furnished. Today we’re focusing on the final reveal of the Green Guest Room. Let me begin… When I first met the homeowner, let’s call him Mr J, he had very fixed ideas about what he wanted to do with each room. Initially I was only booked for a colour consultation and all I knew was that he wanted this room to be green. He’d already bought the paint (turned out to be the wrong green) and was set on having a feature wall in this room. As the decorators were actually already on site on my very first …

When is a brick wall not a brick wall? – The Loft Bedroom at the Victorian Terrace

Published by Karen Knox

I’m back at the Victorian Terrace this week talking brick walls. And today I’m up on the top floor showing you the progress in one of the two second floor bedrooms. Before This room was to become a guest bedroom, but until then the homeowner, Mr H will be using this room until the bedroom on the first floor is complete. Which will be later this year once the bathroom has been ripped out. You might be wondering what a bathroom being done has to do with getting the master bedroom completed, a fair amount actually. In a terrace, you don’t get a spacious landing or much transient spaces at all for that matter, the first and second floor rooms come almost directly off the staircase. When ripping out a bathroom and fitting the new one, the trades need space to work and a lot of the prep work needs to be done not directly in the bathroom. Bathrooms are already too small for two grown adults as it is. So the master bedroom opposite …