All posts tagged: birch plywood

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 …

Kitchen Facelift – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

I told you it was coming soon! If you read my last post, you’ll know it was time for me to say goodbye to our gloss white kitchen. Feel free to have a little read of that one if you want to know the what’s and why’s… Adios white gloss! Here’s the wall cabinet layout i’ve had in my head for years and the one I think it going to make our little kitchen look hell of a lot better AND give us more much needed storage.I wanted to move the existing wall cabinets up towards the ceiling, wrap a third cabinet around the extractor hood and add two more open cabinets below, either side of the extractor. Simple no!? I didn’t want handles but I also didn’t want the traditional handle-less J profile design our original kitchen doors had. If i’d gotten my way, I would have had doors than opened by telekinesis, but as my powers of mind-control weren’t quite up to scratch, we went with push openers instead. Fair enough. It’s difficult to …

Kitchen Facelift – Goodbye white gloss

Published by Karen Knox

There’ll probably be a lot of people out there reading this blog post thinking, “there’s nothing wrong with your kitchen, love. What ya updating it for?” And one of those people is my husband. So I just wanted to say from the start, I get it. Me, wanting to update a perfectly fine kitchen might seem a bit unnecessary. Especially when it was originally like this: You can read all about the kitchen knock through we did in 2013 here. It’s still one of my most read posts as it seems a lot of you out there are still researching knock-through options, so it’s defo worth a look if it’s on your list of house jobs. And whilst i’m so happy with the new layout and extra space we created in 2013/14, the actual kitchen doors began to annoy me, more and more once i’d taken the step into interior design in 2015. I’ve been patiently waiting to get this kitchen looking more like me without making any huge changes. I didn’t want to buy new …

Planning a Bathroom Refurb? – Me too! New Project Time

Published by Karen Knox

My work takes me all over the place and I get to see some stunning properties on my travels. None more-so than the one i’m about to introduce you to today. A neo-gothic converted college located in the middle of nowhere. Down a long and winding path somewhere in Leeds is a property that took my breath away. On my visit the sat nav decided it would take me down an alternative route where eventually, the winding lane began to disintegrate under my wheels until I found myself driving into woods. You know, just on soil. Amongst trees and squirrels. Gave myself flipping whiplash on my first outing to find this place. After reversing backwards for what seemed like a mile (probably about 12 meters) and doing a four million point turn to escape my journey into the wilderness, I finally managed to pick up the correct route, my sat nav finally locating the property postcode. Not a tree in some woods. Upon driving into the grounds (yes I said grounds) the final destination warranted …

Charlie’s bedroom – Part 2 – The Plywood Wall

Published by Karen Knox

Charlie’s room has ended up being a much larger project that originally planned (sorry Pete). The whole design process has been bubbling away in the background for a few months now and am so excited to finally share Part 2. (Part 1 here). This kid’s bedroom is all about the plywood!! There are still plenty of pieces left to go in (carpets and single bed) but it’s the joinery that’s really transformed this room. So let’s get on with the pics shall we? Before After Before | During After I absolutely love it. It’s so mental to see an idea in your head executed so accurately. The guys from Leeds and London based Bare Joinery are mega. Give them a follow, because i’ve been bullying them to set up a proper Instagram account for months and i’m going to look like a right numpty if it’s tumbleweed. The design is a perfect marriage of function and form. I’ve finally reclaimed the living room (and several other parts of the house) and have managed to get all …

The Loft Landing – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

There’s just one space left to reveal now from the loft extension. You guys will have seen the open plan landing/office below with the staircase leading onwards and upwards to our new second floor. Open Plan Office Space But what you may not have worked out just yet is how it all connects together. Designing individual rooms can be tough, but designing rooms and spaces that connect with one another, not just physically but aesthetically, that’s a real challenge. Especially transitional spaces like hallways and landings where walls and levels connect over several floors. How do you make these work? This is the view standing at the bottom of the staircase. Remember i’m in my office here too. The element of shared space which works so well here, the office enhancing the staircase and vice versa. Here is the floor plan of the second floor. I saw the landing as another room in itself. They’re often neglected spaces, quite narrow and can be dark. I didn’t want any of these things to be the case. …

To ply or not to ply – A floor quandary

Published by Karen Knox

We’ve uhmmed and ahhed about what to do with the loft bedroom flooring for ages now. As i’m going all out Scandinavian for the bedroom design, a blonde wood floor seemed the obvious choice. But then, to save some money and get this room finished in time for Christmas, we played around with the idea of simply painting the chipboard subfloor black (to which the builder just sighed and shook his head). After going around in circles for several weeks, mentally noting the pros and cons of both options, we finally decided on floor boards. Done. Having an actual floor laid meant I finally got to work with my fave joiners again, Bare Joinery. Which is always a pleasure, as they’re always up for a challenge and happy(ish) to experiment with materials, the design, the process, and most importantly, they don’t sigh and shake their heads at my less than conventional ideas. Not within view anyway. Our plan to lay floorboards sounds pretty standard, apart from the fact I didn’t want them to be actual floorboards, as …

#Stairporn in da house – The Loft Extension Wk 13/14

Published by Karen Knox

Anyone who knows me or has bumped into me for the past week will know that they have not been allowed to mention the ‘S’ word. Anyone who has dared, has been given this face: I think it’s fair to say, at this point, the builder and I have no secrets about not enjoying working together. I’m not really that bothered by this. I’m not here to make friends, i’m here to get this build done and finished at some point in my lifetime. As you all know, the one piece of the puzzle we’ve been waiting for it the ‘S’ word. Maria Prästgårdsgata 43 – Styling: Thomas Lingsell, Photography: Andy Liffner I wrote a post months ago full of inspiration for our soon to be staircase. We loved the idea of a simple white stringer with blonde timber tread. Specifically birch plywood. If you like a bit of #Stairporn like me, I’d highly recommend a read of the post here. There are some beautiful flights of fancy to ogle. Geddit? Back to our slightly less glamorous interior: What should have taken 2-3 …