All posts tagged: layout

wall lights

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

Published by Karen Knox

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, …

The Open Plan Work Space – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Here it was pre Loft Extension.  In our box room, which was less than 2 x 3m. It was the perfect spot for me to set up Making Spaces HQ. It really wasn’t big enough to be a bedroom. In fact it wasn’t really big enough to warrant its own door, so we took that off over a year ago anyway. Top Tip. If you’ve got a door you never ever close, get rid. Give yourself another square meter of space instead. And a better view. And more natural light. Go on. Our 1960’s, 3 bed-semi had a very traditional layout, pre-build. Our plan was to incorporate the small, box room into the landing area, so it looked something like this: If you’ve been following the build, you may remember we were sacrificing our box room in order to accommodate the staircase of our dreams. You can read more about that over here. The plan was to keep our landing open plan, light, spacious and my office would simply sit exactly where it was before. I do …

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 …