All posts tagged: project

The Loft Extension – Wk 6/7

Published by Karen Knox

Firstly, i’d just like to apologise for the radio silence over the last week. I think it’s fair to say, this loft conversion is starting to get to me. Like, properly. It’s not the mess, dirt, cold, the fact I can’t walk down the hall without banging my knee on a boxed toilet or the plastic floor covering that crackles when you trot over it. No, not these things. It’s the fact I can’t actually sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time and concentrate on ANYTHING as our front door is moving continuously with various trades coming in and out. I’ve never made so many cups of tea. I’ve also never got through so many bags of sugar. They’re all “two sugar” guys. Two! The other thing my busy mind is struggling with, is the continual trouble shooting. Overall, i’m a negative, pessimistic person. I focus entirely on worst case scenarios which makes me really good at project management. How does that help? I combat anything that might go wrong before it actually …

A mixed bag. The Loft Extension – Wk 3

Published by Karen Knox

So what’s happened since last week? Well as the title suggests, it’s been a melange of loft extension based events. There’s been a lot of banging. MY WORD. So much banging. But banging means progress, and progress is good. Dormer tiled, old loft boards and joists ripped out, new joists fitted and another steel hoisted up for something or other. Something structural. Whatever. When can I get in? At this point i’m feeling pretty redundant, I just want to get up there and start waving my arms around showing everyone where things are going. So, to prevent me asking “is it done yet?” every 90 minutes, i’ve been keeping myself busy by placing orders for some of the key pieces making their way into our soon-to-be new rooms. Bedroom mood-board recap And my very first piece for the bedroom has arrived. Well apart from the brick wall, that’s already there. See the two ceiling lights either side of the bed? They’re going to be the bedside lights. These actually: Maria 180 lights from Urban Cottage Industries …

The Drawing Room – Pre-reveal

Published by Karen Knox

I’m not gona lie, i’m typing like this: And I know i’ve already used that GIF, but I don’t care, it’s frickin funny. And this is how I type when i’m this excited. Before I’ve just got back from a visit to see the Drawing Room project. I started working on this room a few months ago and man alive, it’s changed so much since my first visit. The whole room is not quite finished yet, but I thought, what the hell, I’ll just show you some cool close ups, because if I don’t, I might actually burst! If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen my post earlier this week where the Lines wallpaper by Ferm Living was going up on the walls. I think this photo has had the most likes of all my pics… which kind of sucks as that was taken by the decorator. “Eff you decorator, Stealing my Inta-thunder!” So now it’s time for MY pics. Let me show you some little hints of what’s to come. No …

The Loft Extension – Wk 1

Published by Karen Knox

Operation Loft Extension is now officially GO. Levels of excitement are at an all time high here at Making Spaces HQ. I’m super busy working behind the scenes on this one and i’ll be showing you the whole process from start to finish over the next few months. Here was the space 10 days ago, just before we flew out to New York. The loft just about emptied and ready to rock. You can see it’s got a good head height. 2.9m to be precise with a floor area of around 5.5 x 8m. Spot the rather sexy exposed brick wall in there? Well obviously that’s staying. One week later: Day 1. Scaffold up, kettle on and materials everywhere. Day 2. The framework for the rear dormer starts to go up.   Day 3. The new roof steel gets lugged up to the top and positioned to give us the new roofline. We’re switching from a hipped roof to gable end, negating the need for two dormers. Day 4. The roof goes up over the dormer. …

Off Black & Shadow White

Published by Karen Knox

Following on from Peignoir and Worsted (i’ve stopped crying now btw) i’m going to give you a pre “final reveal” peep at how the living room at the Masonic Villas project is looking…. now it’s gone all monochrome on us. Please bear in mind, the room doesn’t have everything in it just yet. Still some pieces to arrive, lighting to fix, shelves to style and lots of artwork to hang. LOTS. But I already love it. Farrow & Ball’s Off Black and Shadow White have given this Victorian living room, bursting with original period features, a real contemporary, Scandinavian edge. Let’s take a look at how colour alone can transform a space. Before After (with barely anything in it yet) I want to live in this room. Before After See how this space has been completely transformed, without actually changing all that much?  Same furniture, same curtains, same layout-ish. With those Off Black walls, everything that sits in front of them just looks amazeballs. Shadow White, one of Farrow and Ball’s new colours for 2016 was chosen for the woodwork, …

Masonic Villas goes Monochrome

Published by Karen Knox

After dealing with the trauma of the landing chandelier being fitted (after a month of set backs and six fairies – you kind of gotta read the post to understand what i’m on about there) this is going to be a nice and simple blog post. Oh good. See, now the light is up, it means we can get on with the fun stuff. Fun stuff like getting paint on the walls and seeing the backdrop for our new rooms. You can read more about the colour palette for the whole project here, but for today i’m just going to show you what a difference colour can make to the overall feel of a room. Farrow and Ball’s Off Black and Shadow White The last time I walked into this room, it was like this: The only progress we’d made at this point was updating the ceiling light. And let me tell you, that was one million times more simple than fitting the light on the landing. Fo sho. On my next visit, we’d made great strides. Well, …