All posts tagged: renovation

The Georgian Apartment – New Project Time

Published by Karen Knox

Time to introduce you to a new project today. It’s a two bedroom apartment situated inside what was once one of the many impressive mansions built in Leeds, 300 years ago. This Georgian property certainly has the scale and proportion you would expect from this period. Just looking at this photo from the recent sales listing, you can see there is a real gem waiting to be loved, revived and restored. The new homeowner is VERY keen to get the works done as quickly as possible, understandably. But as ever, i’ve had to put the brakes on a little in order to give this special building what it deserves. Because, whoever fitted this kitchen was clearly high on solvents: Who on earth would fit a blue formica kitchen in a Georgian mansion? Definitely someone from the late 80’s early 90’s me thinks…. Here’s the apartment’s original floorplan to give you an idea of what rooms and spaces we are working with and how they all relate: As you can see, the floorplan suggests there would have …

The Harrogate Project – Ground Floor Progress

Published by Karen Knox

I took a trip over to see my Harrogate project last week. I was so excited to see the progress that I posted a pic on Instagram before it even made it onto the blog. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) The space has officially been transformed thanks to this rather spectacular glazing. Remember it’s on two floors? Running up from this kitchen/diner up to the master bedroom suite: A bit of the master suite on the floor above It’s actually an industrial glazing system that you’d usually find in offices. My clients had originally looked into residential glazing options, but due to the height & scale of the glass, they ended up going with an industrial curtain walling system in black aluminium. Looks fab doesn’t it!? Ok, back downstairs for today… Ignore that light – it’s not staying This is where there’ll be a sofa and TV and a bit of fancy paint work. I know those walls looks lovely as they are, but the …

Meanwhile… back in Harrogate – The Kitchen Diner Project

Published by Karen Knox

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Edwardian house in Harrogate i’ve been working on for about two years already. We have been slowly working our way around all the different floors, creating some knockout spaces for this family of three. The Drawing Room Upper Brook St Bedroom Family Bathroom and Hallway The Trumpet Bedroom The Copper Bedroom Well for the past year or so, we’ve been planning the biggest job of all. Knocking through the back of the house on the ground and first floor. Today it’s all about the ground floor and here are some before photos from the sales listing so you can acquaint yourself with the spaces we’re currently working on. The Dining Room A long (blue) narrow space with lots of odd boxing in. A bit of a let down compared to the rest of the house’s loft proportions, don’t cha think? Just, no to these blinds And here was the equally depressing kitchen: Another long, skinny room that felt dark and cramped, sitting two at the very end right next …

A Guide for New Homeowners – Where to start, the dos and don’ts

Published by Karen Knox

There’s an epidemic afoot everyone. It’s called “first time home owner syndrome”. As we already know, people are getting onto the property ladder later in life. Renting well into your 20’s and 30’s, even 40’s is becoming the norm. House prices are mental and mortgages are a nightmare. I was one of the lucky ones, I got my grubby mitts on my first house, a 3 bed, ex-council semi, back in 2003. It felt like a HUGE amount of money at the time. £38k. I have no doubt anyone would bite your hand off to be able to buy a property for that now. The current property climate has led to a high number of long term renters, many of which have never been hands on with a property. Maybe getting as far as hanging pictures, a shelf perhaps. But when it comes down to learning about the nuts and bolts of a house and how to look after a property, renters tend to leave that job to the landlord/lady. That’s what you’re paying for …

The Victorian Cottage Kitchen – Pre-reveal

Published by Karen Knox

It’s been a long time coming but the Victorian Cottage Kitchen project has been ticking along nicely (and sometimes not so nicely) in the background. If you remember we were “faking it until we could make it” by reusing all of the existing cabinets and updating lighting, wall coverings, worktops and appliances. You can read all about the plans and where all of the new elements are from here in this post. A quick reminder of the kitchen as it was on my very first visit: All of the next set of photos have been kindly sent by my client (last night at 9pm in fact) she sent me a tiny pic at about 8pm and I was like SEND ME MORE, I NEED TO SEEEEE! I honestly get so excited when one of my rooms comes to life in someone’s actual house. Especially when the client keeps telling me how much they love it. Makes all those sleepless nights worth it. Just. During So here we are, very nearly at the end of the project. …

The Garden Room

Published by Karen Knox

I’m sure you’ve caught a glimpse of the Victorian property i’m working on already, either on here or Instagram. But there’s another space i’ve been working on that leads off from this cottage kitchen. Before Through that stable door, there’s The Garden Room. You can just about see it through the window. As i’ve already mentioned, this single skin, timber built conservatory will be knocked down to make way for the big extension in the next few years. But until then…. we are making good, using every trick in the interior design book to transform this unused space into a room that can serve many purposes, whilst the homeowners save up for the dream kitchen, diner, family room. Let me show you the floor-plan, so you can see how this large, previously unused Garden Room will be given a new lease of life, function and purpose and some of the tricks we’re using to disguise the quirks imperfections. The Garden Room is built off what was originally the external wall of the house, which means all …

The Victorian Cottage Kitchen – Part 2

Published by Karen Knox

I tootled over to east of York this week to check in on the Victorian Cottage Kitchen project. Work has been coming along nicely since I last shared this project with you guys (read the intro over here). This is where we were before any works began; a pretty traditional set up for a cottage kitchen. And here’s where we are now… The green, glazed tiles from Mandarin Stone with brass trim have transformed this side of the kitchen. Tiles are primarily specified for areas that get wet; bathrooms, kitchen splashbacks, floors, but they can be the perfect solution to create feature walls in alternative spaces. Tiling across the width of this wall gives the illusion of space and the rippled, gloss surface of the tiles helps to reflect the light in what’s a pretty dark part of the house. The homeowner’s love of green had been set aside for many years, fearing that green would clash with the family’s beloved blue Esse range cooker. “Do you think I can have green in here? Won’t …

‘Fake it until you can make it’ – What do you do when your budget won’t stretch?

Published by Karen Knox

You may (or may not) remember I started working on a rather big and exciting project earlier this year. The Old Forge The plans for this cottage renovation and soon to be holiday let are all pretty much sorted and despite a slight glitch with planning (which was super annoying and dished out but a week before the build was due to start) it’s looking positive we can get started within the next few weeks **crosses fingers**. During the wait for all the faffy paperwork to be shuffled, signed and filed, we’ve been chugging away with the family home instead. They sure do love a project! The floorplan below gives you an idea of their home, how the nooks and crannies of the cottage fit together and how they’re used. The sections marked in red were the bits to be demolished ready for Phase 2 of the big build. You can see how small and quite fiddly the kitchen/dining space is, there are seven doors in and around the heart of the home, along with beams, …

The Use of Scale & Proportion in Interiors

Published by Karen Knox

It’s one i’ve been promising to write for AGES. And I did touch on it in last week’s post, but i’m getting more into the nitty gritty of what Scale and Proportion actually is and how we can use it in our interiors. Proportion and Scale Proportion is the relationship of sizes between different parts of a work. For example, how wide it is compared to how tall it is. Some proportions, such as the golden ratio and the rule of thirds, are thought to be more visually pleasing. Scale is the size of something compared to the world in general – an artwork might be termed miniature, small scale, full scale or life-size, large scale or larger than life, or monumental. Here’s a brilliant example of the use of Scale in design: The Original 1227 Anglepoise desk lamp in both its original size and the more recent edition the GIANT 1227, floor lamp version. The proportions are identical, as in how the components that make up the lamp relate to one another, size wise. …

New Project – Next Door@TheOldForge

Published by Karen Knox

Sometimes a project lands, and it’s almost too good to be true. This is one. When someone contacts you to design the interiors for what will become a unique, interiors focused, two bedroom holiday let in North Yorkshire AND gives you carte blanche to push yourself with the overall design, you know you’re going to have fun. This won’t be just any old holiday let, it’s being converted and remodelled from a Victorian cottage and outbuildings, attached to what once was a forge. The Old Forge, which is next door is now the homeowners’s family home. They bought these most wonderful buildings set in a large plot and enormous gardens five years ago and it’s literally dripping in history and period features. Their 10 year plan is to renovate the main family home, which they have nearly finished (bar a large extension for a kitchen/diner family room) and to convert the rest of the attached buildings to a holiday rental. So here are the bare bones of the cottage and remaining outbuildings, soon to become: …