NYR for YPYR

I just read a lovely post on Apartment Therapy about the Theresa Gonzalez's New Years Resolutions for her apartment.

I love this because it turns the concept of those niggeling 'to do' lists into time invested in your home 'a little TLC' as Theresa puts it.

Following her lead my 2014 Resolutions for [Our] Place & YPYR are:

1) Design our extension
2) Put in a shower (currently using a shower attachment hung from a shelf)
3) Get our expensive range oven out of the garage and into the kitchen (I miss gas hobs)
4) Clear the box room (the smallest bedroom is still full of boxes from the move)
5) Maximise and utilise the storage in the house; A Place for Everything
6) Entertain more at home
7) Better time keeping when entertaining so its more enjoyable
8) Be more organised
9) Allow more time for homemaking and hobbies
10) Use every inch of [Our] Place
11) Blog once a week
12) Revamp the blog page
13) Instagram once a day
14) Become featured Interiors blogger

What are your resolutions for [Your] Place?

Caroline Sydney-Payne; A Place For Family

'Family' was the definitive term when designing Caroline and Billy Paynes extension. This design is all about sharing and creating a space for everyone to enjoy ...

  

Like every modern family, Caroline's is a busy one. Two children of primary school age, activities and a business at home mean that the family space works hard to provide everything required.

The scheme revolves around creating a unified space with the flexibility to multi-task and provide the family with places to play, work and study on the ground floor.

 

We started with a range of sketch schemes, mood boards (below) and a lot of Pintrest Action which you can see here.
 

 

The Layout

The design extends the open plan living area, by infilling a courtyard, to create space for a new kitchen (open to the living area).

 

  
 

To gain as much natural light as possible for the space and to add that 'wow factor' we added a roof lantern to the flat roof area. This is to flood the kitchen with natural light and create as much borrowed light as possible for the existing dining area, new study and utility room.

To allow natural light and ventilation, into otherwise internal rooms, we designed in two roof lights to the utility room and proposed study/ 4th Bedroom and used glazed doors between rooms.

The kitchen design incorporates a breakfast bar to allow the children to be able to sit with Caroline whilst she is in the kitchen whilst keeping them out of harms way. Rear glazed doors open into the garden to create an easy connection between the internal and external spaces.

In the dining area we created flexibility with an extending table that can be moved into the centre of the room when a larger number of people need to be seated and used a large wall mirror to reflect natural light from the kitchen extension into the dining area.

 

 

 

The dining area doubles as a play area and built in storage houses the children's toys and books in tubs so they can be easily cleared away for dinner.

The lounge has been refocused on the fireplace in the centre, a large corner sofa looks inward toward the fireplace (TV wall mounted above) and beyond to the open plan living space. An arm chair allows the seating plan to be easily reconfigured for more social occasions.

The new kitchen allowed us to use the floor area to provide a new study, utility room and extend the existing downstairs WC to form a wet room and shower.

 

 

The Finishes 

 The interior finishes and furniture have been selected to create an eclectic mix of traditional tones and forms with a modern injection of pattern and bright colour.

The chandelier light fittings are centrally positioned in each of the three distinct spaces to visually link the open plan living space. The same themes and shades have also been continued in the finishes to connect and distinguish the different uses.

Continuous floor timber effect floor finish, broken with a rug in the lounge, create a high end seamless look to the space and increase the visual impact and feeling of size. The area of decking outside will have boards orientated the same way to and at the same level to continue the visual connections to the space outside.

VALERIE HOWELLS: A PLACE WITH A VIEW

Mr and Mrs Howells breed rare sheep and rams and had a small one bedroom cottage in need of modernistaion throughout.





Walnut Lodge prior to remodelling

 

 The scheme includes a single storey extension to provide an open plan living area with views over the adjacent fields that hold their livestock, internal remodeling to provide an aditional bedroom and new bathroom.




Views from Southern aspect over adjoining fields



We also reclad the entire property in Eternit Cedral Weatheboarding, a maintance free material, which completely transformed the property inkeeping with the countryside asethic and allowed us to update and improve the properties insulation to meet modern standards.

The connection to the outdoors was paramount to the client and with the house in such beautiful surroundings we included roof lights and open eaves to the open plan living space. Off of the living space are two fully glazed french doors which open to the southern aspect and take in views of the surrounding fields.

The project is nearly complete on site so watch this space for completed photos...

[Our] Place: Lounge Update

Whilst taking photos of [Our] Place for the blog, and mentally comparing them to the schemes I'm currently designing, our house came up short, very short.

The Lounge was one of the first rooms we did and on a tight budget. Five years on and our hand-me-down table and chairs are beyond tired, our 'cheap as chips' sofas are sheading bolts faster than our dog sheds fur and our mis-matched storage is cramping our layout. This is not the home of a interior design business.

However we are planning to move house soon to a place that we can really develop the way we want to with extensions and knocking out walls, so I'm not going to start replacing all the furniture just yet.

In the interim I am planning a few minor updates to maximise the impact with items we can take with us when we move.


The red tones and pattern of the feature fabric [a hug piece of remenant fabric which made two curtain panels, covered six dining room chairs, made two cushions and customised a nest of coffe tables] from Feran Fabrics need updating.

The Theatre Spread, in the John Lewis magazine, featuring metallic lighting spurned my recent metallic obsession and I find myself focused on bringing out the subtle metallics in the Graham and Brown feature wall paper, which I still absolutley love.

The Theatre Spread from the John Lewis Magazine

I intend to do this by replacing the ‘upcycled’ coffee table nest, incorporating the deep pink paint and the red feature fabric and replacing them with, what I consider to be a brilliant and very reasonably priced white coffee table nest from Habitat.

  

The Kilo Table nest is a sleek thin oak frame with a formed powder coated metal top give the apperance of a modern product with a nostalgic nod to 1950’s design. Kilo is avliable as a nest of three or a single table which allows us to inject a bit of symmetry into the lounge and have plenty of flexibility for when guests come round.

The tables are avliable in a range of colours, we have selected white to echo the white in the light fittings we installed when we first did up the lounge which also have a bit of retro appeal.

To make the space feel larger and seat more people we bought an Poang Arm Chair from Ikea for £55. Its so light and versitile we'll be able to find it a new place in which ever home we end up. It is now Milo's favorite new spot.

To accessorise the scheme I bought a neutral dog tooth pattern throw from TK Maxx and the Yves table lamp from Habitat with Grande black and copper lamp shade, also from habitat.

At a total cost of less than £300 the lounge updated has neutralised and updated the lounge ready for potencial buyers.

This is the joy of designing in a neutral base, something I often encourage clients to do, it’s easy to change and won’t break the bank, which is especially important if, like me, redecorating is a professional hazard.

Welcome to [Your] Place

Today has been a very exciting day. It feels like a lot of work (and admittedly procrastination) has finally come together...

 

is my

Interior Design brand and Design blog

with a client focused ethos.

 

 

This blog will be a platform to share ideas, concepts and advice for interior design, home making and modern living. It will include projects, professional advice and pieces from friends and readers about Interior Design Projects from real homes.

 

 

We've got a lot of exciting posts coming up including pieces on recent projects, inspirational schemes and some practical advise about how to get what you want from [Your] Place.

 

So watch this space...

 

 

 

 

[Your] Place Your Rules is about sharing real interiors projects from real homes… if you have something to share please email me at yourplaceyourrules@gmail.com