'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.
