Please help me with my 'garden'!
jemster
8 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (8)
jemster
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help me make my hallway entrance appealing
Comments (30)Very much like my hall (almost identical except ours is 1922 and thus the detail is a tad more Edwardian in influence) ! I've added a wall light on the wall going up the stairs and matching pendants from Fritz Fryer and added a plain paper from Zoffany (called 'silk plain') . Thus the basic scheme is very plain and layered up with artefacts (tables, hall chair, paintings). I've added mirrors to throw light around the place..and am hunting for a distressed antique one to go right at the top of the stairs facing you. It looks as though your stairs go to left and right too... so adding the mirror will I think create more light and ambiance in that rather dark junction. I do agree that it would be lovely to have the stained glass replaced in the door. I added full door curtains with a upholstered pelmet over the door which makes it look much less stark (personally I don't think the little shelf at right adds anything and I'd remove it ;( ). . I chose an embroidered linen from Sanderson for the curtains and used the same fabric for the landing window and hooked that back with a French swan neck holdback and they were hung from a brass reeded Jim Lawrence curtain pole which goes very well with the Fritz Fryer lighting fitments. It's still work in progress as our beautiful carpet had to be removed due to allergy and we're still trying to get the best result on the oak floor in the hall. Be lovely to see what you do given your layout is so similar! :)...See MorePlease help me with my kitchen!!
Comments (10)Hi Jo, I understand your problem, I had a similar issue in the past and it was the cost of hiring professionals that was the problem and I had to get really creative to solve the issues! Listed building consent is free. You could apply for this yourself, if you actually needed it (planningportal). You could call your local council and speak with the officer about what you want to do and get their advice yourself without having to hire anyone. If this gorgeous place was my home, I would add some beautiful glass / french doors to the conservatory and keep them closed most of the time. Then in the conservatory dining room I would add some gorgeous conservatory blinds (including roof blinds) and or curtains and some great radiators (I really love the ACOVA ones, they blend traditional and modern really well and are really efficient) or use the plug in type to heat the space an hour before dinner. I would probably get insulating blinds and have fun with a colour scheme for all of the soft furnishings such as rugs and anything that will help keep the place feeling warm. I am not sure how large or young your family is, but if you were considering a rejig of the kitchen, adding a small bar area would suffice for breakfast and mean you only had to heat the conservatory on weekend lunches and at dinner times. I hope this gave you some more ideas! ... And some pics to get you inspired.... Have a great day and good luck! Jo...See MoreCan anyone help me with reconfiguring my home /kitchen layout please!!
Comments (13)Whilst I understand the constraints of budget I think you are approaching the planning wrong. I think the way to do this is to decide on the layout that works best and then work out what you can afford to do now- perhaps you can make economies on purchases such as the kitchen cabinets to get a better Gliw in your home. An architectural designer or a concept planner are worth considering to help with this- they would also help you visualise the finished space too. If this were my house I would be thinking the entrance wasn’t big enough for the size of house and I would be concerned about privacy of the bedrooms at the front, I also don’t like the current kitchen being some distance from a window and being a heavy traffic area. Although I can’t see the layout properly I think I have got the sizes about right to show how I would do it. I have moved the front door to the middle of the house, shown a vaulted hall with stairs to two big upstairs spaces, shown the living space as completely open plan but with the option of using one of the downstairs bedrooms or one of the upstairs rooms as an extra living room. In my opinion there are often houses with long narrow extensions across the back that should have been better considered as invariably people need bigger spaces rather than more small rooms and retrospectively opening up the original house into this space is more difficult that building in the steels originally. So my plan doesn’t change any of the external walls of the original property but a couple of internal brick walls have been removed. I have just shown what is commercial and probably wouldn’t cost the earth but a designer would spend time trying to better understand your needs....See MorePlease help me decide on my lounge / diner / kitchen layout
Comments (15)Thank-you very much for the comments. I hope it will be a great space, but playing around with it and changing the design at the last minute is getting a bit stressful! This is the design that the build company showed us initially - just their initial thought as it how it would look. I found feeling the area where they had positioned the fridge/freezer very tricky. We want a free-standing french larder style fridge and the doors and level of matching with the rest of the units didn't seem like a good fit. The support pillar for the steel that crosses the island in the attachment below has also been a real annoyance. It sticks out 23cm, so it can only really go through empty-ish cupboards. Clearly anything to the left of that steel is difficult to vent. On the design in my intitial post, I was intending to have a dropped ceiling element that stretched just beyond the steel. This would let me have a powerful extractor and exit the flew onto the flat room (hidden by the drop ceiling 'box'). I like the idea you describe of a full wall of units, then island, then table. I guess Jonathan's proposal is similar to that. While I love the efficiency of the "4 double door" hideaway I just don't like the aesthetic, so will need to think about something else. Bringing it back to what we need... Utility room: enough to stash the washing machine, store the vacuum cleaner and hang a few clothes. No need for a sink. Free Standing, 90cm wide fridge, nicely framed either by wall of kitchen units. Waist height oven with an additional "top oven / grill (broiler)" - so at least one full height column. Good size kitchen island with at least two seats. Approx 90cm induction hob, plus a gas domino hob. Powerful, externally venting extractor over hob. I'm relatively open to moving the kitchen/living area to wherever it works best. I'm also not desperate to have the hob on the island (but that would be nice). As far as I know, the builders haven't done anything that can't be easily adjusted at this stage - but I think that will change in a couple of days - and they are planning for the kitchen to be in the old part of the house. As for rooflights - I thought, perhaps wrongly, that it would be light enough with the big bifold doors. It is an east facing room, and the old room had some sliding paitio doors and it felt bright enough. So I have left roof lights out on the basis that - but I'm also concerned about noise. (Cheaper too!). The biggest window we can gave without incurring significantly more cost is 1800mm x 1000mm - I'm minded to be 2 or 3 of these in that middle section. Thanks!...See Morejemster
8 years ago
Pat Oliver Interior Design