Beautiful and interesting ideas to make a 3 bed semi renovation more exciting

[dietstartstomorrowok]

Turning 3 bed semi into 5 bed, ground floor too out the back for the expected family kitchen/diner.

Compiling a list for our architect on things to include in the design. Looking for alternatives to veluxs and bi folds! My style is pretty traditional, love shaker kitchens, limestone floors, original fireplaces and doors so want to keep it traditional.

What did you do in your renovation that made it a bit special? Thank you.

If you like more traditional styles, you could go with French doors.

However, most importantly I would think about the space, the numbers of bathrooms required, how many people you’d like to host for dinner etc to work out how to configure your ground floor. Also think about what storage you need and how much of it. Personally, I’d plan the master on the first floor as I found running up and down the stairs from a loft bedroom annoying.

Thanks Jo, we have the layout sorted it's more to do now with how to make a room more beautiful with interesting features, rather than a square with velux windows and bi folds!

Are you referring to striking finishing touches, fixtures and fittings? What style of furniture and furnishings do you have or do you intend to buy?

No, I'm referring to the actual design. How to make it more interesting rather than just a box, so roof lantern instead of velux for example. I love the attached images as examples.

Like them both, especially the first one with the sash window. The second one lets in a lot of natural light which is good. They're both good but I think I prefer the first one. I guess it depends on how you would use the room.

Forgot to ask - how old is the property and what style is it?

Hi Pax. 1930's.

I like what they've done with this 1930s house

www.houzz.co.uk/photo/6690947-richmond-1930s-refurbishment-contemporary-staircase-london (there's more pictures linked to)

That is nice. That's more about the interiors though. Maybe my post isn't very clear....

I found this ....

www.homify.co.uk/projects/92161/amazing-1930s-house-transformation

Pax, I love the the look of that double height bedroom I your link.

OP, with the pics you posted it’s just two veluxes next to each other and a dormer sash that you’d need a lot of height for and probably wouldn’t go with a 30’s house.

I also love when lifts get converted to mezzanines - definite wow factor but you get volume rather than extra bedrooms so might not work for you.

Another interesting one are veluxes that turn into a little balcony. That’s an interesting but down to earth idea in a standard suburban house.

Forgot the pics!

That house is gorgeous pax!

Trading up from veluxes to a roof light is well worth the extra cash, for both more light and a more sophisticated feel.

the inside of that 1930s house is nice, but they have ruined all the character of the outside. it looks like a cala house.

I kind of like a mix of true traditional and very modern.
If OP is planning to extend the ground floor at the back of their 1930s house then I think they could go for contemporary with wall to wall glass for example. It wouldn't be visible from the street.
I also like a mix of antique and modern furniture and decorations. It can work if you choose carefully.

Are you an interior designer pax? You sound really knowledgeable. I'd love it if you started a thread with more suggestions like these.

whiskyowl - thanks, no I'm not an interior designer but I am very interested in modern architecture and design. I grew up in a house that was built in 1971, not a big house at all but very advanced for its time. Wall to wall glass sliding windows. Open fireplace in the centre of the living room. Some of the neighbours called it the 'glass house'. Our furniture was very contemporary too. The sofa was basically a very long white cylinder-shaped bean bag that you had to 'shape' any way you liked. I may have a photo of it somewhere.

I like a mix of old and modern too in fact we are putting a modern extension on the back of an old victorian house and have covered antique chairs in modern fabric. That 1930s house however has been ruined from the front.

whiskyowl - mind you there are houses that were designed and built as early as the 1920s that were way more advanced for its time than my childhood home ever was. The exteriors of some of these 1920s houses would be considered 'contemporary' even today.

I think bifold things have had their day. I don't like them as you can only have them as one door at the side open or all open which isn't a quick operation and also pretty chilly for this country 95% of the time. Double doors set within a Crittal style wall of paned glass is my dream. Then you can have 2 doors open in the middle creating lovely views out to the garden.

NatMatCat - the downside for me would be the cleaning of all the paned glass.

Crittal windows seem to be the new trend after all the bifold rage.

As much as I love the double height bedroom in that 'modernised' 30's house, I do feel like the house has been butchered as is neither here nor there - no 30's character left but it's not a patch on the Barcelona Pavillion either. God knows what it is frankly. Even the front and back elevations don't look like the same property.

Here's a good axample of a contemporary house:
www.themodernhouse.com/past-sales/slip-house-london-sw2/

pax - have you read that book by Douglas Murphy, Last Futures? It's really fun on utopian architecture (and where it went). I'd love to see pictures of your childhood home, it sounds amazing.

I'm always struck when I watch things like Grand Designs about how modernism has become our definition of the modern, even though some of this architecture is now decades and decades old! A Mies-inspired house still looks leagues ahead of the stuff some of the worst volume house builders are producing.

And Nax - I agree. I went for sliding doors. It just seemed less fussy than bifolds with their complicated mechanism. I live in a cold part of the country, so I would basically never want to open up the whole lot - being able to open them a touch, and to get in/out of the garden through them is plenty, and they don't use up space like normal doors (which is a consideration for the room they are in).

And I LOVE the Slip House JoJo. I can remember seeing it featured when it was built. The restraint in terms of colour in those elegant interiors is absolutely wonderful.

OP - remember the practicalities (as well as the design). Presumably you'll still have a neighbour as you house is a semi so from the outside, I'd suggest you need to keep that in mind.

Also think about the orientation of the house. A roof lantern and bucketloads of glass might look amazing but if you're South facing in an area of the country that gets decent weather, the room may be uncomfortably hot - have a relative that did this and the room was so hot even on a nice sunny day in Easter that an Easter egg left out on the side melted to a puddle within a couple of hours. She's had to installed blinds and air conditioning.

Unless it's your forever house, keep in mind the desirability of what you do. What you may consider beautiful may not be someone else's view, so whilst you absolutely have to do it for you if you're there for the long term, just keep that in the back of your mind.