Unique homes aren’t always a converted grain barn or a Grade I listed Jacobean manor house. We all have that little something about our own space that gives us that one-of-a-kind feeling, particularly when you’ve had some involvement in its creation.
Have you just bought a project or are you planning to up-cycle your current pad? We thought we’d share some ideas and websites that might help you, whether you’re embarking on a major renovation, or more modest plans, here’s how to create a one-of-a-kind home from any property.
1. Open up
Changing the relationship between rooms and spaces can dramatically affect the way a property looks, feels and functions. Removing narrow corridors to widen a living or dining room; knocking a tiny kitchen into a larger open plan living space, or opening up the back of a property to blur the lines between inside and out can all take a typical layout into surprising new territory.
This industrial conversion of a former lightbulb factory in Brixton demonstrates the art of dispensing with interior walls. View the full details here.
2. Play with light
Lifting spaces out of darkness immediately adds a positive vibe. Can you borrow light from an adjoining room? High-level glass inserted into a wall can pull light through without encroaching on privacy, while vertical glass interventions can add an architectural flourish and increase the sense of space without losing separation.
Toots Rock in Pett Level, East Sussex draws light in to living areas from its adjoining glazed conservatory. Views the full details here.
3. Smash the ceiling
Attics can provide some of the most eye-catching improvements to a property. Instead of the regular loft conversion of simply adding more bedrooms – usually a master suite – try conveying something more dramatic. Double the height of existing bedrooms by removing the ceiling for cathedral-like results, or create a mezzanine for a partial double-height void along with extra floor space. Tonge Mills epic top floor utilises its lofty eaves. Full details here.
4. Updating Period Windows
Simply modernising windows can alter a property’s external appearance and interior mood. If you get it right, contemporary glazing can fuse period architecture and fierce modernity with remarkable ease. A wall of bi-folding doors onto a garden in place of a plain wall and single door; taking half-height windows right down to the floor; adding in skylights to look at the heavens. But do be mindful of your neighbours – on a typical street of Victorian or Georgian terraces, you might want to keep your wilder ideas to the back of the building.
Great Jubilee Wharf in Wapping exemplifies the sympathetic replacement of old windows with new warehouse style inserts. See the full details here.
5. Dig deeper
Basement conversions are all the rage, with extraordinary things happening under the homes of the rich and famous. But you don’t need to be a rock star with a huge Kensington pile to unlock the potential beneath your feet. Anywhere with a cellar has the potential for greatness, although be mindful that excavation is more expensive than mere conversion. Many a music studio has been hewn from former coal bunkers, with light either borrowed from the grate or through toughened glass in the floor above.
Ready for repurposing. Bridge House in Wiltshire has a vast basement area that’s ready to be imagined in a way that suits your lifestyle. See the full details here.
Hopefully that’s enough to get your cogs turning and your pencils sharpened. With a bit of imagination – and a healthy dose of Pinteresting – almost any property can be turned into a unique home.
We’ll revisit this subject often with examples and images, so do stay tuned.
