5 Ways I’m Maximising The Layout Of My Home
The Layout of the house was the most important decision that I’ve made so far on our renovation journey. I took a few weeks to really get to know the space before we started any work. I even put a bed in the empty house and slept there to really get a feel of what it is that we need and what we want from our new home to really utilise the space best. I thought I would share with you the five most important things that I'm doing to maximise space.
1. Considering Open Plan
I work from home and when I’m not in the kitchen I spend a lot of time at my desk writing up recipes, my monthly Sunday Times column and all the admin that comes with running your own business. So I need a work space and the house didn’t really have any room for this. So what was a bedroom with a little ensuite is now being turned into a living room and office space. We have gutted out the bathroom, removed the door and opened up the wall creating an archway making both of the rooms flow together and it really makes the whole area feels a lot bigger and brighter.
Although the room looks spacious now, once furnished the room will become much smaller, opening up the entrance makes it all flow a lot nicer and will allow the light from both rooms to really brighten up the areas too.
[New living room and office space]
2. Utilising Corners
I really want to utilise every corner in the home so that it is fun and functional. Most of the time these spaces I’ve found tend to go to waste. One idea that I've had is to build a bar in one of the corners as I love entertaining and having a space set up for cocktails seems like a really fun space to have! I’m going to build cupboards to store drinks, have a work top to prepare them and then add shelving to store the glassware.
[Turning this corner into a bar]
3. Creating Storage Space
In my eyes you can never have too much storage space, one thing I noticed about the house was there was no place to store household essentials like an ironing board or hover so I knew that we had to find a space. After thinking about all the different places we could utilise to create this I finally decided that our downstairs bathroom could definitely have a makeover to accommodate the storage space.
At the moment the small bathroom has a sink, toilet and a small cupboard. I’m going to take out the sink but leave the loo in there, just in case we need to quickly run to it! But we’ll turn that space into a mini cloakroom with coat hooks for jackets and shelving for shoes and hats.
One side of the bathroom sits underneath the stairs so we’re going to open this wall up to utilise that under stair space and store those household essentials. I think under the stairs is always a forgotten space so why not make the most out of it?!
[Under stairs storage space in the downstairs bathroom]
4. Reconsidering Doors
What you will probably start to learn about me on this renovation journey is I hate doors! If I had my way there would be no doors at all throughout the house because I love the free flowing feeling of archways and I never like to close doors, it really makes the room feel smaller. So in some spaces I will be removing them completely and in other spaces I'll be putting in sliding doors and even curtains.
By putting in sliding doors or curtains it really allows you make the most out of the space behind where the door would usually open to, this means I can put in a shower in the bathroom, or a side table in the bedroom.
[Bedroom door removed and sliding door to be added]
5. Planning Every Inch!
When planning our home we really thought about what we specifically want and need and are finding ways to fit everything in. For example our bathroom is very small, but my husband and I are both bathers and having a tub where we can soak after a long day is non-negotiable. We also like to have our own sink and like to have the option of having a quick shower each morning. In order to have this all fit we’ve had to rearrange the room completely. So everything has been gutted out, we’ve moved the doorway to a different wall and are now considering removing the door to fit the shower in! As for bathroom storage we’ve decided to add shelving to walls as an easy option to store towels and beauty products. Where there’s a will there is definitley a way!
