Simon bought his 1930s semi-detached Whalley Range home following the recent birth of his baby and was keen to explore ways to extend it and create a light, functional and open plan living space for entertaining family and friends. He was also keen to increase the number of bedrooms and incorporate a few additional luxuries, including an ensuite bathroom, workshop, sun house and sauna.
The property is situated on a large plot of land with substantial front and back gardens and a wide driveway and shed to the side. Indoors, the house has a spacious hallway, generously sized front and back rooms and a big kitchen.
With a wonderful base on which to start working from, Simon contacted Magda at Pride Road to explore ways to add his ideal rear and side two-storey extension and loft conversion, this maximising the space on all floors of the house. Magda guided Simon through one of her highly respected Concept Design Workshops to review the existing footprint and how to enhance it.
During this process, Simon was especially keen to extend the kitchen and include bespoke skylights to create an open plan family friendly room where everyone can sit down and relax together, while also giving rise to additional space to cope with the demands of a newborn baby.
Magda listened carefully and drew up a range options and budgets to extend and convert the ground floor, first floor and loft spaces
Simon
All plans are to scale
First off all, we knocked through the existing kitchen wall to create a side extension. This would make space for a sought after kitchen island, a small utility room and a dining table and soft seating area towards the back of the house. There would also be scope to install a toilet room underneath the staircase.
Here, we preserved the existing rear bay windows using a steel structure that also incorporated a clean and fuss-free rear and boundary pushing side extension. We also looked at the option of adding a bicycle workshop to the shed.
Explore our range of handy tips for introducing more light into your home.
This design again included a rear and side extension with designated bicycle storage in one corner. This option would also enable Simon to have plenty of cupboard space and a kitchen island. If you need help, we know lots of other ways to help you maximise your kitchen space.
The side extension space would not be as deep and wide here as in option two but could easily include a functional walkway that seamlessly guides people around the house.
For this option, we focused on redesigning the layout of the bathroom. The side extension would be the full-width of the house and easily allows for a new large family bathroom and extra office space for Simon.
The space here would sit directly about that of option two on the ground floor, a double storey side extension that reaches all the way out to the property’s boundary. This would enable Simon to have an ensuite bathroom adjoining a new master bedroom and an office space, all while keeping the three original bedrooms. This ultimately went on to be Simon’s preferred option.
The pan here would be to incorporate the small rear bedroom into the extension and add an ensuite bathroom. This would mean that the first floor would have three well-proportioned double bedrooms and a family bathroom too.
Here, we combined several options that primarily examined how to use the space for two new bedrooms, where to place an extra ensuite bathroom, how to preserve the staircase for minimal disruption and the possibility of installing a walk-in wardrobe.
The solution we arrived upon was to have a small nursery behind a main master bedroom, complete with skylights, an ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe, at the front of the house. It was this option for the loft that went on to be submitted to planning. We have a range of other nifty ideas to help you with your home reconfiguration project.
Simon was satisfied with our Concept Design Workshop and appreciated the ideas that we presented to him.
For our part, it was extremely enjoyable to plan and meet the needs of Simon’s growing family, ensuring they have enough space in their home to accommodate a newborn. The new plans mean that the home would increase from three bedrooms to five, alongside a host of extra domestic functions that markedly improve the property as it currently stands.
We are now at the stage of finalising the designs, going through the costs and budget and nailing down exactly how much extra space Simon and his family requires without spending money unnecessarily.
It could be the case that we come back to the drawing board and downsize the scale of the plans and change the materials. This is in order to ensure that Simon is aware of all the possible options and costs and so that he can pick what is necessary to tick all of the boxes so that he is happy in his new home.
Whatever the circumstances, Simon can be safe in the knowledge that there is a ideal option out there to suit him. If you are unsure of where to start, we have information all about how to wisely invest in your home.
Simon says: “I got in touch with Magda to look at some options for extending our 1930s semi. The problem I had was that there were a lot of options to consider, including extending to the rear or side and also going into the loft space.
“What was really useful about the workshop was looking at the different configurations, some of which I never would have come up with. There were some really good options I think.”
Our plans are hand drawn to scale so that the clients and builders can measure from them to get first cost estimates.
Would you like to change the layout of your home to create a better space? Book a workshop.
“I got in touch with Magda to look at some options for extending our 1930s semi. The problem I had was that there were a lot of options to consider, including extending to the rear or side and also going into the loft space."
Simon
“What was really useful about the workshop was looking at the different configurations, some of which I never would have come up with. There were some really good options I think.”
"Simon was satisfied with our Concept Design Workshop and appreciated the ideas that we presented to him."
"For our part, it was extremely enjoyable to plan and meet the needs of Simon’s growing family, ensuring they have enough space in their home to accommodate a newborn.The new plans mean that the home would increase from three bedrooms to five, alongside a host of extra domestic functions that markedly improve the property as it currently stands."
Pride Road
