The client told Magda that their home wasn’t being used to its potential, where several rooms felt distant and cut off from each other. So what was the issue that she identified?
Unusable spaces or the story of a too cold or too hot conservatory obscuring the garden and used as a store room
The 1930s semi-detached home is a three-bedroom property with a dining room, conservatory, and double-story extension that didn’t deliver seamless movement through desirable living spaces.
The goal was to open up the spaces to make the transition between the living areas more consistent and coherent, erasing the dividing lines between the unused rooms in the house. The client realised she would need to find an architect because she didn’t understand how to bring the spaces together.
Our architect Magda Haener delivered a plan to make the spaces more open.
Magda discussed her vision to open up the spaces with the client, resolving the layout issues by finding a reason for every room. The goal was to make each space flow together, to resolve any awkward spaces and get the most use out of the home. Discussions took into considerations revamping the narrow kitchen, bathroom, conservatory, and dining room.
The core of the plans was to bring a consistent spatial relationship between each room to blur the restrictive lines of each space. The contemporary reconfiguration of the property’s interiors works in conjunction with the external features.
The discussion of seamless transitioning through the house proved to be the most engaging for the client, and the resulting concept design delivered the biggest change to their home.
Magda’s elegant and concise concept design helped make these spaces align more to the family’s use.
The plan opened up the kitchen to maximise the space and removed the visual boundary between the dining room and garden. A contemporary stone aesthetic runs through the interior. Highlights of the build include: widening the kitchen with an island to bring the dining area together; harmonising the functions of each space and making them feel much less restrictive.
The project of simplifying the spaces in their home was more complicated than the client had anticipated. Thanks to Magda they were in safe hands, because she was able to guide them through the process and empowered them to realise their ambitions for their home.
The result is a very happy client with a totally transformed space that they can enjoy. And on reflection the client was grateful that she had decided to work with an architect on the project. Magda’s perspective brought valuable insight into the whole process, identifying aspects that they might not have considered and, which may have further complicated the space.
The client highlighted the Concept Design Workshop and the planning process as the most intriguing parts of the journey, and highly recommend Pride Road for anyone looking to transform their home.
Pride Road took a complex, under-utilised set of spaces, reconfigured their layout and made unusable spaces usable again. Key features include:
