Charlotte’s charming terraced house in Chorlton, South Manchester, is in need of renovation. Her wish list includes more natural light and space, alongside reconfiguring the existing layout to accommodate open plan living. To help achieve her goals, Charlotte enlisted expert renovation advice from Pride Road Manchester.
Happy to oblige, our team conducted a full day Concept Design Workshop with Charlotte to draw up the existing layout and then look at devising a range of reconfiguration ideas.
Downstairs, Charlotte’s home consists of a traditional terraced layout that includes a front living room, middle dining room and rear kitchen. She requested that the back of the property be opened up by merging the existing kitchen and dining areas and gaining increased access to the garden. Charlotte also questioned whether an original chimney breast feature might be removed to create more space.
Meanwhile upstairs, Charlotte expressed a wish to change the layout of her small bathroom, again to add more space and storage options.
Taking stock of Charlotte’s concerns and priorities, we devised a range of renovation ideas to improve the existing living space, while keeping within budget.
Front view of Charlotte’s Chorlton terraced property
All plans are to scale
Following careful deliberation, we looked at moving the kitchen from the rear of the house to the middle. We felt that the installation of an attractive lighting system above the new worktops would provide sufficient brightness going forward. This plan allowed for the inclusion of a desirable kitchen island with built in cupboards and a recessed cooking range to be fitted in the former chimney breast. Meanwhile, the sink would be moved in front of the window to create an altogether more pleasant experience when washing up.
This plan also transformed the dining room and kitchen into one cohesive, open plan space, made possible with the support of a steel beam. The current rear part of the kitchen would switch to become the dining area with an attractive glass entryway into the garden, most likely bifold, patio or sliding doors. The added benefit of an extra side window would result in the creation of an even lighter room. Look no further than here for more tips on increasing light into the home.
In addition, we felt that the space under the staircase could be opened up to provide a handy cloakroom. The installation of cost-effective floor to ceiling cabinets between the living room and kitchen would offer plenty of shelves for food and crockery. For further ways to maximise your kitchen space, take a look at our top tips here
For this proposal we looked at keeping the dining room in the middle of the ground floor and the kitchen at the rear with cost cutting being the key focus. In accordance, the opening between the two rooms would become narrower, meaning that the required steel beam could be halved in size. A new kitchen layout would complement the structural changes with the boiler conveniently boxed off.
A little bit of a wild card, our third and final proposal involved keeping the existing galley kitchen at the rear of the property and adding a new downstairs toilet and utility room. It also meant that Charlotte could keep the precious space offered under the stairs. A large fireplace in the dining room could be removed but just as easily retained, should Charlotte prefer. For more advice on kitchen types, read our guide right here
All plans are to scale
The current bathroom houses a bathtub, washbasin and toilet. The primary problem with the space includes the position of the existing Victorian door, whose swing is limited because of where the bathtub sits. Changing the arc of the door offers an easy way to create space and maximise the impact of the room. In addition, the bathtub is too short for practical use because of a somewhat awkward wall angle that needs to be circumnavigated.
We looked at moving the bathtub to underneath the window and, in turn, relocating the washbasin and toilet. Further storage would come with the addition of new cupboards and wall shelves. The door would change position so that the room becomes neatly squared off on entry.
Here, we wanted to keep the door where it was but to either to create a narrower room entry or introduce a sliding pocket door that takes up less space.
We explored the option of repositioning the toilet and wall-mounting it in a spot where the tank can still be accommodated, complete with a handy shelf above.
This choice included the installation of longer bathtub that is tilted in order to dodge the awkward corner angle. As a result, the washbasin and toilet would be fitted perpendicular to the bathtub, rather than the wall, to bring balance.
Our final option represented the most dramatic change and would result in more space and increased natural light. The first step would be to demolish the chimney breast in the double bedroom behind the bathroom to create more storage. This would also allow for a longer bathtub. The washbasin and toilet would be positioned next to one another in the chimney breast recess that once encroached the bedroom. The boiler would then be moved from downstairs to a box above the toilet.
If you are looking beyond reconfiguring your home and towards an extension, we have all the advice you need to consider before taking the plunge here
Charlotte was delighted with the huge range of imaginative renovation ideas that were presented to her. This is because they all opened up the space, added better function to the rooms and maximised the natural light. In particular, she loved the notion of having a downstairs toilet and utility room, facilities that she would previously have written off as impossible to accommodate.
We were happy to provide the ideas and take Charlotte through the positives and negatives. She is now in the process of obtaining quotes from builders, fitters and engineers to see which alterations are best suited to her needs. This will help her to execute the project within budget, while representing top quality and offering optimum comfort. Our hand-drawings are to scale so the clients and builders can measure from them to get first cost estimates.
We enjoyed working on this particular project because it was interesting and we always relish a challenge. On this occasion, it was a puzzle for us to reconfigure this terraced property to maximise its considerable potential and bring it up-to-date.
Now, we look forward to seeing how the plans are realised and the subsequent construction process unfolds. We ultimately hope to share the final results of this particular renovation project with you.
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This was a really interesting project and we enjoyed the challenge of coming up with a range of options that our client was happy with!
This was a renovation exercise for a traditional terraced house. During our Concept Design Workshop, we looked at multiple options to change both the floor layout of both the ground and first floors to bring more light and functional space to the property. This type of design exercise allows the clients to analyse the properly plans once they are on the paper and settle on a design that is best suited to their needs and comes within budget.
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