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Wednesday 21 August 2013

Caroline Sydney-Payne; A Place For Family

'Family' was the definitive term when designing Caroline and Billy Paynes extension. This design is all about sharing and creating a space for everyone to enjoy ...
  
Like every modern family, Caroline's is a busy one. Two children of primary school age, activities and a business at home mean that the family space works hard to provide everything required.

The scheme revolves around creating a unified space with the flexibility to multi-task and provide the family with places to play, work and study on the ground floor.
 
We started with a range of sketch schemes, mood boards (below) and a lot of Pintrest Action which you can see here.
 
 
The Layout
The design extends the open plan living area, by infilling a courtyard, to create space for a new kitchen (open to the living area).
 
  
 
To gain as much natural light as possible for the space and to add that 'wow factor' we added a roof lantern to the flat roof area. This is to flood the kitchen with natural light and create as much borrowed light as possible for the existing dining area, new study and utility room.

To allow natural light and ventilation, into otherwise internal rooms, we designed in two roof lights to the utility room and proposed study/ 4th Bedroom and used glazed doors between rooms.


The kitchen design incorporates a breakfast bar to allow the children to be able to sit with Caroline whilst she is in the kitchen whilst keeping them out of harms way. Rear glazed doors open into the garden to create an easy connection between the internal and external spaces.

In the dining area we created flexibility with an extending table that can be moved into the centre of the room when a larger number of people need to be seated and used a large wall mirror to reflect natural light from the kitchen extension into the dining area.
 
 
 
The dining area doubles as a play area and built in storage houses the children's toys and books in tubs so they can be easily cleared away for dinner.

The lounge has been refocused on the fireplace in the centre, a large corner sofa looks inward toward the fireplace (TV wall mounted above) and beyond to the open plan living space. An arm chair allows the seating plan to be easily reconfigured for more social occasions.



The new kitchen allowed us to use the floor area to provide a new study, utility room and extend the existing downstairs WC to form a wet room and shower.
 

 
The Finishes 
 The interior finishes and furniture have been selected to create an eclectic mix of traditional tones and forms with a modern injection of pattern and bright colour.

The chandelier light fittings are centrally positioned in each of the three distinct spaces to visually link the open plan living space. The same themes and shades have also been continued in the finishes to connect and distinguish the different uses.

Continuous floor timber effect floor finish, broken with a rug in the lounge, create a high end seamless look to the space and increase the visual impact and feeling of size. The area of decking outside will have boards orientated the same way to and at the same level to continue the visual connections to the space outside.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

[Your] Place: Colour Crush

Farrow and Ball are my 'go to' company for paint inspiration, the depth and warmth of the colours makes them head and shoulders above the competition [in my eyes].
 
Because the range has a grey colour base, the shades complement each other exceptionally well... 'if in doubt, head to Farrow and Ball!'
 
A while ago they launched a competition for a new paint colour; they've whittled the choices down to 20 which you can see here.

Now I don't want to unduly influence anyone but I am besotted with Line Knot (and quite infatuated with Mustard and Pink Paloma)... 

 
 


I feel a scheme coming on...
 
I'll keep you posted.
 

Saturday 17 August 2013

[Our] Place: The Old and The New

Exciting developements at [Our] Place we have moved!

Now aside from having a whole house worth of new projects to design the impending move has also made me reflect on what we have achieved in this house.

The following are a few images of the before and after shots of the rooms we have did in our previous house:

 

Friday 2 August 2013

VALERIE HOWELLS: A PLACE WITH A VIEW

Mr and Mrs Howells breed rare sheep and rams and had a small one bedroom cottage in need of modernistaion throughout.




Walnut Lodge prior to remodelling
 
 The scheme includes a single storey extension to provide an open plan living area with views over the adjacent fields that hold their livestock, internal remodeling to provide an aditional bedroom and new bathroom.



Views from Southern aspect over adjoining fields


We also reclad the entire property in Eternit Cedral Weatheboarding, a maintance free material, which completely transformed the property inkeeping with the countryside asethic and allowed us to update and improve the properties insulation to meet modern standards.



The connection to the outdoors was paramount to the client and with the house in such beautiful surroundings we included roof lights and open eaves to the open plan living space. Off of the living space are two fully glazed french doors which open to the southern aspect and take in views of the surrounding fields.



The project is nearly complete on site so watch this space for completed photos...