Love it or List it like Kirstie Allsopp!
Love It or List It
Our homes are our castle and with COVID-19, we are going to be spending a lot of time in them! Now is a great time to evaluate yours to work out how you can Love it or List it. Hopefully you can Love It by having time to really think about how your home works for you now. Is this the way you dream of living, how can it be improved. Perhaps your kids are older than when you moved in, have their needs changed as they have matured.
Some projects just involve a reshuffle, others need the professionals in, but now is the time to get planning.
Just call me Kirstie Allsopp!
I've recently worked on a brilliant project that made me feel like Kirstie Allsopp in Love it or List it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you definitely need to catch up on All4!
Love it or List It
Tamsine has a traditional Victorian Terrace but couldn't work out how to make the space work for her family for four. With her office in the front room so she could concentrate on her work, the kitchen, dining room and sitting room had been squeezed into only half the house. The kitchen didn't have enough storage and the downstairs toilet/utility was disorganised.
It was clear that we needed to move the sitting room back into the front room but with no spare room upstairs and not wanting to be in the kitchen with the distraction of everyday jobs looking at her, we had to find somewhere else for her office. Taking inspiration from Grand Designs Show 2019 with their Under the Stairs Project, this seemed the perfect place to create a working nook for Tamsine - have a look on Google to see some great ideas for these under-used spaces.
Once the front room was freed up, we could now turn this into the TV room and reimagine the second room as the family hub, full of art, music and food. We are looking at moving the back door to better connect the house and garden and by using one of the fireplace alcoves as a coat cupboard, this will encourage her small children to put their coats and bags away immediately when they come in from school.
The existing back door will be made into a window to create more storage and worktop space in the kitchen and perhaps the dividing wall will be knocked out to create a more connected space. Further investigation is needed into the logistics and cost of this first.
Finally by formalising the small utility room in the downstairs toilet with some worktop and storage, this will complete the transformation! This time during self isolation will probably be an amazing time to get this project done as it most of the work is just about shuffling furniture around the house and will involve very little cost.
Remote Design
The Kitchen Lady can work remotely and has completed projects as far away as America! Emily has also designed and commissioned a beautiful dresser completely remotely for Katy in Shropshire (see her project here). If you need a Kirstie Allsopp and want help loving your home, I can help with my design packages. Find out more here