As home renovation specialists, we work with homeowners on a vast array of different design options to suit all kinds of households. Here at Home Tales, we understand that no two households are the same – so no two designs should be the same. The whole point of designing a home renovation is to tailor the home to suit your needs and requirements. 

As the months get colder, and we delve further into Winter, we thought we would run through some of our favourite winter must-haves for home renovations and extensions. 

Inside-outside design 

This is a hugely popular design option, with almost all of our clients wanting to achieve an inside-outside feel within their home extension design. It seems obvious to think this is beneficial in the summer, but it’s also wonderful in the winter too. The views of the garden are glorious all year long – and there is nothing more satisfying then sitting with a warm cup of cocoa and overlooking a snowy horizon! You can achieve the inside outside feel with glass doors, large windows, and strategically placed indoor and outdoor plants. 

Wine fridge 

The wine fridge is an entertainer’s dream! What better way to host a party then to have an entire fridge, wholly dedicated to delicious wine, prosecco and champagne. In the winter, entertaining is at its peak. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year are all reasons to crack open some good wine and celebrate in style. Wine fridges typically have glass doors, so they make a wonderful feature within your kitchen design too. 

Snug 

Create some wonderful snugs within your home. We love this snug that we created in our Wandsworth project. We removed an internal wall to open up the living room, to almost double the size. The homeowner kept their formal living area next to the bay window and created a little snug for their TV in the far corner of the room. An l-shape sofa and a nice fluffy rug has made this corner wonderfully warm and snug for watching movies in the Winter months. 

Gas fires 

Gas fires are very popular with homeowners who want to utilise their chimney and add a method of heating within them. Gas fires don’t make a mess and require very little maintenance. They are easy to turn on and off, and they give you that wonderfully authentic heat from flames. We installed this beautiful gas fire in our Clapham project and the traditional aesthetic, combined with the modern features makes for a wonderful interior finish. 

Open plan living 

Open plan living is popular in our home extension designs. The main reason for this is that when you extend a London property, you will end up with a large room, which is capable of housing two or three functions. A typical side return extension will result in a finished room size of 6x5m, which is plenty of space for a spacious kitchen and dining area. If you have the luxury of extending to the rear too, this results in an even larger space, capable of housing a kitchen, dining and living area. Open plan living is popular in modern design, as families want to socialise and spend more time together. Open plan design suits entertaining as guests are able to socialise in one large space, rather than being spilt off into rooms. If you opt for open plan design, it’s important you segregate the zones of your room. You can do this with carpets, rugs, pendant lighting, furniture placement, partial stud walls and internal glass doors. Our client in Clapham hung pendant lights over their dining table to indicate that this is a purpose-built zone within the room. 

Loft conversions 

Loft conversions are wonderfully peaceful rooms – as they are situated at the top of the property. This means they are further away from road noise and general noise pollution on the street. They tend to get warm in the summer (as heat rises), but this also means they can get wonderfully snug and inviting in the winter. Loft conversions tend to add extra bedrooms to the property, which is handy during those festive periods if you’re hosting or entertaining. If you are using your unconverted loft to store lots of items, fear not! The eaves storage is maintained in a loft conversion. Towards the front of the property, where the pitch of the roof gets low, we typically create a wall with a door, to create eaves storage. This means you can still store all of those important items – Christmas trees, decorations, baby clothes and luggage still have a home! We’ve written a blog about amazing loft conversions in London which you can read here. 

If you are thinking of undertaking a home extension or renovation project, get in touch with our friendly team today. We would be delighted to discuss your project in more detail and offer some initial advice. If you want to book a telephone consultation, this will enable us to explain more about how we work, and we can also issue you with a no obligation quote for the work. Call us on 0207 043 2378 or email us on hello@hometales.co.uk. Alternatively, you can book a consultation directly via our live booking page.