Home renovations in London are vastly popular at the moment. Here at Home Tales, over half of our clients opt for a kitchen extension. Many of these homeowners add on additional works, such as a loft conversion or a first-floor reconfiguration. Ground floor extensions are a fantastic addition to a property. Subject to local council restrictions, you can generally gain a substantial amount of space. This new extension is generally encompassed into an existing room, creating a wonderfully large area. On-top of this, the new area typically has modern features to help natural light penetration, such as large glass doors to the garden and Velux windows or rooflights. The end result is something quite special, and fairly non-typical of the rooms you expect to see in a period property. As home renovation specialists, we have tons of experience in designing extensions. All of our designs are made bespoke and as a result, they are completely tailored to the homeowner. We thought we would talk through four important design points that you should consider when thinking about your own home extension project. 

The middle room dilemma 

In a traditional period property, there are generally 3 rooms on the ground floor. The front living room, the middle dining room and the kitchen to the rear. The kitchen is often thinner than the full-width of the property, creating the outdoor side return. If you have a side return, you’ll notice that you have a door or window which allows natural light penetration into that middle dining room. If you are opting for an extension, the chances are you are filling in the side return. As a result, the natural light penetration within the middle dining room is taken away, and the rooms original purpose becomes redundant, as you move your dining area into the newly extended kitchen area. Lots of our clients spend a long time thinking about what to do with that middle room. One option is to remove internal walls, to encompass it into another room. That could be an extension of the living room or an extension of the rear kitchen room. We recently completed a project in which the client chose to removal the wall that separated the living room and the original dining room, creating a larger living area. They also used part of the original dining room to house their ground floor WC. Other options we have created include the creation of a study, playroom, piano area, cloak room, utility area and downstairs bathroom. 

Underfloor heating 

If you are undertaking a ground floor extension, it’s a fantastic opportunity to incorporate underfloor heating within your home. You might be surprised to hear that it’s actually very energy efficient, as it distributes heat at a much lower temperature then a traditional radiator. Another advantage of underfloor heating is that you don’t need to find a wall space to house a radiator. Radiators can be unsightly, and they disrupt furniture placement. Depending on what floor material you are going for, underfloor heating can be the perfect companion. If you are opting for tile or porcelain tile, it’s well worth considering, otherwise your floor will feel very cold, particularly in the winter months. 

Kitchen design 

Whenever we design a kitchen extension, we include your kitchen outline within our drawings. This is all drawn to scale, so you begin to visualise how the space will work once completed. There is a general consideration when it comes to kitchen design, which is called the triangle rule. The idea is to have your three main appliances (fridge, sink and hob) in a triangle within your kitchen. It doesn’t have to be a perfect triangle, and you can forgo the idea completely if you wish. The point of the triangle is to give you efficiency when cooking. Another item to consider when designing your kitchen is cabinet space. Make sure you allow enough cabinets for storage purposes.

Garden doors and windows 

Lots of homeowners want to include large glass doors or windows within their design. The indoor-outdoor design is very popular nowadays, and there are lots of ways you can go about achieving this. Bi-fold doors and sliding doors are designed to have large, seamless panels, offering uninterrupted views of the garden. Crittal style doors are similar, however they have framed panelling within their design. Large, floor to ceiling windows are another popular feature in our designs. Check out this one we just installed in our Croydon build. 

If you would like to see some inspiration and ideas from our past projects, we have recently published a fantastic blog article on kitchen extensions. This shows projects before and after they were completed, and we also talk you through the design considerations that the homeowners had to make during the design development process.

If you are considering a kitchen extension or home extension or any kind, get in touch with our friendly team today on 0207 043 2378 or email us at hello@hometales.co.uk. We would be delighted to discuss your project in more detail. Alternatively, you can book a consultation directly via our live bookings page. We look forward to hearing from you.