Banana Web

Working order

Projects can get put off indefinitely if you cannot decide where to start. The kitchen cabins need replacing, but you really want to change the whole layout because the sink is in the wrong place, and you cannot do that until you have moved a window, and so on…

The unappealing fact is that structural work has to come first, which includes moving windows and treating any damaged timbers. The next stage is too tackle any plumbing and electrical work, so this is the time to think about where you want light fittings and, if you are planning to rearrange your kitchen or bathroom, decide on the layout.

You can then get on with stripping back old paintwork and wallpaper, and do any necessary re-plastering(you will need to allow plenty of time in your schedule for it to dry before painting or papering). If you are planning to strip floors, do it now: it creates masses of dust, so do not wait until you have painted the room. New flooring can be laid at this stage, but needs to be covered with dustsheets while you decorate.

Therefore, in a nutshell, you should work out a practical timetable and a working order for everything.

Unlikely Areas

Do not waste high-level areas that can be used for storage without getting in the way of the room. Shelves fixed at picture-rail height and above doorways will probably need a stepladder to reach them, but can be used for effective display, or for books and other items that you do not need to assess very often. Usable space is often wasted behind doors, either because you don’t think of looking there or because the door itself blocks the space. There is probably enough available wall for a set of narrow bookshelves, or you consider rehanging the door from the other side to free up extra space.

At ground level, make use of spare space under beds and other large items of furniture baskets, crates, boxes and trays, perhaps on wheels, can be slotted underneath and pulled out like drawers.

An efficient way of providing extra storage is to create double-skin walls, with shelves and cupboards built into the hollow interior so that they can be assessed by doors on both sides of the wall. You can even build shallow bookshelves into doorframe, as this will be the same thickness as the wall into which it is fitted.

However, do not feel obliged to use every available space for storage. Larger pockets such as landings and the space under the stairs may be just big enough to create miniature rooms and take a desk, chair or even a small bed to accommodate overnight guests.

Extra Space Options

You do not want to cram every inch of your home with shelves and cupboards, but you will probably need more storage space than you have. If you want to keep your living space clear and uncluttered, make the best possible use of wasted corners and unexplored angles.

Follow this storage checklist to ensure extra space, and decide whether some possessions should be out on show, easily accessible or stored away until they are needed.

1. Clothes and shoes

2. Coats, umbrellas and other outdoor accessrories

3. Linen and towels

4. Books and magazines

5. CDs and videos

6. Kitchenware and gadgets

7. China and glassware

8. DIY tools and gadgets

9. Files and office work

10. Letters, bills and household documents

11. Personal papers

12. Photographs, scrapbooks, old theatre programmes and other memorabilia

13. Works or art, porcelain, designer glass and other collectibles.

Remember, you may have to make sacrifices to create effective storage space for the things that really matter to you. Photographs and letters are precious, but you will not need to get at them too often, so they can be hidden away in closed storage, while everyday tableware needs to be near at hand and easy to retrieve and replace.

Making a Floor Plan

This procedure can be followed each time you plan a new room. For each plan, use squared or graph paper and a scale of around 2.5 cm(1 inch) to represent 1 meter(3 ft.). Mark all fixed features such as doors, windows, alcoves and fireplaces with semi-fixed items such as radiators and power points marked in a different color. It is helpful to where these are, but they should not over-influence your plans as they can be moved in most cases.

Mark on the plan which areas you are designating for different uses and different times of the day, and start thinking about the essential furniture-kitchen cupboards, beds, tables. Plan likely positions for these pieces, leaving plenty of room for walking around them, stretching legs, opening cupboards and drawers and so on. Next add smaller items whose positions can be more flexible and that can be, if necessary, be removed from the plan if space is proving limited. If you want to try out several different layouts, cut out pieces of card to represent the furniture so that you can move them around until you are happy with the plan.

Be led by the shape of the room, the light it gets, how it fits with the rest of the space and how you are going to use it. But remember that you sometimes have to waste a bit of space in order to create the impression of it-that sense of largesse, of being bale to afford to throw it away, automatically makes the place feel bigger. Leaving corners unfilled and bare areas of wall creates more of an illusion of space than cramming in as much as possible.

Utilizing the Space

Before you start to put any of your plans into actions, you will need to back up your assessment of the space that you have with some accurate dimensions. Then you can create an accurate scale plan and start work.

Measure all the relevant distances in your home, including the width of corridors, the width and height of doorways, the space between windows and each room’s ceiling height, as well as its length and width. These measurements will allow you to create a floor plan drawn to scale. Start with an overall plan of the space(or a plan for each floor if you have more than one) so that you can see how the rooms fit together and allocate areas of use, then draw up separate plans as you progress to individual rooms.

Reassessing Your Furniture:

Unless you are starting from scratch, you will have existing furniture-pieces you have accumulated from previous homes that will not necessarily suit the plans you have for this one. Try not to feel too attached to these. You may have a few favorite or valuable items that you definitely want to keep, but otherwise you should be as flexible as possible. This is the time to get rid of anything that has really outworn its looks or usefulness. Decide whether or not each item can be updated, painted, re-covered or re-cycled to match the look you have in mind, and be ruthless with anything that cannot.

Know Your Restrictions

As we have discussed in our previous post on planning about the kitchen and bathroom and listing about the factors that restrict your options, you also need to make a restrictions list for other rooms as well. Assess how big is your budget for furnishings, decorating and any restructuring work needed on top of that. You will not be able to calculate the last of these costs exactly until you have consulted builders and, if necessary, architects. However, you can take it for granted that it will be more than you expect, so bear this in mind before you set your heart on grand plans.

Be prepared to scale your ideas down and settle for a few cheaper options and improvisations.

How much of the work will you be able to tackle yourself and which jobs will need professional help? And how much upheaval can you cope with? You can not predict with any certainty whether doing the work yourself will be less disruptive than paying someone else. If you are doing it, it will take longer and you will probably hit stressful periods of panic and despair. If it is someone else, you will have to cope with sharing your house with them, so think it through and decide which route will cause you fewer sleepless nights and family rows.

All these factors-the way you live, the space you want, the raw materials you are starting with and the budget you are working within-need to be weighed up and balanced in order to establish just what is possible for you to achieve.

Radical Rethinks

Some of the decisions will make themselves for you without much difficulty; others need more thinking though. The key choices are whether or not you need to radically rethink the kitchen and bathroom. These are the rooms where plumbing, electricity and construction will be most labour-intensive and expensive, so they should become priorities if you want to make major changes.

First, are they where you want them? Does the position make sense? Is the bathroom close to the rooms that you are planning to use as bedrooms? Is the kitchen within easy reach of your dining area? Now think about their size. Is the bathroom too small? Would you rather convert one of the bedrooms into a decent-sized bathrooms and use the existing one as a utility room? Or is it unnecessarily large? Would you prefer to swap the luxurious bath for a smaller shower room and use the wasted space to create a useful office area?

Now make a list of all those factors that are likely to restrict what you can do and what you cannot do. How big is your budget for kitchen fittings and bathroom set up? Before starting with the construction work for these two rooms, you need to have a fair idea about them keeping your budget and space in mind. This will avoid in delays and future changes for their locations.

Assessing the Possibilities

Having established what you need and how much space is available, compare the two to assess how closely they coincide and what adjustments are needed to balance them. You should distinguish between your genuine needs and more superficial wants, and try making a few sacrifices to make the most effective use of space that you have.

Make a list of activities and items that you want to make space for-cooking, eating, entertaining, office work, creative work, relaxing, playing games, playing musical instruments, exercising. Now, divide this list into two: ‘a must have’ list for the absolute essentials and ‘a would like’ list for the things you want space for if at all possible. This may seem obvious, but it is very subjective process and will throw up surprising variations from one person to another. You are the only one who knows whether or not you can live without your piano or multigym, and how many people you need to fit regularly round your dining table. Be sure to consult all members of the household to get their views, too.

If you cannot decide which list a particular item belongs in, give it a mark out of five, where five equals maximum need. Relegate anything scoring three or less to the wants list and use as reserves to be slotted in if there is room later.

Design Options-Points to Consider

Get to know the building thoroughly before you make any major design decisions. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Which direction does it face?

2. Which rooms face the road/overlook the garden/have other views?

3. Which rooms get most light at which times of the day?

4. Which rooms are the quietest?

5. Which rooms have the most wall and floor space?

6. Which rooms have the highest ceilings?

7. Do any rooms lead to one another?

8. Are there any wasted corners or unusable spaces?

9. Are there any doors that open awkwardly?

10. Are there any narrow corridors causing obstructions?

11. Are there any doorways or corners that make furniture access unnecessarily difficult?

12. Which walls are structurally supporting and which are partitions?

Knowing the building based upon above mentioned points will give you a fair idea about where to start and what to start. You can choose the well lit rooms for day time purposes, and the rooms along the roadside can be converted into lobbies or a store if the level of noise is higher in that room. Accordingly you can keep or remove partitions to make more room for siting or joining two rooms that share a common purpose.

Establishing Your Boundaries

The important thing to establish at this stage is to establish exactly what room you have got to play with so that you can make the most of its potential. Do not be disheartened by the apparent lack of space: Knowing your boundaries is the first step towards being able to work constructively within them. With a house or apartment, you need to be able to imagine the outline clearly before you can work out exactly how to use the space within it and start building up your own picture of colors and furnishings.

It is also important to bear in mind that having too much space can be problematic as having too little. Deciding how to furnish a cavernous warehouse is daunting because you don’t know where to start. Having a clearly defined space from the outset will help you to make initial design decisions by reducing the options so that you have fewer choices to make.

Try to forget the existing furnishings and instead look for the potential of the space. Do not be put off by unsympathetic wall colors and shabby carpets, and learn to distinguish between permanent fixtures and things that can be changed. Built-in storage is useful, but can be removed if it is not needed, and it may be much more effective somewhere else instead.