Five Steps to Renovation Design Success - Part Two

ABOVE: Creating open plan spaces from previously small, seperate rooms is a fantastic way in which to allow natural daylight to flood through the house.

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What makes some renovations great and others not quite so good? Natasha Brinsmead presents the five steps to success

STEP THREE: Mould the house to your needs
For a successful renovation, it is vital to bring out the best of all the existing features.

When renovating, always keep in mind the reason you were attracted to a period property in the first place. It can be all too easy to lose sight of all the things that first attracted you to a house when trying to make it work around your lifestyle — but it need not be this way.

One complaint from owners of period houses – and in particular terraced older-style houses – is that there is a lack of natural light in some areas of the house — especially the hallways, landings and ‘middle’ rooms.

A common solution to dark hallways is to replace the original front door with one that contains more glazing than would have been in the original. Rather than ruin the façade of the house with an inappropriate door, however, consider other options. Georgian houses usually had solid front doors, but using a glazed fanlight above or even subtle glazed sidelights is a fantastic way to let light in. Victorian houses usually had four-panel doors, with the upper two panels filled with stained glass. Although pretty, stained glass is not always effective at letting much light in, so it can in some cases be preferable to use frosted or etched glass instead. Again, a fanlight will help with light levels.

In terms of dark landings, ensure balustrades are kept open and delicate in order to allow light through; consider, too, an open-tread staircase which will also help in this way. Another option – which will let more light in without altering the fabric of the building – is to fit a lightpipe. This is a tube lined with a reflective surface which starts at the roof – where it can replace a slate or tile – and winds its way down to the ceiling in which it is required, literally piping natural light down into dingy areas. They are inexpensive and not disruptive to fit.

The most common solution to the problem of dark ‘inner’ rooms in houses is to knock them through so that they become open plan to other lighter rooms. If you do decide to follow this route, ensure that character is not lost by reinstating any cornicing that has been lost, and consider maintaining the two rooms as separate ‘zones’ in order to avoid the feeling of just one cavernous area through the use of different lighting, floor coverings or even paint colours. It may also be a good idea to only partially knock through the two rooms, to create a large archway, for example.

ABOVE: Using water-saving devices in the bathroom is an easy way to make your home more energy-efficient

STEP FOUR: Make the house greener
Old houses can be draughty and poorly insulated, making their eco credentials close to zero — but there are simple steps you can take to improve them.

One of the main problems facing period homeowners is not how to fit out their new home, but how to make it more energy efficient, without drastically altering its structure. Owning an old house is no longer a good excuse for using up lots of energy to keep it light and warm — in fact, more and more renovators are now retrofitting features that can overcome the energyguzzling characteristics of period properties. The extent of the ‘eco makeovers’ that can be given to older properties varies from adding extra insulation to integrating solar or wind power. Around 40% of the heat lost from a house is through the walls and roof. Adding simple loft insulation will cost between £130-200 to install and should save you around £150 a year in energy bills.

Most houses built before the 1930s were built with solid rather than cavity walls. If this is the case with your house, you will have a choice of insulating either the internal or the external walls — or both. Insulating the external walls obviously means altering the appearance of the building, which is not always practical, although some people choose to insulate external walls at the rear of the property, and the internal walls at the front so as not to ruin the original façade.

Old windows, too, can be insulated. If you feel double glazing is unsuitable for your property, windows can be insulated using brush seals.

Other basic measures you can take to improve the energy efficiency of an old house include using low-energy lightbulbs and updating the heating system with a high-efficiency condensing boiler — particularly one that uses a weather-compensation control. Just adding a jacket and lagging to the hot water cylinder and pipes will save lots of money.

Using recycled and eco-friendly materials in a renovation is also a fantastic way to improve your home’s eco credentials — these could include non-toxic paints and insulation made from recycled materials like paper and jute sacking, such as Homatherm.

ABOVE: Combine original charatcter with contemporary touches - here old steel trusses in this Victorian building have been given a coat of white paint and site perfectly with the new expanses of glazing

STEP FIVE: Make contemporary design work
There is no reason why period and contemporary design cannot sit quite happily together.

Just because you have chosen to live in an old house should not mean that you have to feel you are living in a museum — in fact, old houses make a stunning backdrop for contemporary fixtures, fittings and furnishings. Just bear in mind how the original fabric of the building can be used to the best of its ability to show off your modern-day choices.

There is simply no need to feel that you must source authentically Victorian paint colours with which to decorate, or that you have to maintain the rabbit warren layout of an old cottage when it makes living your life the way you want to near impossible, or that dark, heavy beams or panelling have to be kept that way. These houses have a history and over time will have had many various occupants all expecting different things from them — and so they will continue to do so long after you have gone. So, if it makes living in your house more pleasurable, paint the panelling and beams a light colour, knock through small rooms to make bigger, open plan areas and don’t feel guilty in painting every single wall bright white — none of these changes mean desecrating the original house. When trying to create a contemporary feel, it pays to give the odd nod to tradition too. For example, cast iron column radiators and a marble fireplace can look fantastic against a crisply finished contemporary setting. Likewise, an old scullery complete with original flagstones or a brick floor can suit a streamlined glossy kitchen down to the ground.

By all means update and mould your period home to your needs — but never forget to enjoy it for what it is either. For examples of period houses which have been updated successfully, take a look at Old House New Home by Ros Byam Shaw.