Couple transform their cramped kitchen and poky dining room into a light and airy open-plan space that’s hailed as ‘amazing’ by viewers… WITHOUT adding an extension
- Accountants Mimi and Luke, from Grantham, live with two of their children
- Managed to turn the fractured layout in terraced home into family friendly space
- Spent £40k on transformation with the help of architects for open plan area
- Couple appeared on Tuesday night’s Your Home Made Perfect on BBC 2
A couple who feared the fractured layout in their home was getting in the way of life with their children have transformed their terraced house into a family friendly space.
Accountants Mimi and Luke, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, gave their home a clever makeover on Tuesday night’s episode of BBC2’s Your Home Made Perfect.
The young parents have lived in the house for the past five years, along with Mimi’s 10-year-old son and their two-year-old daughter.
With Luke’s two older children often there too, it was bursting at the seams, yet the layout proved entirely impractical.
Before: The dining room, pictured, served as a corridor between the living room and the kitchen at the far end of the house, seen through the door on the right. Accountants Mimi and Luke, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, transformed their home on Your Home Made Perfect
After: With the help of an architect, Luke and Mimi opened up the space to create a dine-in family kitchen, pictured. They did it all without adding an extension to the house
Appearing on the show, the pair revealed how they fell in love with the home because of its large garden, however the living areas were proving a rabbit warren of small disjointed rooms.
Perhaps worse still, there was no view of the big garden from the house and it was completely cut off from the home, meaning the parents felt disconnected from the children when they were out there.
Speaking about how he felt the design of their home was getting in the way of his parenting, Luke was soon seen getting emotional and breaking down into tears.
‘It’s just really hard when you feel like you’re not there for your kids as much as you could be’, he admitted.
But following the transformation Twitter praised the new home, with one viewer tweeting: ‘That is marvelous wow!’.
Before: Father Luke admitted the lack of space in the cramped kitchen, pictured, meant he quickly grew stressed when his children asked to help with the cooking
After: The new open-plan design leaves the parents with more room to spend time with their children. The space also has much more light thanks to the large doors heading outside
Unassuming: The terraced property, pictured, was transformed in the £40,000 makeover
Dreams for their family: Luke and Mimi, pictured, wanted to makeover their home because they feared the former, fractured design was keeping them apart from their children
‘I think Mimi has a fantastic eye for decor. That house looks amazing. So much nicer than the minimalist boxes we are usually subjected to’, another said.
However some weren’t so sure about the leopard print stairs, with one joking that architect Laura, who was dressed in a leopard print dress, blended in perfectly.
‘Really want to see Laura camouflaged on that stair carpet’, one joked.
And others noted that only architect Laura appeared to be getting a look in, with one writing: ‘I think this show should be renamed ‘Laura Makes Your Home Perfect’, poor old Robert’s not getting a look in!’
Before: The family struggled with the dark staircase in the centre of the fragmented home
After: The pair managed to turn their home into a sleek open plan usable space with quirky touches to reflect their personalities, including leopard print stairs, pictured
Before: The old-fashioned utility room was previously tagged onto the end of the kitchen
After: The outdated space was replaced with this sleek glass-sided addition to the kitchen
Twitter praised the new home, with one viewer tweeting: ‘That is marvelous, wow!’
Another noted: ‘I’m going to say Laura will win every week!’.
With an original budget of £30,000, competing architects Robert Jamison and Laura Jane Clark had their work cut out to rethink the layout and improve family life.
Luke admitted he was hoping to add an extension, however architect Robert is against the idea, preferring to avoid the ‘obvious solution’.
‘People generally think the solution is to extend out but in my experience it’s not the solution’, he explained.
Meanwhile architect Laura said past layout decisions, starting with the constrictive kitchen, affected the whole home.
Design flair: The kitchen and diner were merged into one with sleek worktops and a quirky bright lamp as well as statement green bar chairs
Attention to detail: Mimi spent hours cutting out the door handles herself to result in edgy handles on the dark worktops. However the kitchen cost just £3,000 in total
‘This house is driving a wedge through your family harmony’, she said.
At the design studio, Mimi and Luke were given the extraordinary opportunity to step inside the radical new visions thought up by the two architects, using virtual reality.
Laura presented her design first and Mimi and Luke watched in awe as the existing walls of their awkward and cramped dining room disappeared.
Laura’s ingenious plan included moving the stairs from the centre to the rear.
Next, vital storage solutions appeared, and finally floor to ceiling folding doors that looked to unite the home with the garden beyond.
Thoroughfare: Previously the kitchen led off one side of the entrance, pictured, while the dining room led off the other. The layout was not conducive to a busy family life
Emotional drive: Speaking about how he felt the design of their home is getting in the way of his parenting, Luke was seen getting emotional and breaking down into tears
Family living: The father can now spend time with his children in the open-plan space, pictured
Flooded with light: With sleek counters and storage, a splash of the couple’s edgy taste in the form of a bright lampshade, green bar chairs and edgy cut-out door handles – made by Mimi – the place prove unrecognisable
‘Oh my god the space is huge’, the couple gasped, before both breaking down in tears.
‘Thank you’, the were seen sobbing as they embraced Laura.
Meanwhile Robert began by using a series of extraordinary transformations to show how hard it is to make a narrow, extended Victorian home suit the needs of a modern family.
Robert concluded that they do need to extend, but to add a unique wrap-around bench.
Mimi and Luke were left astounded as Robert unveiled his new design, with walls and doors beginning to transform.
Disjointed: The former separate kitchen and diner was transformed into a large, airy and bright entertaining space with floor to ceiling wrap around French doors looking out onto the garden
Sneak peek: At the design studio, Mimi and Luke were given the extraordinary opportunity to step inside the radical new visions thought up by the two architects, using virtual reality
The other option: Mimi and Luke were also shown this transformative idea by architect Robert, pictured, featuring wrap around storage benches. However they ultimately decided against it
Rather than a completely new extension, Robert opted for a lightweight timber system that could work with the existing foundations, creating a space full of unusual angles.
Bamboozled over the decision of who to go with, the couple eventually settled on Laura’s design due to its practicality and child-friendly features – including a clever tuck away table and chair idea with storage under the new staircase.
This was the second week architect Laura won the approval of the couple.
The couple soon realized they were going to go over budget, after opting for under floor heating and a new bathroom.
To make up for it, they decided to leave the stairs in their original position to save money.
And a few months later the thrilled couple unveiled their new home, admitting it had completely changed their family dynamic.
However some weren’t so sure about the leopard print stairs, with one joking that architect Laura, who was dressed in a leopard print dress, blended in perfectly
The former separate kitchen and diner was transformed into a large, airy and bright entertaining space with floor to ceiling wrap around French doors looking out onto the garden.
With sleek counters and storage, a splash of the couple’s edgy taste in the form of a bright lampshade, green bar chairs and edgy cut-out door handles – made by Mimi – the place proved unrecognisable.
And while the staircase stayed in the same place to save money, it was updated with a quirky leopard print pattern.
‘The kids love it and run up and down, which they would never have done before. We spend so much time in this space as a family’, Mimi admitted happily.
‘We walk in and say ‘wow this is amazing’ every day’, she added.
Agreeing, an emotional Luke said: ‘I spent so much time moaning at the kids to get out of the way before but I haven’t moaned at them since the new design’.
With underfloor heating to avoid taking up the sparse wall space with radiators, new flooring throughout the ground floor and a new bathroom, the couple admitted the budget had been pushed it up to £40,000 – £10,000 over budget.
But it was a sacrifice which proved worth it, with the couple admitting family life has been transformed far beyond what they ever thought possible.
Source: Read Full Article