ARCHITECTS are a bit like Ivana Trump. Everyone thinks that they are scary and expensive. But once you get to know them they turn out to be quite normal and ever so helpful around the house.

OK, that might be stretching the metaphor a bit in Ivana’s case, but when it comes to architects facing your fears will mean good things for your home. Architects find space where you didn’t think any existed and bring light into dark corners. They manage budgets, builders and ill-placed boilers and turn utilitarian spaces into domestic works of art. The only thing is, how exactly do you find an architect? How do you commission them, pay them and how do you know what they’ll do will be to your taste?

During Architecture Week, the answer is to sign up for the Architect in the House programme run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Every year the scheme puts hundreds of rookie renovators in touch with a RIBA member who will, in exchange for a £20 donation to the homelessness charity Shelter, spend an hour in their home dishing out advice.

The architect Colin Collins, a partner in the North London practice Collins & Colliander, has taken part in the scheme since it began, doing a dozen consultations a year. In some cases, he says, “that just means checking a client’s budget to make sure they’ve got enough money for what they’re planning, or looking over plans to see if there’s enough space to actually add that extra room. It’s not often that you can buy an hour of an architect’s time, and even if that hour is spent explaining why an idea isn’t feasible, the client will have saved money.”

In other cases, those 60 minutes lead to a top-to-bottom renovation. John and Anne Williams had been thinking about refurbishing their Edwardian terraced house in Brentwood, Essex, since buying it in the 1980s, but busy medical careers, young children and a dog which didn’t like builders meant that they never got further than a quick conversion of an upstairs bedroom into an extra bathroom. Then, just as John started his retirement, Architecture Week came around “and it began to make us think”, John says. “There were certain things we wanted to do to the house and we had already decided that it would be more than just a straight- forward kitchen refurbishment. We didn’t have any ideas in terms of style and we didn’t know if the sorts of things we were planning were even possible. Having an architect was essential.”

The Williamses called RIBA, which put them in touch with Colin Collins. The initial consultation went swimmingly and straight- away the architect started sketching out ideas. “They gave me a very simple brief,” he says. “They didn’t want pastiche or a recreation of something Edwardian. They just wanted a modern kitchen and they left it up to me. In that sense, they were very good clients. And we developed a level of trust. The initial consultation is excellent for determining whether there is a sort of chemistry there — whether I understand them and whether they trust me.”

He was quick to latch on to the couple’s love of modern art and the focus of the new kitchen is a Mondrian-inspired cupboard unit that hides the fridge, extra shelving and a wine rack. A wall between the kitchen and the utility room was removed and a lavatory shifted from one side of the downstairs to another. A small window was converted into french doors that make the most of an already beautiful garden. The narrow, carpeted staircase was replaced by a glass-and-steel construction and the hallway opened up and given a much airier feel with well-placed down lighters and glass doors.

The doors weren’t part of the original spec, but John says: “Once we started, Colin realised they needed to be changed to keep in line with the scheme. He had an overall vision, which we didn’t have.”

And in fact, the Williamses agree, it is all the things you don’t notice about the new interior that give it a distinctly professional air and make the portion of their budget spent on architect’s fees well worth it. “Like a lot of houses from this era, the floor was on a number of levels,” John says. “Colin managed to unify the whole thing, and that’s probably made the most difference to how we actually live. We never would have thought of that. We would never have thought it was even possible.”

www.architectinthehouse.com or call RIBA on 020-7580 5533. Collins & Colliander: 01277 224370

Tile style

WHEN Ray Ellard moved into his Victorian maisonette in Kentish Town, North London, three years ago, there were only two jobs on his to-do list: add a bathroom to the lower level and fix the damp problem. A year later, Mr Ellard had his extra bathroom, left, and an entirely different kind of damp — a luxurious slate-tiled steam room that is the work of Robert Goldsmith, a RIBA architect whom Mr Ellard found through the Architect in the House scheme. Thanks to the architect, four good-sized bedrooms, above, have been created out of two huge, nondescript rooms, a utility room added and wooden floors and built-in cupboards fitted throughout. “The bathroom was our idea,” Mr Ellard says, “but our vision was a bit simplistic. Robert enabled us to be much more adventurous.” By putting the work out to tender, co-ordinating the contractors and keeping the building inspectors onside, the architect made sure that the £40,000 budget was not exceeded. “Robert took out all the aggravation for us.”

Robert Goldsmith, 020-7209 0573

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