Smash Hit
Win tickets to the ATP finals
Navigation - link to other main sections from here
Put pizzaz in your plans
Television presenter and home-improvement guru Sarah Beeny offers practical solutions to your design dilemmas
We have just (hopefully) arranged to buy our first house and want to know the best place to get information, especially about flooring, but also on kitchens and bathrooms. The internet offers choices, but not too much basic information.
CG, by e-mail
I understand your bewilderment. Personally, I think that too much choice often confuses the issue, so perhaps the internet is not a good place to start. Buy a few magazines to get an idea of the look you are going for, cut out any pictures you like and collect a pile of favourites to give you a guide.
Decide whether you want floorboards or fitted coverings. There are some really lovely contemporary carpets available, so don’t be put off by the anticarpet police. Crucial Trading (07802 668330) and Wool Classics (020 7349 0090) are two national companies I’ve used and been very happy with. If you have existing boards, you can sand and varnish them yourself, but it’s a horrible, messy job, and getting a good finish is harder than it seems. Get a professional in: it’s worth the money. If you don’t have boards already, but want a wooden floor, get prefinished boards if you are new to home improvements — it is easy to ruin expensive, solid boards.
Laminate flooring (reconstituted board with a plastic, wood-look finish) is cheap, and looks it. Instead, put down ply an eighth of an inch thick, cut into 5in-wide boards. This can be stained or painted for a sleek effect. You must use a really good aluminium primer under the floor paint. Farrow & Ball has a great floorboard paint system that includes both. Laying ply on top of existing boards or chipboard also means that you won’t raise the height of the floor too much.
If you want to redo the bathroom, ask friends and family who live locally if they have found a company they can recommend. Otherwise, try Bathstore.com, which has national showrooms with a wide selection of good-value bathroom ranges. When it comes to kitchens, I have always found that Ikea offers not only good value, but also good quality at the more affordable end of the market.
Q Our 1930s semi has two windows that were originally sashes, but have been substituted with UPVC ones that we want to replace. The cavities for the original box sashes have been bricked in, however, so fitting new sashes will cost at least £4,500. Is it worth doing the work?
CW, Streatham Hill, London
It depends on the rest of the street and where your house is. If more than half of the more modernised houses on a street have original-style windows, the work is likely to add more to the value of the house than it costs to carry out. The most important thing with windows is the size and position of the glazing bars — the divides between the panes — as this will affect the look of a house more than anything else. I would advise against fitting windows with glazing bars in different places from the originals.
While UPVC appeals to many people because it doesn’t need painting, its production is not great for the environment.
Nor are these windows quite as low-maintenance as is claimed: they will probably need replacing after 25 years, while properly maintained wooden windows will last indefinitely. Many houses built between the wars had steel windows. The buildings were often poorly constructed, with poor insulation. As a result, they often suffer from condensation, with moisture collecting on the inside of the windows, causing them to rust. They then need to be replaced.
Finding a company that makes attractive, well-designed replacement sashes is hard, as I know from personal experience, but Clement Steel Windows (01428 643393) is about the best I have come across. If your home is not listed or in a conservation area, you could go for a more contemporary solution and use sliding/folding doors and windows. Make sure that these products have a really tiptop mechanism. I recommend Sunfold Systems (01953 423423), whose doors run like a knife through butter.
Q We want to incorporate our existing kitchen with the study next door by knocking through a load-bearing wall, thus creating a large dining room/kitchen that will measure about 15ft by 22ft. Structural plans have been drawn up and passed by the planning department, and we have had quotes from two builders. The problem is, we have never done anything like this before, and don’t know where to start. We have a budget of £25,000 maximum, to include buying a reconditioned Aga. What would be the best way forward? I can’t afford to make mistakes, but am too scared to start.
LG, by e-mail
Don’t be nervous: you have an exciting project about to start, so focus on the end result and anticipation will keep you going. When you plan a kitchen, you should always start with the practicalities, then work out how it will look. So, first of all, think about how you will actually use the space.
Make a list of all the appliances that you want included. Let’s take the big items first. If you are planning to install an Aga, I suspect it is probably a good-sized house, so why not get a big, American-style fridge-freezer (both the Whirlpool and Maytag versions are fantastic). They are plumbed into the mains water and provide ice and filtered water “on tap”. If you don’t have a separate utility room, you will probably need to include a washing machine and tumble dryer, a dishwasher and a built-in microwave (Electrolux does a good one).
Now, let’s think about smaller appliances, because at this stage you will also need to make a list of everything that needs a power point. Your electrical specifications must be sorted out when you design the room. Basics to consider include kettle, toaster, food processor and coffee machine (DeLonghi is my favourite, as it’s easy to use and is compact). Given how central this room will be to family life, an answering machine, a television, a stereo and a phone socket need to be considered as well.
Keep the list handy for a couple of weeks, so you can jot down other items as they occur to you. What about tray space, a spice rack, underpelmet lighting, oven extraction and perhaps a backup cooker, in case you want to turn the Aga off in the summer? Double-check that you haven’t missed anything, as this is easy to do. Adding new items and specifications once construction of the room is under way is not only irritating, but frequently problematic.
Once you know what you want included, sit down and design your new kitchen. Think about how you will use it: do you need to keep young children away from hot gadgets, for example? It will look much better if you can keep the design as symmetrical as possible — with, say, the oven in the middle of a row of cupboards, rather than off-centre.
Once the basic layout has been drawn, sort out the finer detail. It is crucial at every step to think things through logically. Start early and don’t rush it. Given enough time and thought, I believe anyone can design the perfect kitchen.
Q I live in a village in Gloucestershire, in an Edwardian-style new-built townhouse. We lack a good-sized living area, but in all other respects, the house is well proportioned, and we like the village. As an alternative to moving house, we are considering adding a full-width all-weather conservatory to the rear of our property, adjoining the kitchen/diner.
Before I take on the local planners and the very precious, been-here-for-years villagers — who undoubtedly have the ear of those planners — will adding a conservatory add value to my property, or should we reconsider Plan A and move instead?
GS, by e-mail
It tends to cost about 10% of the value of a home to move, so the answer depends to some extent on the value of your property. I imagine that if it is in a village in Gloucestershire, it must be worth at least £250,000, which means that moving to an identical house would cost you about £25,000 in fees, stamp duty and removal costs. When you look at moving in those terms, £25,000 would be a good amount to put towards your conservatory fund, so I would recommend this route as the most cost-effective.
Go and stand in your back garden, and see whether any other properties around you have had conservatories built. If they have, this means a planning precedent has been set, and you are more likely to get permission.
If your property is not listed and is not in a conservation area, you may be entitled to extend your home under permitted development rights, provided it has not already been extended. This wouldn’t require planning permission, but what you may be allowed to do varies, depending on the type of house you own and where you live, so double-check this with your local planning authority.
I would also strongly recommend building the conservatory well, with no stinting on workmanship or materials. A leaky, badly insulated conservatory will drive you round the bend, and you will regret not spending a little bit more money to create a great room that can be used throughout the year.
How much value a conservatory will add is a question that can be answered only if the rest of the property is taken into account. Adding square footage does generally add value, but the new room needs to be well built, well finished and well balanced with the rest of the house. In other words, you need enough bedrooms and bathrooms to balance the extra living space.
- Sarah Beeny cannot send personal replies. Questions may be edited for reasons of space, and advice is given without responsibility. Please do not send original documents or SAEs.
Have you got a question for Sarah Beeny? Send your queries to sarah.beeny@sunday-times.co.uk or write to her c/o Home, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST
