WHY YOUR LIFESTYLE SHOULD PLAY A KEY ROLE IN YOUR HOME RENOVATION PLANS
Do you love running, golf, free water swimming, dog walks, doing jigsaws, baking, or anything in between? We'd love to know! Our goal in life is to make our clients' homes work, beautifully. This does not mean picking you this seasons colours, papers of soft furnishings, that's not what makes us tick. It's making your home work, for you that we truly love, we live for it.
I'll find myself in the shower in the morning thinking about how we make getting home with mud covered golf gear and get it into your house, cleaned and ready for the next game in the most beautiful way possible. Thinking about how we make it easy for you to arrive home from a huge dog walk with a mud covered hound, clean the dog, strip off your soaked clothing and do it all without covering your hallway in clutter and dog paraphernalia.
Our goal, is to make our clients homes work for their real lives, not to create a beautiful space to look good on social media but fail to work day to day. We understand our clients are real people, they have real lives and it is not likely to be all dinner parties and entertaining, each home we create is as unique as the client who lives there and we just love a 'difficult' hobby to work around.
TIP #1: SET ASIDE SPACE FOR YOUR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
For every client the journey to making their home work for them is different, and for a lot they feel restricted by what their house 'should' be, we 'should' have a guest room, we 'should' have a lounge for entertaining we 'should' retain 4 bedrooms for the market value.....
But the reality is you live in this house every single day, you pay the mortgage, you worked hard for it and the only 'should' we believe in is that is 'should' absolutely work for you, every day.
Stop being paralysed by the future when you may one day sell and the estate agent needs certain things to achieve maximum market value. Our advice for your home is very different to our advice for developers and clients looking to sell. That day may never come, and it certainly isn't happening tomorrow, so lets make it work for you, right now and deal with the resale in the future - we can return the gym to a guest bed in no time but you'll have had years of enjoyment from the home gym, a worthy trade off.
So now we are past the 'should' have debate, let's imagine you just adore reading, it is your chill out, your relaxation and it is how you recharge. Make the spare bedroom a Library, for you. I do not mean add an Ikea bookcase in there and pretend you'll retreat to the spare bed to read, no, I mean make it comfortable, relaxing, decadent if you like it that way, include dedicated reading lights and make it your sanctuary. I promise you'll enjoy that far more than the current spare bed and pile of stuff you should have taken to the charity shop but didn't! But where will my guests sleep you say? Well, for the occasions you have guests sleep over (and we bet in reality this is in-frequent!) have an exceptionally comfortable sofa bed, or a hidden fold down bed incorporated into your Library shelving. They can still stay, they still have a room but you gained a Library, every day!
Space may not allow a whole room to be your hobby space, but you can make a space become multipurpose - this home office / library functions for two purposes beautifully.
TIP #2: DETERMINE DESIGNATED STORAGE FOR ALL YOUR STUFF
Here I go again on my mission to bring storage into literally every blog I write, but I cannot stress its importance enough, honestly it is like rocket fuel for having a beautiful home that works, and once you have it in place you'll wonder why you spent so many years tripping over your bike every time you walked in the door.
We have a wonderful client who we have worked with over several years creating her a home for her lifestyle. One of the very first things I noticed when I visited her home was the bike, parked in the narrow Victorian hallway. She shimmied past every day to get from room to room, she did it so often she stopped even realising it was there, but it was. It was an irritant, but she'd become blind to it. Part of our Spatial Planning journey for her was to make sure there was an easy, practical and accessible space for the bike she needed every day. She didn't have the luxury of outdoor space, or a bike store, but she did have an alcove just wide enough for a bike, right next to the door she used to access her home after her daily commute......One vertical bike clip and a shelf later and she has a dedicated bike storage area with baskets for her cycling shoes and helmet. A simple solution, not right for everyone but 100% right for her.
This example is unlikely to be your exact problem or solution, but with every single home we work on these are the types of issues we fix before we move on to then making it beautiful too.
Dining space perfect for crafty kids - these bench seat cupboards are packed with glue, paper and pom poms for two children who just love to create!
This hallway storage hides a multitude of sins, boots, coats and even a Christmas tree is tucked away in this beautiful storage solution
TIP #3: MAKE ALL MATERIAL SELECTIONS WORK HARD FOR YOU
As we've established this is a fully functioning working home, and as such it will get messy, it will sometimes be dirty. We expect this. As much as the images on our website are beautifully styled and expertly shot, they are lived in homes - just with the clever storage and materials picked to make sure the messiness of everyday is easily tidied and cleared leaving you with that calming home space.
We're a practical and sensible group of designers. We understand no one has the time in their life to have their carpet professionally cleaned once a month, nor do we want dry clean only upholstery in a playroom. We think function first every step of the way, no matter how beautiful the tufted velvet may be, if it is in a space where small people reside it will be covered in chocolate hands and play doh in no time so we will simply not specify it.
When working with us, there is always an eye on the practicality of life here even when we create magazine worthy homes.
The perfect pairing of quiet luxury and practicality with this roll top in a master suite, transitioning the floor from wood to tile as you hit the wet area combines these spaces in both form and function
It has been a lifelong ambition of mine to make spaces work, I have never been able to accept what is there as the answer and from a young age would be challenging why buildings were the way they are...... I feel lucky every day to be able to make this passion of mine the heart of the Studio Dean business and absolutely love it when I see a client realise how much better their day to day life will be in their home once we've reworked it.
I hope you feel inspired and excited to know your home can flex to your lifestyle, we are passionate (ok, ok obsessive!) about it here and love unlocking the potential hidden in homes for our clients.
If you're ready to create a one-of-a-kind space perfectly suited to your daily life, reach out to us. We can't wait to hear about your project.
Until next time,
