Where to start

Where to Start

Starting a new project can feel like a daunting task. In this lesson Kate teaches you where to start.

You need to really think about the bones of the house, start outside and work your way in. Once you've got the bones right, you can come inside and start planning your scheme.

"A good floor will elevate some quite bad furniture, expensive furniture will always look bad on a bad floor" - Mathew Williamson

Working with the Bones Checklist

• Check the windows are ok
• Check your floors are ok
• Do your floors need repairing?
• Is your roof watertight?

After You've Sorted Out the Bones

You need to start with the bottom and work your way up, floors, walls and ceilings should be your first steps when you begin your schemes. Lighting comes into things very early because if you are re-doing the lighting you will have holes in the walls. You will have to plan your sockets and do a floor plan.

Order of Tasks After Sorting Out the Bones

1. Floors
2. Walls and ceilings
3. Lighting

The Best Place to Start

Kate recommends starting with your bathroom once you have a beautiful bathroom, nothing else seems quite as bad.

Kate's Loft Extension

When starting a new project, consider the home you live in, the environment and the context. With Kate's loft extension, she was very aware of the home and its Victorian properties and wanted to keep in line with the rest of the home.

Kate Wanted the Loft to Feel as if it Just Existed and Did This in a Few Ways

1. Bought reclaimed floor boards creating history and context.
2. Kept the beams exposed and the brick walls painted, speaking to the fact that it could be an original Victorian loft.
3. Continued on her red thread, added shades of paler browns, faded to a more caramel colour.

Your Assignment

Go around your house and play kiss, marry, kill in the different rooms.

Kiss - The things you love

Marry - The goals for the space, from wallpaper you want to buy to the sofa you've had your eye on.

Kill - Things you absolutely hate

Go into the rooms and note the things you like about it and what you don't like about it so much. Keep a notebook and fill it with your kiss, marry, kills.

The Six Questions

Before starting a project it is important to ask yourself the following six questions; who, what, when, where, how and why. Answering these questions honestly and openly will allow you to design a home that makes sense for you.

Who

Who is in that house?

What

What are they going to do in the space?

You will then know the different functions the space will need to have.

When

When are they doing it? In the morning? In the evening? Will it use electric light? Natural light?

Where

Where are you going to shop for the stuff? Locally and sustainably? Quickly? Where are you shopping from and where are you aspiring to shop from?

How

How do you want to feel in the space? Examine how colours and patterns make you feel.

Why

Why am I doing this room? Why is it not working for me? It is useful to live in a space for a while before renovating

Asking these questions of yourself will get the interior right.

Your Assignment

Sit with the headings and make lists underneath them, unto some notes you can further look back onto.