My Reno Journey
Having been a multi-disciplinary designer for the last 16 years and spending most of that time in fashion I have made my career designing for others.
When buying our dream home in 2020 and embarking on a renovation journey that would deeply impact the space, I realised the scale of the creative freedom I'd finally get, and to be honest it was quite scary! And 2020, what a time that was! At the start of 2020 we were living in Dorset, somewhere we’d ended up as my career had taken me there, but somewhere that never truly felt like ‘us’. We decided we would love to relocate to Bristol, a city our parents had spent time in in their youth and where some of our best friends lived, and just like that, a few scrolls on Rightmove and we found a house with loads of potential, we were very quickly on our way to a big lifestyle change.
By the middle of 2020 we had been through Covid 19 lockdown madness, lost my dad, discovered we were pregnant with our second babe, my husband had left his employment to pursue freelance life, and we had moved to a new city. It was a rollercoaster!
At the time I was running my kids fashion brand from home whilst taking care of my three year old daughter, needless to say it was a struggle, the idea of embarking on a renovation project was so overwhelming. We knew when we found our home that we wanted to do a side return extension and kitchen renovation, to open up the downstairs space to allow for free-flowing family life. I wanted a space we could all hang out in together, a family living room, meets play room, meets dining space and kitchen - the hub of the home.
Although this big project was planned as soon as we moved in we needed to take the time to save funds, grow a baby, and establish our new work routines. I am also a big believer in living with a space to truly understand it before jumping to change it. When living in a space and analysing how it’s used it is easier to understand how it could be used better. Now, I am not a patient person, my natural instinct is to decide I want to do something and then decide it should have been done yesterday. So this resolution took all my strength - luckily I had a baby to grow, a kid to look after, and I got to work on decorating projects I could get moving on.
Finally after multiple lockdowns, the birth of my second daughter, and the loss of my beloved mother in law; we picked ourselves up and prepared to make our house into a home we loved. I reflect on this time often, the emotional turmoil we experienced as a family over the space of a few years was huge, and it felt like this big project and the further stress it would add to our lives (mainly the huge financial burden) became our therapy - as crazy as that sounds!
Probably the most crucial part of a project like this is finding the right people to work with, you can have plenty of cash in the bank, plenty of great design ideas but if can’t find the right trustworthy and skilled people to help make it all happen the project is doomed.
I am so thankful we were recommended Sienns Developments, a local company headed up by Lee Delaney. When he came over to quote for the job we appreciated his warmth and the time he took to talk through things with us, we knew we wanted to work with him (we did also get a number of other quotes to be sensible!).
We worked with We Are Not Architects (WANA) in planning the space, and we would throughly recommend them. They measured up our existing home and drew up plans for the new space, taking in to account our ideas, the way we wanted to use the space and adding their creativity and extensive knowledge. You can see this project in their portfolio. Our structural engineer was Peter Foster.
Once plans were drawn up and deposits were paid we waited. Covid-19 had meant waiting lists for great builders were ridiculous, and that was compounded by limited availability of materials and huge increases in costs bought about by Brexit (booooo!)
Once work started in Spring of 2022 I was so so excited! I was running my business from my home studio and looking after my two daughters and wanted to be as hands-on as possible with project management. We wanted to save money where we could and so my husband and I would get involved where possible, i.e. tanking walls, taking up floorboards, and eventually painting and tiling. It wasn’t easy! We couldn’t just leave the house because of our work, and we couldn’t go on holiday because every penny we had was being spent on the build! We had a temporary OSB wall to close off the building site, we washed up in the bath, set up a mini kitchen in the living room (we ate A LOT of pasta and missed having an oven!) and for a few weeks didn’t have a washing machine (and I felt very lucky to have access to my neighbour’s). Towards the end of the Summer we had torrential rain which not only slowed progress of the build but meant gigantic spiders and mice were finding their way in and making themselves at home. That was the toughest part for us!
Throughout the project we were so excited for the result, the builder working on the main build was Sam Moore and he was great to work with, super friendly and understanding of the impact a project like that has on a family living in the space, we really appreciated that.
The work in progress.
The whole build took just under 8 months. The builders gave us the final shell including floor tiling and plastering (that took just under 6 months) and we built the Ikea kitchen ourselves, including the custom birch ply island (thanks hubby). Then the last jobs included the quartz worktop installation by Marmobello, the last of the electrics and plumbing in our washing machine and our Fohen hot water tap and finishing touches like wall shelves, skirting, back splash tiling, painting and building the banquet bench seating at the end.
And the final space.
All photos Jack Ford.
