I have a terraced house, it’s not grand or posh, but quite roomy. I would like to re-model the top floor, but lack the imagination to know quite how to make the best of it. I googled “interior designers” in my area, but they all seem to be for country piles or city apartments, not for ordinary plebs. My budget would be 10 grand or so.
Has anyone hired a professional for something similar, and if so, how did you go about it?
Thank you.
Your first consideration should be to check on the interior walls, what are they supporting? Its likely that you have a wall somewhere dividing your house around the centre - with rooms at either side and maybe a stairway. This wall holds your roof up, so I think maybe you should be careful about modifying it.
A pretty good tv show would be to look at ‘House hunters’ - its where various folk buy houses at auction, and do some work before selling or letting them. There are frequently terrace homes on that show.
I know folk that have looked at moving staircases of change the orientation of the upstairs - if its done well you can gain some space to put into larger bedrooms - its a lot of work though.
You might also consider if a loft conversion is feasible - you can sometimes get a room larger than any of the others in the house but you might need to rob some space from below for the access stairs.
Art Deco or arts & crafts work well in some terrace houses, after all both of these periods are concurrent with the age of many such terrace housed that were built around 1900-14 or mid 1920’s onwards.
It does depend on the age of your terrace house the older ones have higher ceilings than the post war ones, so you have to think about what looks well - and also the type of windows you have can make a difference.
Personally, I don’t think that the built-in style or flatpack styles of furniture work at all well in pre-war terraces.
Post war terraces - different altogether, might depend upon your room sizes
My mother is working with a local general contractor to remodel her kitchen and some other parts of the house. The firm has an interior designer on staff. According to my mother, she previously worked on some TV shows out of New York. So one option is to first find the contractor and ask them for recommendations. Another is to check at a good quality furniture store. They may know some designers.
If you’re wanting to make structural changes, I’d think an architect would be your first stop. They can see which walls are load-bearing, and if they need to be moved, how that might be done. And then a contractor to do the work. To me, “interior designers” are the paint/furniture people.
StG
Thank you for the replies.
It’s a Victorian with three floors. The third has a large room, a smaller room, a decent landing space, and some (not much) loft room. I’d enjoy doing the furnishing myself, I just think a professional would help me make the space more useful. I am not looking to add value, really, just to make the space work for me, and I don’t think I have the imagination to know what could be done.
I’d agree that moving load-bearing walls, or changing staircases would be too much of a hassle, and outwith my budget. The House Hunter or similar programmes I have seen, tend to skew to the buy-to-let market, whereas I want to customise.
The in-house, or “free” designers in my demographic* seem to be all about pushing fitted furniture, and as casdave said, that that would look a bit crap in an older house. And I think, based on my searches, that I am far too small fry for any architect.
Perhaps I am looking for something that isn’t there : –)
Appreciate the responses.
If your area is not particularly prosperous, I would assume that the architects near you are aware of this and have adjusted their business models accordingly. I mean, they can’t all be working on Mayfair penthouses or huge country mansions, surely.
Are you looking at having some “physical work” done, along the lines or rewiring / carpentry / updating floors, or only paint and furniture?
Look for either a contractor (they always know some decorators) or, if you don’t expect to be modifying the actual space, ask around in decoration stores whose materials you like. You want someone who listens to what you are saying - I’ve discarded contractors and decorators on account of:
In the US, there are two fields.
Interior decorator: requires no degree or licensing. They are the paint/furniture people.
Interior designer: requires degree and licensing. They can help coordinate structural changes.
Is there a university nearby that offers interior design? As an instructor of interior design, I think it’s great when I can give my upper level students a chance to work on a real project.
There aren’t many architects near me (I used a 100 mile search) and those that are, are just catering to developments/council work and stuff.
I’d be happy to modify rooms, if it was within budget. Like I say, can furnish it myself, I’m looking more for an experienced/talented eye, to tell me what would work best, maybe make extra rooms, loft access and stuff.
I don’t think interior design here is quite as popular as in the U.S., or perhaps only in certain areas.
The University students idea is a good one, that may be worth a shot.
Thanks for the input.