‘The right architect can also make you a space you’ll want to be in rather than just one that looks good from the outside. I’m not advising you do anything ugly, but when you’re doing extensions and refurbishment it’s mostly about the inside space and how you’re going to enjoy it rather than all- singing all-dancing external views.’
Coffey says that some clients are keen to join the dining room (usually in the centre of the plan) to the room at the front of the house, though he says, in his experience, it’s more successful to join the kitchen (which is usually at the back of the house) with the dining area. ‘That way the kitchen becomes the heart of the scheme,’ he says. ‘Then the client can choose whether they want the kitchen in the middle of the plan or at the back.’
Coffey says the extension should feel like a natural part of the house, rather than something that’s been added on. ‘What we try to do is make it so that when you walk into a house where we’ve done a side return you won’t actually recognise it as a side return. If it’s done well then you shouldn’t easily be able to tell the new bit from the old. It should feel like it’s always been that way.’
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