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Home improvement special

Adding value to our homes is not just something we're interested in - it's a bona fide national obsession, and with good reason...

As the price of bricks and mortar has soared, homeowners in their thousands have caught on to some simple maths. If you move, stamp duty, legal fees, removal-van bills and estate agency cheques all add up to a chunky, five-figure sum - and that's before you've shelled out to get the new home redecorated to your taste. But if you spend that money on your current home, you can transform it. And unlike all those cheques we write when we move home, builders' bills don't represent "dead money". Plan wisely and you can add much more value than the amount you spend.

One common problem with renovation is that people transform a house that has good general appeal into something so specific to their needs that, when they come to sell it in a few years, they find nobody wants to buy their unique vision of paradise. But there's a fail-safe way around this false move.

Architecture expert Hugo Tugman talks you through the best ways to unlock space, create the wow factor - and add extra value.

Project one: The kitchen

The age-old rule of doing up homes is: start in the kitchen. Now the idea has moved on. At our architecture practice, we are finding that what people want at the heart of their home is an open room that houses the kitchen, but also functions as a place for kids to play and for newspapers to be read. In short, the place where the family interacts. It used to be called a family room, but the idea has moved on. Now single people and couples want an open living space, too. Better still, when it is done well, the concept holds for townhouses, city apartments and country cottages alike.

There are so many ways in which this can be achieved, but the three essential elements are the space to sit, the space for a table and the space for food preparation. The design challenge is how to connect these together. I once saw a miserable failure of an attempt to create such a place in a room that was more than big enough for the purpose. The main reason it failed was that the kitchen units were arranged around the walls of the room with a table, chairs and sofa in the middle. This made the kitchen totally dysfunctional, with mum or dad having to walk several strides from sink to fridge, bypassing the table every time.

A classic way to delineate the cooking zone from the other spaces is to use a breakfast bar or cooking island, clearly defining the boundary without cutting up the sense of space. A more imaginative variation is to enlarge the cooking island away from the kitchen area so that it becomes the table and "nerve centre" of all activity. This can create a great interaction between the two zones, physically separating the person cooking from those around the table, but all focusing on the same central point.

In another project, we proposed that the kitchen be arranged around a long, double-width worktop. One end had all the functional kitchen items, but further along there was a step up in the floor level, while the worktop stayed at the same height. This meant that one end of this giant worktop was the correct height at which to stand and cook, but at the other end dining chairs could be arranged around the worktop, set as it was at table height.

Kitchens can be hugely expensive, and it is worth getting the best-quality fittings that you can afford. Of particular importance is the choice of worktop. The project I described above, with the enlarged central kitchen island, was built using functional, robust units from Magnet, but a specialist joiner made beautiful solid-walnut worktops, which are quite simply gorgeous. They were expensive, but the money cannot really have been spent in a more visible and worthwhile way.

Like all other trends, kitchen fashions come and go. But the essentials endure. Kitchens must be ergonomic and functional. I really don't go in for the "separates" look, where all the units are free-standing. Yes, this is a reaction against the ubiquitous "fitted" kitchen, but it is simply not practical - all the spills drip down behind and between units, so it's not great for keeping clean.

Kitchen design is very much a matter of taste. One client recently described the black glass kitchen island that we had designed for her as her "beautiful black Ferrari". There are some lovely systems that conceal pretty much everything - fridge, oven, cupboards - behind elegant panels, so the only visible evidence of a kitchen is a sculptural mixer tap over a stone sink. Even the hob can be seamlessly concealed within the glass worktops.

Simplicity is best

If in doubt about the latest trend, I always advise simplicity - it never goes out of style and will always be functional. Use natural materials such as stone, slate and timber - I would include in this category glass, rubber and stainless-steel, too. These are all materials that are honest about what they are, expressing their own essential characteristics. I am no fan of plastic laminate worktops with a stone or wood effect.

Another essential element of the combined kitchen/family/living room is daylight, ideally via large glass doors looking out to a garden. For the project with the walnut worktops, we designed a huge glass door in a steel frame that slides away from the corner of the room, opening up a great swathe of space leading to the terrace. This not only gives a lovely feeling on a summer's afternoon, but is a real architectural statement. The smooth engineering and scale of the door gives great pleasure in the act of sliding it open and it again connects the heart of the house to the space and light of the garden.

Circulation is also a vital matter to account for when arranging the space. If the main route in and out of the back door traverses through the working area of the kitchen, it will quickly become infuriating. Allow the working zone to be protected from the comings and goings of the family. Think about how shopping is going to be brought in, unloaded and put away. Go through the stages of making a cup of coffee - you will be surprised how many different things need to happen - and see that it is arranged suitably.

The overriding need, however, is for this space to work as the family centre, an informal gathering point from which all activity radiates. It must feel natural, work effectively and be comfortable. Such a space is a magnet for homeowners and it will not only transform the way you are able to live in your house, but also add significant value by simply making the home a more attractive and desirable place to be.

Get the lowdown

How much will it cost?

A new kitchen will cost between £5,000 and £100,000, with price points in between. Generally, you get what you pay for - go for simplicity, robustness and quality. Add to these costs the refurbishment necessary to create the right space - glazed doors, flooring, plumbing and so on - and you can easily double the cost of the kitchen.

How much hassle is it?

We are talking about the heart of the house, and to rip out the heart and replace it will inevitably cause significant disruption for a month or more. If you can move out for the duration, all the better.

What's the first step?

Don't start with the choice of kitchen system. The first thing to do is to get the space right - the circulation, the zones, the relationship with the outside. Start with the fundamentals. If you allow yourself to be drawn in by a kitchen salesman's patter too soon, you could be knocked off-course.

Project two: The outside room

More and more, Britain is becoming a nation that loves the outdoors - but not necessarily in the way it used to. When you come to sell, a high maintenance rose garden is as likely to terrify as enchant a prospective buyer. But as our tastes become a more international, we've picked up a trend that never fails to impress. One very successful way to add a lovely sense of space to your ground floor is to create an "outside room", a low maintenance outdoor area that flows with the interior living space. This is more than just a terrace or patio and can genuinely add a new dimension to your home - even in winter.

The first thing to consider is the connection to the space inside. It is important that the outside space feels like a continuation of something from the inside (and visa-versa), so it needs open out from a generous family space, kitchen dining area or the like. Large glazed doors or better still folding-sliding glass doors (many people call these café style doors) to a good height are important. For folding-sliding doors, have a look at www.solarlux.co.uk or www.i-d-systems.co.uk

Another neat trick is to set the exterior level at the same height as the internal floor. This requires some careful detailing to ensure that the rain doesn't find its way indoors. One clever way to achieve this is to form a concrete sub-level outside, down from the internal floor level and sloping away from the house. On top of this, cedar decking or stone tiles can be supported at the correct level, leaving joints through which the rain can drain to the lower level and away from the house.

If you are going to run the floor levels through, it is a good idea to maintain a continuity of materials. If you have a timber floor inside, take it outside in the form of timber decking. A stone tile inside can run out to a stone terrace outside (just be careful to specify something that grips when wet!).

When it comes to arranging you "room outside", frame and identify it clearly. It may not have four walls but it is a room after all. Low thick walls can define the space and double as seating when people come around. Perhaps on one side the wall can be worktop height and incorporate a built in barbeque with storage for gas cylinders, spare seating etc.

It is important to be able to see 'through' the outside room to some space beyond if possible. This will also help to define the space as more than a mere terrace. If the floor level is matched through, steps down to a lawn level can work very well. It is also good to incorporate some planting, both to soften the edges (small box hedges can stand in lieu of walls very effectively) and large structural plants can create very effective layers, so long as they don't start to take over.

In summer you may find that you use this room as much as your living room. In winter it may be too cold and wet to use directly, but seeing into (and through) your room outside can extend the sense of space inside in a most dramatic way.

Get the lowdown

How much will it cost?

Often the most significant single job is to form a suitable opening in the rear of the house and have the glazed door fitted. Choices of stone paving and so on can have a big effect on the price, but a guideline budget of between £10,000 and £20,000 will give a satisfactory result in many situations.

How much hassle is it?

Other than knocking a huge hole in the outside wall of your house (which is likely to be messy, noisy and very disruptive) the lion's share of the work will be outside and therefore should not impose too much upon your life.

What's the first step?

Start by thinking about where the connection to the house would work best and then mark out the area with string and pegs in the ground. A garden designer could prepare an illustrated proposal and suggest suitable planning too.

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Project three: Small changes that make a big impact

Master suite

Increasingly people are looking for more than just a main bedroom these days, so one way to increase the desirability of your home is to create a master bedroom suite that includes not only a good-sized bedroom but an en-suite bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe as well. It is often worth losing that box room and knocking through from the front bedroom.

Don't be put off by builders who say that you can't have that bathroom at the front of the house because all the plumbing is at the back - that is nonsense. The plumbing serves the bathroom, not the other way around. There is always a way of sorting out the waste pipes. One good tip - try to allow at least 140cm (4'8") for the width of your walk-in wardrobe, as this gives you a practical minimum depth for hanging space one side and shelves the other with just enough space to stand in between.

Storage solutions

Whether you are into minimalism or not, clutter is unattractive and closes down the sense of space within your home. Storage solutions therefore allow us to hold on to much of the "stuff" that we all seem to accumulate and still enjoy clean, clear space. I would suggest that storage should be a combination of one or two nice pieces of furniture along with high capacity storage that camouflages itself naturally into the geography of the room.

For example, a raised plinth the length of one wall of a living room, approximately 50cm above the floor provides supplementary seating when you have people around but can also store all the hi-fi, DVDs, telephone directories and even computer units that often clutter up a living room, and it will hide all the cables too.

Wet room

Maybe it is the popularity of spa hotels these days, but people seem to have fallen in love with bathrooms all over again. A particular favourite is the walk-in shower or wet room. Rather than a shower cubicle with a raised shower tray and glass (or even a shower curtain - yuk!), you get a fully tiled floor that slopes gently to a floor drain below a large shower-head. Be aware that this is considerably more tricky to install than a shower tray and cubicle, and therefore more expensive, but it can make the room can feel luxurious and open.

Cinema den

In the Seventies and Eighties it was the Jacuzzi, but today's must-have for the luxury home is a room with a big screen and surround sound. For maximum effect the room should be acoustically insulated and have blackout blinds to give the full cinema effect. If you are looking to add value to a large house, consider converting that dining room that you never use anyway into a cinema den.

Hugo Tugman runs the design service www.architectyourhome.com

Source: The Independent - http://money.independent.co.uk/property