You can go wrong with changing the décor of your home but you can never go wrong with a home extension. Adding more space to your home will transform your household in a positive way as you’ll have more space at your disposal. Furthermore, a home extension will help the property fetch a higher selling price so, in terms of real estate, building a home extension is actually an investment. If you are preparing to extend your home in the near future, here are some interesting tips on how you can build a home extension.
A glazed walkway
The extension to your house doesn’t necessarily have to be back to back to the existing structure. The two can be meters apart for aesthetic reasons or perhaps practical ones, depending on the terrain configuration of your property.
If looks are what you have in mind, then a glazed walkway between the house and the extension will make sure you don’t get wet while accessing the newest section of your home. Glazed walkways are ideal for houses that are located in nature so people living inside can enjoy the view through the glass.
More than extending the staircase
If you are planning on building a second storey extension, then you must also build a staircase. However, you should aim to make the most of the new staircase, especially if it is to be located in a high traffic area where it will constantly be visible to you, your family and guests.
The staircase has the potential to become the key feature inside the extension. Floating cantilevered treads, glass or brass balustrades, open treads, and galleried landings are just some of the interior design options that you can introduce to make the staircase stand out.
The problem with sound
When your house was originally built, the architect took care of the acoustics. By adding extra rooms, you risk messing up the acoustics of the structure. This problem can be alleviated by installing soft sound-absorbent materials into the walls and floor of the extension. They will cushion the reverberating sounds that would otherwise annoy you and prevent you from enjoying the peace and quiet of a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Extending the extension
If you’ve extended before and want to extend again then you can extend the extension. For instance, a ground floor extension such as a sunroom extension can be completed with a patio. This would extend further into the backyard and it would feature any of the most popular shade structures like pergolas and roofs that open. In most cases, home extensions serve the purpose to increase the interior of the house but it doesn’t say anywhere that you cannot enlarge the exterior space of your home as well.
The necessity to introduce natural light
Home extensions are commonly surrounded by the yard on three sides. Such a location provides the ideal opportunity installing large windows. However, very often homeowners overlook this potential and opt for small windows on one side.
Natural light is a great advantage in interior design so you should try to make the extension as light as possible. The glazed walkways we have mentioned at the beginning of our text is just one of the solutions, while skylights, glazed door openings, and roof windows are just some of the other interior design options to consider installing.
Sliding pocket doors
Connecting the extension with the existing part of the house is a design solution that requires a lot of pondering. An open plan design or the installation of a small door is a dilemma that not even the contractor nor the architect can help you resolve. Perhaps the best solution are sliding pocket doors (also known as cavity sliding doors) that help you get the best of both worlds, i.e. rooms.
If you manage to match the paint of the extension to the pocket doors, then it would appear that there is a wall. On the other side, when the doors are fully open, they will create the appearance as if the two rooms are connected.
High ceilings
If you don’t like the height of the ceiling in your house, there is virtually nothing you can do about it, except tearing the whole place down and rebuilding it. When constructing the extension, you get to choose the height of the ceiling anew. Use this opportunity to raise the ceiling and give the impression that the extension is larger than it really is. Stepping from the old section of the house into the new one, it will feel as if you have walked into a ballroom.
The 7 tips we have listed above can be applied in various residential structures. How you extend your home really depends on your needs and design preferences.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Bio: Patrick Adams is a freelance writer and rock-blues fan. When he is not writing about home improvement, he loves to play chess, watch basketball, and play his guitar. More than anything, he loves to spend his time in his garage, repairing appliances and creating stuff from wood.
