Dining Room
Best dining roomsThis gorgeously green dining space in west London is one part of a full renovation project undertaken by design and build team Zulufish. Green has been a hugely popular colour on Houzz of late and it shines as a key hue here, thanks in part to the quality of light flooding into the space. “The combination of minimal structural glazing and internal Crittall walls flood light through the house,” the designers say.The interiors, however, were a true team effort, with the joinery executed by sister company HUX London and interior design looked after by Purple Design. Browse all the UK winners in this category here.Browse all the Irish winners in this category here.
The original door into what is now the area was right in the middle of the bench seat. Cathy budged it up to the hallway end of the room to create more useable wall space. She also packed in functionality and storage. Counterintuitively, she chose to shrink the room a little so as to build a false wall to house the tall cupboards seen here. These conceal shelving, the boiler and a TV. “This dining area has become a snuggly evening room for the parents while the children are watching television in the living room,” Cathy says.On either side of the seating unit are full-height cupboards filled with pull-out baskets – one cupboard for each daughter and her own craft supplies. The storage beneath the bench was made by a joiner. “They’re very small cupboards but very useful,” Cathy says. “There are data sockets inside, so Katie can plug in her ethernet cable and edit photos on her laptop at the kitchen table.”Katie and her husband already owned the table. “We considered getting a new one, but this is actually an Ercol one, so we stripped it and painted the legs,” Cathy says.Craft storage cupboards, Ikea with bespoke fronts. Chairs, Danetti. Bench upholstered in linen woven with copper,...
Prepare your propertyTo ensure your project is as plain sailing as possible, it’s a good idea to deal with any underlying issues ahead of time. If you’re hiring an architect or project manager, they’ll be able to bring in a surveyor to assess your property. Or you can find a chartered surveyor on the RICS website.If you know there’s damp in your home, for example, or the roof needs fixing, you could deal with it before the project starts. Alternatively, talk to your professional about it to see if they can include it in your project.
A bench could wrap round to a fireplace and across a large window in a dining room. But question of what to do in the rest of the space
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