Your Inspirations Magazine
The family home in Coleshill, Warwickshire, a Georgian Grade Two listed building.

Built in the late 17th century the house had a small two-storey cottage to the rear, as well as a garage tacked on in more recent times. The family had the idea of demolishing the garage and incorporating the original cottage into a larger living accommodation. Because of the age and listing of the property, it became partly a restoration project as various restrictions had to be adhered to.

Realising that it was proving to be a huge undertaking, the family enlisted the help of interior designers Rosalie Whitehead and Vivienne Waddell from One Off Interiors, as well as an Architect. In addition to planning and keeping the new part sympathetic with the old, there was the added problem of making the design contemporary enough for a 20-something who, typically, had ideas of his own.

The finished scheme owes much to Rosalie and Vivienne's ideas at the planning stages. Inspired by the wooded beams of the original cottage, they incorporated beams into the roof space but used steel instead of wood to give it a more contemporary edge.

To complement these, steel Seta radiators from Bisque have been used throughout to frame windows and doorways. "Radiators take up so much space," says Rosalie, "and once a radiator is on a wall you can't use that wall for anything else, so it pays to be a bit more inventive."

The entrance hall is virtually a room on its own. To use as much space as possible, Vivienne suggested utilising it as a work area, housing a desk and workstation while enabling the main living area to be kept free from clutter. The piece de resistance has to be the steel and wood spiral staircase that One Off Interiors has highlighted with recessed spotlights sunk into the floor, making it even more dramatic.