Four-storey house design: Converting an office into an illuminated home

Illuminating an exciting renovation project

Tina explains, “It had been offices for about thirty years, we came in through the front door and just fell in love with it!”

After what had been a long search for their new home, Tina and Mark finally found an unexpected and exciting new project which got them renovating straight away.

Mark comments, “Getting daylight into the house was very important, so we put light wells in on two floors which allows light to come from the top of the house all the way down to the back, so now there are no dark areas, where before quite a lot of the house had dark corners.”

Different moods on different floors

Tina continues, “Each floor has a very different character. The basement has a very cosy feel and the two significant main floors of the property have got very tall ceilings, and then you get to the top floor, which is in the roof.”

Having different moods on different floors was something Tina and Mark felt added character to their home, and something that they embraced by contrasting their darker and cosy basement with a bright, light space above.

A bright space to meditate

Creating a space where Tina could centre herself during meditation was important, and the roof windows did just that. Tina, “We wanted that to have a different feel to the rest of the house. The rooms up here are quite large, so the use of roof windows was really important to get as much daylight into each room as possible. Having all the roof windows was critical to create that light that helps me meditate effectively and makes me more at peace.”

Seamlessly transition from day to night

Tina, “During the day it is brilliant, there’s loads and loads of daylight, you get fresh air, but when I want to go to sleep, I can put the blackout blinds down and then have a peaceful night’s sleep.”

While having large roof windows has allowed an abundance of daylight into the Smiths’ home, they also wanted to control it with blackout blinds to make for a dark and cosy environment at bedtime.

Giving each room its own personality

Mark, “I think light is really important anywhere in the house. The house has a lot of areas with a lot of different feels to it. There’s downstairs, which is for cooking, entertaining, or outside when I’m working in the garden. After all that, it’s great to find somewhere where you can get away from it. I can come upstairs, run a bath, relax, move into the other room, do some work if I need to.”

A space seen in a new light

The Smiths’ transformation was triumphant, they turned a dark-cornered office into a characterful home saturated with natural daylight, and they are incredibly proud of their achievements.

Mark concludes, “Putting in the rooflights has transformed the space. Without the lights, we couldn’t have done that. All of our neighbours have all said how much better the house is, now we’ve done what we’ve done to it – which makes you feel good!”