Having time off is wonderful but at this time of year, given the shortness of the days and the inclement nature of the weather, a break can leave you feeling a little cooped up, as if your house is closing in around you and you desperately need more space.
Do not despair. Even in a home with the most limited space there are ways to make it work a little harder.
You just need to know where to look to find those underused spaces and clever changes to give you the extra space you need.
The untapped space under the stairs can be transformed into more than simply dark and awkward-to-access storage.
From a compact guest WC to space for a home office this pretty mundane area of your home could be put to work in a much more efficient way.
A boxroom can work really well as a nursery but pretty soon your little one will outgrow the space. Why not think about repurposing it as a laundry room.
I did this myself and not only did it put the boxroom to good use but it freed up space all over my home which had been taken up with everything that goes along with washing and drying clothes.
Landings , corridors and hallways are areas often forgotten about but they are excellent for adding built-in storage.
Bespoke solutions will work best in these locations and can be designed to blend in with your existing décor, making them a really discreet solution.
We recently lined a corridor between a diningroom and livingroom with library-style bookshelves for clients who had an extensive book collection, making what was a storage problem into a lovely feature.
Built-in furniture
If you’ve already used all of the floor space you have and still need more room, you might want to think about tapping into the roof space by adding a mezzanine level.
This can work really well to create additional sleeping space or a home office and can work even if your roof space isn’t high enough to take a complete conversion.
Freestanding furniture takes up a lot of space. Look for ways to replace some of your freestanding pieces with built- in alternatives.
I replaced my dining table and three of my dining chairs with a smaller pedestal table and a built-in bench.
This transformed my small kitchen/dining area, making the space look about 50 per cent bigger.
Use visual tricks to make your home feel bigger. For a client we replaced a wall between a narrow hallway and adjoining livingroom with a glazed screen.
This made both spaces seem much larger and brought light into what would otherwise have been a very dark entrance space.
And of course the feeling of needing more space so often comes from having poor storage, or trying to store too much.
Create designated storage spaces and get rid of anything that you no longer need or haven’t used in several years.
