Small Spaces
Doors take up more room than anybody counts
Every hinged door claims a quarter circle of floor permanently, and in a small home those circles add up to a room.
Marguerite Okonkwo
Craft writer, Rooms With Stories
Marguerite writes about furniture, textiles and repair over replacement.
Contact Marguerite through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
19 articles
Small Spaces
A room with no window can still be worth being in
Internal bathrooms, box rooms and back kitchens are treated as write-offs. Borrowed light and good artificial light make them…
Renovation
Reading a builder's quote is a skill worth learning before you need it
Two quotes for the same job can differ enormously and both be honest, because they are pricing different things.
Renovation
A loft conversion is decided by head height and the staircase
Whether a roof space can become a room is usually settled by two measurements taken before any design exists.
Renovation
Insulating an old house wrongly can damage the building
Retrofit is not just adding a layer. Where the layer goes changes where moisture condenses, and that decides whether the wall stays…
Renovation
Repair, secondary glazing or replacement: the window decision
Old windows are usually rotten in a few places rather than throughout, and the cheapest option is often the one nobody quotes for.
Small Spaces
The bulky things you own decide how small a home can be
Bikes, suitcases, prams and sports kit are what actually break a small flat, and none of them fit in a drawer.
Renovation
Insulate first, then size the heating system
A heating system specified for a leaky house will be oversized for the same house once it is insulated, and oversized systems run…
Renovation
Living through a renovation costs more than people budget for
The decision to stay or move out is a cost calculation and a relationship one, and it is usually made by default.
Renovation
Buying a house that needs work: what to check and what to cost
The expensive problems in a neglected house are rarely the ones that look bad in the photographs.
Small Spaces
White paint does not make a small room bigger
The advice is repeated so often it has stopped being examined. What white does is reflect more light, and what makes a room feel…
Small Spaces
A balcony is a room that people treat as a shelf
Outdoor space attached to a flat is usually storing a drying rack and a bicycle. Treated as a room, even a very shallow one changes…
Small Spaces
A flat with no hall makes the front door part of the living room
Opening straight into the main room removes a buffer that a house takes for granted. Everything that would have happened in a…
Renovation
The floor under the floor decides how the finished floor behaves
Almost every flooring failure is a subfloor failure. The material that was blamed was usually installed correctly onto something…
Renovation
A tighter house needs deliberate ventilation
Old buildings ventilated themselves through gaps nobody designed. Sealing those gaps saves energy and removes the accidental air…
Renovation
Original features survive because somebody decided not to remove them
Cornices, shutters, boards and fireplaces are not preserved by accident. They exist in a house because at every renovation someone…
Renovation
A drawing is a communication device, and arguments start where it is vague
Most disputes on a building job are not about workmanship. They are about two people holding different pictures of the same…
Renovation
Which jobs are worth doing yourself and which are not
The dividing line is not difficulty. It is whether a mistake is visible, expensive to undo, or capable of hurting somebody.
Renovation
Underfloor heating is a floor decision before it is a heating one
The heat comes out of the floor, so the floor becomes part of the heating system. What you lay on top of it decides how well it…