Our top 5 places to get design inspiration

If you’re thinking about extending or renovating your home, then the first step is to think about what you are looking to achieve from your completed project; what are the must-haves, and what are the nice-to-haves.

For example, are you looking to streamline your living areas, adding a flash kitchen while bringing the garden in. Or do you need more bedroom space, preferably with a dressing room attached.

To help you clarify your thoughts, as well as get an idea of what design styles you like, we recommend doing lots of research. This is easy to do online, and the following 5 places are our favourite starting points:

1. Pinterest.

Pinterest is an incredible resource for home extension and renovation projects. It’s a search engine, so simply pop-in what you’re interested in and you’ll be shown lots of inspirational imagery. You can then use boards to pin your favourite ideas, even pinning from other websites in order to collate your ideas all in one place. This will really help us understand what you’re envisaging when we have our consultation meeting.

2. The Dezeen.com lookbooks.

Scrolling down this page is like a masterclass in beautiful design from one of the biggest design magazines around. Dezeen’s lookbooks are collations of project images around a theme, for example loft conversions, scandi-style design or mezzanines.

View all of the lookbooks here: dezeen.com/lookbooks.

3. George Clarke’s programmes.

Everyone’s favourite architect (sorry, Kevin McCloud) has so many excellent programmes that provide oodles of home improvement inspiration. Watch whichever ones float your boat and pay attention to which elements you really love and which you loathe.

You can watch the programmes for free on My4, choose from the below…
Amazing Spaces: channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-amazing-spaces.
Ugly House to Lovely House: channel4.com/programmes/ugly-house-to-lovely-house-with-george-clarke.
Old Houe, New Home: channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-old-house-new-home.
Remarkable Renovations: channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-remarkable-renovations.

4. Reddit.

Reddit is an absolute goldmine of information. Probably any question you can ever want to be answered is on there, so why not use it to find some inspiration too. It’s less visual than the other sources, but you can still scroll through architecture subreddits and find lots of relevant imagery.

Visit the main architecture reddit: reddit.com/r/architecture
This subreddit is about 3D imagery, which we love: reddit.com/r/archviz.
As you might expect, the Interior Design subreddit has lots to look at: reddit.com/r/InteriorDesign.

5. The Architect’s Journal.

This is one of go-to industry publications, and they have a section dedicated to small projects and extensions. This page showcases the best in UK design for projects like yours so it is well worth taking a look at.

Check out the small projects section here: architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/small-project-and-extension.

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We hope that you find these resources as valuable as we do. Once you have done your research, don’t forget to get in touch to organise your free consultation with us. We’ll be able to take your ideas and provide recommendations on what will work for your property.