Woman Turns 1930s Family Home Into A Modern Masterpiece

A woman has managed to turn a tired family home into a modern masterpiece, having shared the stunning renovation on Instagram.

Katy Wilson, 36, bought her detached 1930s property in Derbyshire back in February 2015. While it had strong curbside appeal, inside the house needed a lot of work - not least because it had just 2.5 bedrooms (the .5 of which wasn't even large enough for a single bed) and one bathroom to play with.

But rather than just adding an extension to provide more living space, Katy decided the house deserved a complete overhaul to bring it into the 21st century, transforming it into a sleek designer home.

After the inevitably long wait for planning permission, Katy was eventually able to get cracking on her dream house in 2018.

Katy told LADbible: "We bought the house in February 2015. We put in for planning in 2016, which took about 12 months for approval with back and forth with the local council.

"We started the build in October 2018 - this was comprised of a two-storey side extension providing two new bedrooms, two en-suites, an office and a roof terrace.

"We also added a single storey extension which had a new kitchen, utility, toilet, snug and playroom.

"In addition we renovated the existing house and had our garden fully landscaped front and back."

Katy has been sharing the journey over on Instagram under the handle @placefortyeight, where she currently has more than 39,000 followers.

Along with extending the home's square footage, Katy also renovated the existing property, giving the whole building a modern upgrade to tie in with the stylish, minimalist exterior.

She continued: "We also fully renovated our existing house by stripping it back to plaster and rewiring. Our existing lounge, hallway, three bedrooms and bathroom were all newly decorated with bespoke joinery and all rooms have underfloor heating.

"The trickiest part was going through planning to get the external cladding on the house passed - we eventually got this through.

"My favourite room is our bedroom because we added a partition to house the television and the other side for a beauty station. We also added an inbuilt wardrobe with sliding wardrobe."

She added: "Inbuilt storage or bespoke carpentry doesn't cost the earth, and can really elevate a space. I would always recommend storage solutions as part of your project planning - and trust me, you will thank yourselves later.

"Research is so important - good preparation brings less stress further down the line."

Katy estimates the total cost of the project, including the garden, was £250,000 - but feels the project was worth it, and not just for the amount of space she's acquired.

"To everyone thinking of a renovation, I'd say try to do what you can yourself - it isn't as scary as you think!" she said.

"I've learned so many skills during this past year, and attempted things I didn't even think I could do.

"It saves you money and is very satisfactory."

Follow Katy on Instagram at @placefortyeight.