The beauty of buying a new build is that it is a totally blank canvas for you to put your own stamp on a property. But if you're buying off-plan it can be hard to visualise the proportions of the house or flat and get a feel for what it will be like to live there. That's where the showhome comes in. It provides a guide to how the property flows and the space can be used, what furniture will fit and provide some decor inspiration.
Mother and daughter Maggie Abel and Penny Bailey work with an interior designer to create the showhomes for eco builder Abel Homes' developments across the county and invited Norfolk magazine along to one of their latest developments, Three Squirrels at East Harling, where 85 new homes are under construction. There the showhome is a five-bedroom property.
The ground floor has a large kitchen-dining area, with a utility room off it, a living room, reflecting the shift to hybrid working, a study and an ensuite room which could be used as a guest bedroom - or, as it is styled here, a home gym.
On the first floor there are four bedrooms and a family bathroom.
'I think quite often, showhomes can be quite neutral and we don't want to do that - we want it to be colourful, fun and memorable,' says Penny.
They also like to reflect what's trending in interiors - so the kitchen at Three Squirrels is a stylish dark green, there are lots of different textures and there is some bold feature wallpaper and lighting throughout. They always like to reflect the local surroundings in their design schemes, so the children's bedroom has an underwater theme in a nod to Swallow Aquatics which is nearby. They also use local suppliers where possible.
Importantly, to give a true sense of scale, all the furniture is full-size.
'Some developers are a bit sneaky and they put queen-sized beds in - we put in either full-sized double beds or sometimes we put a kingsize,' says Penny.
The important thing is that people can imagine themselves living in a property.
'We want you to feel like you're in a home, not a boutique hotel,' says Penny.
They have been known to keep things very real - once they ended up on national TV when they created a typical teenager's bedroom in a showhome, complete with loud music, socks on the floor and pizza under the bed.
abelhomes.co.uk
