Clever design has helped to make the most of a property that had already seen many changes as Heather Dixon reports. Photographs by Dave Burton

Stephen Smith couldn’t have wished for a better neighbour when he sold the family home in Leeds and moved into a period house in Ilkley. For the house next door belongs to his son, Rik, who has taken a section of the beautiful old property and transformed it into a home full of great design ideas and individual style.

The late 19th century detached house had been divided by the previous owner into three separate flats. They offered a perfect opportunity for Rik to have his own space by taking the smallest apartment and turning the others into a two-bedroom house.

‘It worked for both of us,’ said Rik. ‘It gave me the chance to get onto the property ladder and have independence, while Dad could be assured that he knew his neighbour pretty well.’

As a boy Rik Smith spent hours creating houses with Lego and Meccano, so visualising a property in 3-D was second nature by the time he designed his own home 20 years later. ‘I can look at a space and immediately visualise ways in which it can be divided up,’ said Rik. ‘When I walked into this apartment for the first time I understood, almost straight away, what could be done to improve the layout, to make it work for me. The challenge was in the detail.’

Rik moved into the upstairs flat while he planned what he was going to do with the collection of dated rooms. ‘They were freezing cold with single glazing, no central heating and no loft insulation,’ said Rik, who runs his own property design business, Design Emporium. ‘The bathroom contained a very poor electric shower and I lived there through one of the coldest winters we’d had for years. It was grim, but it gave me the chance to decide exactly what I wanted to achieve and how to achieve it. I wanted the details to be clear before building work began.’

Rik moved in with his father when building work began. He oversaw the work on a daily basis as the first floor flat with extra ground floor rooms was transformed into a stylish, open plan, two-bedroom house.

‘The front of the house gives nothing away,’ said Rik. ‘There is a double width front door flanked by a garage door and study window, but it’s like the Tardis inside and the eye is drawn straight through the property and out to the mature garden beyond.’

One of Rik’s primary concerns was to make sure enough natural light came into the building, which faces south at the back but has limited windows on the ground floor at the front.

‘I didn’t want the core of the house to be dark,’ he said. ‘I wanted it to be open from front to back, with light floors and walls and spaces leading fluidly from one to another. It had to be modern but not just a square box; light and spacious but equally warm and cosy.’

Rik achieved this delicate balance by dividing the ground floor into clear living spaces with feature walls, varying ceiling heights and an open staircase. He has also included 10 different lighting circuits on the ground floor to create pockets of space and different moods in each living area.

‘One of the most complicated aspects of the build was achieving the different floor levels and ceiling heights, especially when part of the house is in the original building and part of it in the extension,’ said Rik. ‘I also wanted the floor tiles to be level and fluid from one living space to another.’

In the sitting room and stairs area – the original part of the house – there is a timber floor while the original garage and outbuildings has a concrete floor. ‘I didn’t want to skimp on anything which could come back to bite me later,’ said Rik. ‘If you don’t spend money on getting the structural aspects right you could land yourself with all kinds of problems later on.’

Key to the success of the project was Rik’s exhaustive research in the months leading up to the renovation. He spent hours searching the internet and sourcing materials, making sure his plans and schedule of works were as thorough and detailed as possible so there were no unexpected hitches ‘en route’. He also made compromises where necessary to achieve the overall look he wanted.

‘I didn’t have a fire in the sitting room because I didn’t want a boxed-in flue in the en suite bathroom above,’ said Rik, ‘but I didn’t compromise on the exterior stone work because I wanted old and new to blend in as seamlessly as possible.’

The flat roof – again chosen with the neighbour’s view in mind – features a glass lantern which draws maximum light into the room below.

Upstairs, Rik has created two spacious bedrooms rather than three small ones and the main en suite includes an open plan dressing area. A ground floor study occasionally doubles as a third bedroom. The width of the front door was dictated by the width of the floor tiles as Rik wanted to make sure the eye line from front to back was uninterrupted. ‘Some of these ideas are very simple but they make a huge difference when you are living with them on a day to day basis,’ said Rik. ‘I included an automatic light in the downstairs cloakroom, for example, which makes perfect sense. We spend so much time fumbling around for a light switch when a simple device is all it takes to make life easy.’

The emphasis on visible – and invisible – quality and careful pre-planning has paid dividends. ‘It works brilliantly as a home,’ said Rik. ‘I have approached it with loft-style living in mind but it’s also very practical in terms of how I live every day. Until you live in a place you cannot be 100 per cent confident that it will work, but everything I planned works exactly how I wanted it.’

Contacts

Design Emporium 0845 272 2233/ 07788 432949 designemporium.co.uk

Jane Sanderson (soft furnishings/stylist) 07545915844 janesandersondesign.com

Karonia (kitchen work surfaces) 08456580333 karonia.com

Dobson building contractors 01943 608222 dobsonconstruction.co.uk

Tiles from Plan It Earth plan-it-earth.co.uk

John Clayton Lighting, Lincolnshire 01507 588588 jclighting.com