If you’ve lived in the same home for a long time, you might start to notice that it’s no longer the best fit for your lifestyle. Your family might have grown meaning you need more bedrooms and bathrooms. You might start a job or hobby which means you need you need extra office space, or you might require more storage. Rather than adapt your lifestyle to fit your home, you can make your home fit you instead. Here are some of the ways you can go about it.

Extend Your Kitchen

It used to be common for homes to be built with a smaller enclosed kitchen, with larger dining and living space for entertaining. These days most people prefer to go with open plan areas as suggested by articles like this www.schroederdesignbuild.com/10-benefits-of-an-open-concept-floor-plans. Large kitchens which feature islands give us the ability to entertain right from where we cook. Modern day entertaining tends to be a lot less informal, and this newer style of open plan living reflects that. Bigger kitchens also make your job as a home cook much easier too. If your family has grown and you now cater for more people on a daily basis, upgrading and extending your kitchen can be a good way to go. You could either extend outwards or rejig the layout inside and use some space from the living area.

Utilize Your Loft

If your loft is currently home to a million spiders and a few Christmas decorations, then you’re missing out on all-important space! Converting your loft will give you a brand new room and additional space. Articles like www.theguardian.com/money/2007/jul/25/homeimprovements have suggested the benefits in doing so Even if it’s only used for storage, having a functioning room will allow you to organize things more neatly. You could buy big sets of drawers and cupboards to go up there to store the things you’re not currently using. This should free up space around the rest of the home too.

Build a ‘Garden Room.'

Instead of adding an extension onto your home (or if you have already done this) a great way to gain some additional space is to have a garden room built. If you have a larger garden and can spare the space, then this is a great option. Unlike regular draughty old outbuildings, a well-built garden room will be fully insulated making it suitable to use all year round. They can have electricity and plumbing run to them, making them a properly functioning space. You could transform one into a home office, studio or guest room depending on the kind of space you’re after. My previous post http://www.sillydrunkfish.com/2016/09/make-your-guest-room-comfortable-for.html may give you ideas for how to make your guest room cozy once it’s done!

Add Ensuites

Instead of squabbling over the family bathroom every morning, adding an ensuite or two could make life much easier. It wouldn’t have to take up much space, especially if you opted for a shower cubicle rather than a bath. Sacrificing a small corner of your bedroom would be worth it if a lack of bathrooms is an issue.

Rebuild From Scratch

For a truly personalized home, you could even consider building from scratch. That way you get it customize it to exactly what you want, with a layout that works for your life. You could look at house plans from a site such as https://www.thehouseplanshop.com/ranch-house-plans/house-plans/4/1.php or speak to an architect to design something completely unique to you.

When you personalize your home, it allows you live your life much more easily. It eliminates the stress of running out of space, or not having enough rooms to fulfill each aspect of your life. Whether you choose build on what you currently have or start again from scratch, personalizing your home means you can live in a place that’s perfectly suited to you.