The Househunter: Room by Room

We’re off to Leeds this week to a Grade II listed 17th century hall which has been divided into three homes of which the end wing, with four bedrooms, is for sale. It’s on the market with Manning Stainton for £399,950 and is five miles from the city centre.

It’s spread over four floors with the kitchen and living room on the ground floor – one either side of the entrance hall. Below that, on the lower ground, is a large utility and tv reception room, while the next two floors have one large bedroom and bathroom (not en suite) and the top has three more bedrooms – two of which are less than 9ft wide – and a shower room.

In short, it’s a big house (over 2200 sq ft) with lots of rooms but if you needed four bedrooms to be occupied all the time you might find a couple of them a bit tight for teenagers. I mean it would be fine – I always had a tiny bedroom and my 16yo has a tiny bedroom –  but it’s one of those houses where you might think – I’d rather have bigger bedrooms and only one reception room with a small utility than all that living space and less sleeping space.

On the other hand, some of you will dream of a laundry room that measures 12ft by 10ft -and no you can’t turn it into a bedroom as there are no windows.

You might also be swayed by the decor. This kitchen, with its parquet floor is lovely and spacious – it’s also square which is unusual for UK houses which tend to be long and thin. You probably could get a bigger table in there too.

I love the bold colours that have been used in this development. That olive green (try the new Sap Green by Farrow& Ball) is gorgeous with the creamy, or chalky white, ceiling, while the gold sofa and mirror warm it all up and bring a level of sophistication to the room.

On the basis that you probably shouldn’t buy a house for the decor as you are bound to change it, we’ll ignore the rug island and lack of a coffee table but take the inspiration. If I were in the market for repainting my chocolate brown sitting room then green is probably the direction I would go in. I had always assumed I would heading towards a forest green but this olive is lovely in a period property. Anyone used it?

Upstairs to the perfect neutral bedroom of my dreams. With panelling and beams like that there is no need for colour on the walls, although I will say that those pretty pendant lights need moving. One is doing an excellent job of lighting a bit of carpet and the other is pointing like a dagger to the heart of the sleepers below. The bad Feng Shui must be off the scale.

Yesterday someone asked about beside lighting and here’s an example. Swap the ceiling rose over the bed to a two way outlet and then bring two cables out from it to a cup hook on the ceiling either side of the bed. Wrap the cable round them and let the lights hang down either side of the bed in place of bedside lights – of which there aren’t any in this bedroom. This will not only make your pendant lights more useful, it will also save space on a bedside table.

Before we leave this room – and yes have a look at the other end of it – if you do this you will need an electrician but if you keep the switch by the door you can turn the lights on as soon as you come in and then if you install two more switches either side of the bed each person can turn their own light on and off without getting up.

A final point – white walls and dark brown (or antique) furniture is always a fabulous combination. Most of the antique furniture I have is pine rather than walnut or mahogany which gives a more country feel whereas this is more elegant.

And what about this for a bathroom? It’s rare to have large bathrooms in the UK again as they tend to be squeezed into small rooms and rather forgotten about which is, perhaps, what sparked the craze and desire for a so-called “hotel bathroom”. This was probably a bedroom and the owners decided they would rather have a small bedroom upstairs and a fabulous bathroom down here and I’m with that.

In fact, if you buy this and decide you only need three bedrooms you could knock the two small ones together and have two kids up there with a shared bathroom and take this floor for yourself. Or, if you are buying as a couple, you could each have a wonderful home office on the floor above with a spare room for guests.

I think this one is turning out to be rather a good buy. But let’s not leave before we’ve stuck our noses round the corner of this fabulously wallpapered room. And I’m going to say that it’s almost there. I love this bold choice of pink and gold (and let’s assume it’s on all four walls as we can’t see them) but I would say if you have been bold enough to choose this paper then don’t fall back at the last minute with white skirtings and ceilings. Paint the woodwork pink to match the paper, to really frame it and make it stand out and then, if a gold ceiling is too much – and I get that I really do – then think about painting it a soft barely there pink to lessen the contrast between the two. Green would work as well mind you.

So who’s moving to Leeds this week? If the 18yo had chosen Leeds as his university I might have been sorely tempted. Forget what I said earlier, it’s perfect for a couple with teenage kids who are away studying and just come home at weekends or holidays….  What do you think?