Nas and her husband have lived in this Slough home for over 20 years, along with their four children who are all now young adults having grown up in the home.
The couple decided it would really benefit the family to have more living space and decided to add a conservatory to the back of the home to great a larger open plan living room and dining space. Nas explains, “Having four grown up children at home is great, but sometime very busy. We love spending time together and decided that if we could extend our living room this would give us much needed extra living space. It would mean losing a little bit of our garden, but it would be worth it to have more room inside.”
Nas and her husband decided on a conservatory structure, however made some changes to the design to create what is technically a conservatory but looks more like a seamless extension to the home.
“We asked them to brick in one side which takes away that conservatory feel, and switched the typical patio doors you see in conservatories to full width sliding doors, but the roof and other side are in more typical conservatory styles. It worked really nicely as where our old patio doors were this created an open flow into the new dining space, and keeping part of the original back wall and opening up what was a window looking out to the garden has given the room a little bit of a natural divide.”
Flooring was a really important decision for the project as the couple saw this as the opportunity to add one uniform floor finish throughout the ground floor to further enhance the extended open plan spaces.
“When we moved in there was a lot of carpet in the house, and as my husband and I both suffer from sinus allergies we were quick to remove it and ended up going for an Ikea laminate in most of the downstairs of the home. This was a bit of a quick fix and now we were investing in our new conservatory we wanted to really think about the new floors, do a proper job and get something we loved and would be really long lasting.”
Nas started her search online but quickly became confused by all the different floor types so the couple turned off the computer and spent a lot of weekends visiting flooring showrooms in the area. “It felt like a new weekend hobby, but actually by speaking to the experts in the various showrooms we visited we were able to narrow our flooring choice down to engineered wood flooring. The builders doing our conservatory also agreed this would be an ideal choice of flooring for a space such as this, and to run into the rest of the home.”
We kept searching but we still struggled to find something that would work for our budget and have the warm, almost honey tones I had in mind.
It was by chance that the couple found V4 Wood Flooring. On a weekend visit to Surrey to visit a garden centre situated close to the V4 World Design Centre, after finishing at the garden centre the couple decided to drive around the area and explore. “It was when my husband looked at his phone map to see what would be a good route we saw the V4 World flooring showroom pop up, literally a two minute drive away.
“The showroom was amazing, and there was so much choice. We looked at quite a few options and decided to go away and think about it. V4 put us in touch with a local retailer, Surrey Floors and Doors, to discuss our project with them and arrange a survey to see how much flooring and sub floor preparation we would need.
“We did continue to look at other engineered options but nothing was really matching up to our expectations for colour, price or quality. We decided to pay a second visit to V4 World, with a more narrowed down brief.
“Richard was helping us that day and his assistance was invaluable. We looked at a few styles that were still above our price range but as he now had a feel for the tones we were looking for he recommended the Vittoria Oak Smoked floors.”
To create the warm smoked tones of the Vittoria Oak Smoked Brushed and Lacquered floor finish the solid oak top layer of the precision milled engineered plank is fumed to darken the wood giving a deep earthy lustre that comes with ancient oak. The aged aesthetic is further enhanced with a light brushing treatment to accentuate the grain before coats of natural oil which is UV cured is added to form natural and durable surface.
“I loved them, they had that lovely warm feel I wanted without being too dark. I also wanted some character, but not too much as I didn’t want the floors to feel busy. He showed us a large sample in different lights and case studies of homes that had installed the same floors. Our mind was pretty much made-up but we took a large sample home to play about with it in different spaces and lighting to be sure.”
Decision made the couple arranged for Surrey Floors and Doors to complete the installation while they went on holiday. “Victor was so helpful, he visited us a few times to plan the installation and recommended when the planks arrived we laid a few out and had a think about we wanted to mix up the different tones and character in each plank so he had a good guide.
“We completely trusted him and headed off on holiday looking forward to seeing the results on our return and we weren’t disappointed. The floors looked amazing. Victor also added new skirting for a really neat finish and with all the walls already redecorated it was lovely to see the space come together.”
Completed in the summer the busy family of six have lived with the floor for a few months. “We are so impressed; they really are such great quality. This house is busy, but they have been really easy to keep clean. My husband treated himself to an automatic robot vacuum cleaner with some vouchers he got for long service at work. We literally turn that on a few times a week and the floors really do look after themselves.
“We did a few mood boards along the way for this space as we started to see things we like, and it paid off as all the different colours and furniture we finally selected blend naturally and work so well with the tones of the Vittoria Oak Smoked floors. It took a lot of searching to find the perfect wood floors, but we definitely did and we all love our new extended family living space.”
