FAMILY ROOM MAKEOVER
‘Our zoned space works for the whole family’ Amanda and Jon Meeks updated their underused playroom and created areas for music, fun, feasting and making merry BEFORE
A STEP INSIDE.. WHO LIVES HERE? I’m Amanda Meeks, 47, a stay-at-home mum for the past eight years. I live with my husband, Jon, 47, a chemical engineer, and our two sons, Josh, 13, and Benji, 10. We live in a 1920s, semi-detached house in Middleton St George, County Durham. We moved here in February 2007. WHAT WAS UPDATED? We wanted to transform an unloved and neglected playroom into a warm and inviting space that would serve as a dining room, as well as a place where the children could craft, game, and play music. WHY THE CHANGE? The neglected room had become the last resting place for unused toys and a den for the cats. We wanted the room to serve several purposes without compromising its period features. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? From the initial design being drawn up, the whole room took about six months. We had delays while waiting for tradespeople to be free, and we took our time furnishing the room and finding the right finishing touches. TOTAL COST
36
£5,610
yourhomestyle.uk
fter living in a new-build for 10 years, Amanda and Jon Meeks decided to move to a period home. ‘We sold our house very quickly,’ says Amanda, ‘but none of the properties we viewed seemed to quite fit the bill. Just as we had resigned ourselves to renting for a while, we spotted the ‘For Sale’ sign going up on this house.’ Amanda and Jon hadn’t intended to stay in the village, but the moment they stepped into the hallway of this house they knew it was the
one for them. ‘At just shy of a mile down the road, it was a running joke that we could have taken most of our possessions down the lane in a wheelbarrow,’ says Amanda. The couple hadn’t planned to take on a big project, but the more work they did on the house, the more problems they encountered. ‘Our parents helped us a lot,’ says Amanda. ‘We learnt lots of new skills and found some great tradespeople to help us with the rest. Most of our budget went on structural things,
