Home Refurbishment Case Study: Wilmslow Road

As part of our management service to landlords, we offer a full design appraisal with our in house interior design team. With this, we make suggestions on how to transform the property to help maximise attraction and ultimately achieve a higher value let.

Here is a case study on the recent refurbishment work which we carried out on a 6 bedroom property on Wilmslow Road, Withington.

The Challenge:

This property is in the heart of Withington, however it is located above a row of shops and the main access is off a back alley, therefore the entranceway is often messy and not a traditional home entrance. There is also hole in the front door and the hallway is being used as a dumping ground.

The open plan lounge / kitchen / diner is very bright with plenty of potential, however it is not a well utilised space. The kitchen within this room is old and there are problems with the floor.

How did we overcome this?

Entrance / hallway:

We wanted to make a statement with the hallway which really reflected the property’s location. Withington is well known as being a quirky neighbourhood with a vibrant music and art scene, so we wanted to embrace this and incorporate these elements into the property. To achieve this, we created a funky entranceway, using posters and radical painting.

Firstly, we added music themed posters on one entrance wall as a nod to Manchester’s illustrious music scene. Then on the opposite wall we added art by painting black spots and adding a split wall effect. This was also a clever money saving idea to trick the eye, as the wall surface was uneven and anything else would’ve required re-plastering first.

Open plan living room / kitchen:

A bright and airy room with high ceilings and original features, we wanted to make this room the main selling point of the house and give it the WOW factor. To help achieve this, we created a geometric feature wall on the chimney breast. We chose subtle colours which were not too bold, as we wanted the colour detail to come from the surrounding furnishings. Although we did not want to go too bold, we still wanted it to make a statement, so added green to the feature wall.

We switched the old tired kitchen to high gloss white cabinets. The existing kitchen tiles were up-cycled and painted white, followed by a black stencil effect on top. We added a breakfast bar area to the kitchen to create more dining space and rearranged the layout of the furniture. We then installed a new main light fitting.

We installed coir matting to assist in maintaining the carpets throughout the property and installed new LVT flooring in the open plan kitchen / living room. The property front door was also up-cycled to a modern design.

The Results:

All of this was achieved on a tight budget, using clever design tricks and up-cycling the existing furniture.

Do you have a property available to rent? If you want to find out more on how to receive our FREE no obligation design appraisal, email landlord@idealhouseshare.com or click here.