Different Style of Houses - Bungalows

The final installment in our different houses series has to be the bungalow. There are other forms of homes that range from three storey houses through to lighthouses and barn conversions. I have focused on the main houses that we tend to look at when purchasing.

The bungalow is often associated to those who cannot get up stairs easily. This means the elderly or disabled. This is not always the case though and often a bungalow can be a great investment as everything is on the ground floor and this automatically makes moving furniture easier to do, so that wardrobes with sliding doors will be easier to get in the accommodation. 

Often bungalows can invest in french doors or patio doors to bring the garden into the house. Patio doors are great for letting in a lot of light, but as a potential buyer, make sure they are using security locks and consider the safety aspect of glass doors if you have young children running around the house.

Different Styles of Houses - Flats and Grounds

There are of course a few other considerations to make when looking at flats and it is something that I didn’t think of until I was viewing a flat myself. Depending on if you are buying an upstairs flat or downstairs there is the noise level to consider. Ground floor flats may well have to consider the noise generated upstairs. If your neighbours are moving their furniture around, that wardrobe unit with a sliding door system can create a lot of noise that will be echoed downstairs. It is one thing to have noise next door, but when it is above you it might get hard to live with. Even if neighbours are friendly and considerate, the noise of children crying, the TV on too loud or people coming and going banging doors can all be heard through the ceiling.

If you are on the top floor there is the consideration that everything you purchase from shopping to furniture needs to be carried up those stairs. If you have brought furniture, check it can get up those stairs or that walk in wardrobes with sliding doors might need to be built within the room and not remotely constructed outside of the bedroom.

Sharing a flat will also come with grounds maintenance. This is something that is paid to keep the grass mowed and any maintenance for the building repairs.

Renting flat accommodation first appealed to me as the space that I would have to maintain was low and a comfortable living space that I could call my own. In some cases, as an added bonus, flats will have parking or garage parking within the price so be sure to look for this and enquire.

Different Styles of House Series - Flats

I did look around a lot of flats for one person or even for two people. These are great places to start with. There are a few minor problems which you need to consider when looking at flats though as I found out. One thing, is that space to extend is not available so if you are planning on a new family member or getting a pet then a flat might not be for you.

I found that a flat is often suited to one person or a couple. However, buying a flat entails more that you are purchasing a home, but you will not be buying the whole building. This will mean, in most cases, the flat is leasehold, rather than freehold. This means that buying and selling your flat is not as straightforward as selling a freehold. This is not to say that flats are not desirable, as people want to get on the ladder, but something to bear in mind if you are selling in the future.

Space within a flat is tight and can often result in purchasing some great space saving furniture, like what we have featured in our other posts. Classic and large wardrobes with sliding doors for example might not be possible, although is a great saver if you are trying to organise bedroom furniture.

If you have existing furniture, check if the flat is going to be furnished or unfurnished when considering the property. If you need to factor in new furniture, this is something that you might need to replace or purchase. A classic bed frame might be great, but if struggling up the stairs is not. Also moving bulky furniture is not something one person wants to be considering, so you may have a wardrobe with a sliding door option but if it won’t fit on the landing, then it might be time to look at other options.

Clothes Rails As Alternative Wardrobes

One of the quick and easy ways to store extra clothes is to use a clothes rail. These tend to be stored in the spare rooms or in the corner of the main bedrooms. These are great for hanging clothes that are in temporary need of a home, but probably not good for long term storage.

I have found these tend to be in use more in spare rooms or if homeowners are organising a car boot and want to hang the clothes on a rail.

Clothes rails have not covering at all and cannot a lot of weight, so only ideal for short term use or hanging light cotton clothes. Wardrobes are designed and built to hold more clothes and the wardrobe doors, either sliding door wardrobes or traditional open doors keep out the dust from the clothes a lot more than the canvas or open clothes rails.

Canvas Wardrobes For Teenagers

I have seen many houses and many bedrooms that belong to children or teenagers. The difference in furniture within these rooms is clear to see. The obvious reason for this is that tastes change, children grow up and their needs and clothes space changes. If you imagine that that a teenager might not appreciate an antique wardrobe but still needs somewhere to hang those clothes.

The option of canvas wardrobes are popular as they are simple to construct and can be adapted or colour scheme altered with another canvas colour. These wardrobes do not have slide wardrobe doors in the same sense as there is no solid runners or unit for the doors to be hung onto. It is important to note that whilst canvas wardrobes make a cheap alternative, there are some problems which I came across when asking the homeowner about them.

• They attract dust, so if you have someone with an allergy to dust, these are not the best wardrobes.
• They can get dirty quite quickly from hands touching the same areas of material on a regular basis. The covers can come off and be washed but you need to aware of this when purchasing.Traditional wardrobe doors do not show up the dirt as they are wood or glass.
• Not very sturdy, so they definitely cannot be moved around too much.
• Finally, they do not hold a huge amount of weight so they are ideal for small children, or as an extra wardrobe for a teenager, but not ideal for main wardrobe as jeans, jumpers and tshirts soon become too heavy for the rail.

The Glass Wardrobe Doors

Following on from my blog post about walk in wardrobes I have viewed a lot of bedroom décor that has included wardrobes with sliding doors. This creates a really airy space as often the doors are from floor to ceiling and if they are made up of frameless glass these can be really effective. The only problem I discovered with these doors is that you need to position the bed and other furniture so you are not continually catching your own reflection.

The doors can also be hard to keep clean and smear free if you have small children. It might also be an idea to make sure they are not tempted to play too rough close to the doors incase the doors smash, crack or get scratched. This would be a disadvantage to having these doors as one crack would need the whole door replaced.

I would love to hear your thoughts on these type of doors though and how easy they are to keep clean?

Different Types of Wardrobe Doors

As I have been looking at the different houses and the different ways in which space is created within them, one thing that is always interesting is the different range of furniture and how that has been adapted to the style of room and person who is using the room. For example, an antique wardrobe would look out of place in a teenagers room due to the usage and design of the wardrobe and wardrobe door solution. I started to take an interest in the different types of wardrobes and how contribute towards space and décor.

One of the main wardrobes that I saw was the traditional wardrobe that comes flat packed and is designed to be constructed within the room it will stand. There are benefits to this in that the cost of the wardrobe is often less that the heavy duty, quality wood wardrobes, but they can only be move occasionally and are not designed to be moved frequently as this may affect the structure and presentation of the wardrobe, such as the wardrobe doors not completely closing due to it being dragged across the room too much.