Rather than go through the upheaval and financial impact of moving house, many homeowners may opt to instead build an extension onto their house for a fraction of the price. This allows the creation of new space that can be used for almost anything, and many of the projects that we’ve undertaken here at Copperwood Construction have shown that people use their extensions to help improve or adapt their family life in a number of creative ways.

Here are 10 ways that you could use a home extension:

1. Kitchen & Dining Areas

A common use for many people, extensions can allow you to have more freedom with your kitchen and dining areas. You could knock a kitchen wall through to create more space for new appliances and worktops, combine your kitchen and dining areas into one open-plan living space, or even simply create an entirely new room for dining or kitchen use, repurposing your old rooms for something else. The choices are incredibly varied!

2. Disabled Access

One of the biggest ways an extension can help family life is by creating more ground floor space, making it easier to design around disability access. Whether it’s for a wheelchair user, elderly relative or anyone with mobility issues, having bedrooms, bathrooms or living spaces on your ground floor can make life a lot easier. This may not be possible in some homes, so by adding more rooms through building an extension, you have the freedom to customise whatever spaces you need for access and ease of use.

3. Patio Doors

Adding a garden patio with sliding doors to a new extension means that you can open up your kitchen, dining room or living room to your garden area, creating more freedom in how you use the space in your home. Imagine enjoying some drinks and a barbecue outside on your new patio during summer, retreating through to a cosy, open-plan lounge after dark. By having an extension with patio doors, you open up so many possibilities for entertaining and relaxing in your home.

4. Lounge/Living Room

Having your living space relocated into your new extension can have many advantages. You could simply create a bigger living room with more space for a growing family or more furniture. The extension could be one big, open-plan kitchen/lounge/dining space, leading onto an outdoor patio that connects the home and garden. For the grown-ups, creating a new lounge in the extension can let you have a space for entertaining guests, allowing the kids to use your existing living room. It’s possible to get very creative with an extension!

5. Utility Space

Extensions can sometimes serve a more functional purpose. They could be added to your home simply to create more utility, storage or bathroom space. The benefit of this is that you can move noisy utility appliances like washing machines away from living rooms or bedrooms. Extra storage space can free up your other rooms, while having the space for an extra guest bathroom or fridge/freezer room can be very useful. Some handy people may even turn an extension into a home workshop, rather than use a garage or basement (which they may not have in their home).

6. Home Office/Study

Similarly to an extension becoming a home workshop or storage space, home-owners may opt to create an extension that becomes their new home office or study. For those that regularly work from home or run their own business, this can be a perfect way to have your own private space that is separate from the rest of your house and allows storage of important documents, books or tools.

7. Skylights

Creating an entirely new space has the benefit of allowing you to put as much or little light into is as you want. Roof skylights, patio doors or a conservatory can bring more light and openness into your home, which may not be possible without an extension.

8. Games Room

Making your extension into a new space for the kids (or grown-up kids!) can be a great way to avoid the clutter of toys, games and sports equipment in your bedrooms. You could even turn the extension into a home gym to allow exercise at home! This all has the advantage of leaving your living rooms for entertaining guests or spending quiet family time.

9. Additional Bedroom

Sometimes, more rooms are all you really need. This means an extension can be useful if your family is growing, giving you more space to add bedrooms that can be any size or shape that you want. This comes in handy if you have a smaller home with limited space.

10. Guest Suite

Expanding on the addition of new bedrooms, the real advantage of having an extension is the privacy it adds. University-age children may want a bit more freedom while still living at home, or you may want to rent the space out to a lodger, or you could simply have a guest suite for when friends and relatives are visiting. By building an extension with its own bedroom and bathroom, you open up many possibilities that can add more space and flexibility to how you use your home.

At Copperwood, we take pride in the precision and high quality of our construction work. Our projects, from extensions to new-builds, have all featured reliable workmanship from our qualified and experienced staff, and we continue to enforce high standards of practice in every new contract.

To find out all about our standards of practice and why you should hire us for your next home extension project, call to speak to a member of our team for advice, to arrange a consultation or site visit and to receive a free quote.