ADDING BESPOKE FEATURES

Creating your own home offers the opportunity to indulge your inner child. I’ve had plenty of clients who take the opportunity to create a purposebuilt workshop or hobby room. One created a temperature and humiditycontrolled space to display his array of military uniforms and another designed the lighting to show off his collection of motorcycles.

Smart technology products offer many opportunities to transform your home into an electronic playground. Fitting this kind of kit into an existing house can involve a certain amount of mess and disruption, as cables and services often need to be ripped out and replaced, but if you’re starting from scratch it’s relatively straightforward. Instead of light switches, you can have touchpads by the door of each room that give you complete control over your lighting, heating, sound system and even the lock on your front entrance.

This can all be controlled remotely from your phone.

If you’re so inclined, you can also patch in a security system to operate the burglar alarm and CCTV network. More exotic gadgets that are now available include Alexa-powered light up toilets, voice activated speakers designed to fit into shower heads and a TV that unfurls itself from the ceiling.