CLEVER MAKEOVERS Kitchen * Bathroom * Garden room

How was it made and what did it cost? It’s a wooden structure with a horizontal supporting ring beam, which allowed for a vaulted ceiling. Glulam – a glue laminated timber – was used for the roof and walls, then the outside was clad in cedar shingles and reclaimed scaffolding boards. Building materials cost £15K and the labour came to £15K. We used the same builder who had worked on our house and no planning permission was required because the garden room was within the permitted development allowance.

Talk us through the design

The garden was L-shaped, but we only used the half of it closest to the house – it was perfect for a garden room. Our architect suggested a wooden building with large windows to keep it connected to its surroundings – and the high ceiling and large windows certainly make it feel light and bright. We’ve also used lots of exposed wood and brick to create cosiness inside, and opted for a Morso woodburner to heat the room in the winter months.

What about decorating the interior?

We wanted a mix of warm colour and lots of soft textures to make the space feel welcoming and complement the hues in the wood and brick. During a trip to Ikea we spotted the rust-coloured velvet sofa, which was just the size we needed, and we saw the chaise longue on Ebay and re-covered it in mustard velvet – and I got busy making cushions in pink and orange fabrics for the deep window seat. We clad one of the walls in Jatoba, a highly durable hardwood, which we got at a reclaimed timber merchants, and added orange and yellow tiles laid out in a herringbone pattern on the wall behind the woodburner – it makes a real statement.

Were there any special considerations?

Thanks to the large windows and pitched roof the room feels spacious, but it isn’t huge so we tried not to overcrowd it with furniture. We have created storage, with room for books and baskets under the window seats, and there are folding shelves for holding ingredients next to the pizza oven.

OUR SOURCEBOOK Pizza oven, £1,100, Valoriani valorianiuk.com Woodburner, £1,040, Morso morsofires.co.uk Tiles, £1.30 each, Milagros milagros.co.uk Chaise longue, £100, Ebay; covered in Folia Velvets, £62/m, Harlequin stylelibrary.com/search/harlequin Cushion fabrics Clarke & Clarke clarke-clarke.com Coffee table, £139.99, Funky Chunky Furniture funky-chunky-furniture.co.uk Pouffe, £85; sofa, £895; both Ikea ikea.com

CHAISE LONGUE A vintage find was given a face lift with mustard-coloured velvet

SHELVES Handily installed beside the pizza oven, these fold back flush against the wall when not in use

‘The garden was neglected when we bought the house and initially we couldn’t afford to change it. But as the children got older, we realised its potential and decided to build a garden room for use all year round.’

Vicky Leung, a personal trainer, and her husband Andrew live in a four-bed house in Loughton, Essex with their three children, Katherine, 12, Cristina, ten, and Alexia, five. It was the garden that drew them to the property