Transforming an old Victorian terraced house into luxury serviced accommodation
It’s nearly been a year since I revealed RUBEE 3, our second SA property to join @beespaceshortstay. Since then, we’ve had so much love for the project that we decided to share a behind-the-scenes look at the process we went through.
The property itself is a well sized, three-bed Victorian townhouse located a stones-throw away from Nottingham City Centre, and in the heart of the historical Nottingham Castle area. When we saw the house we knew it was the perfect opportunity to develop our SA portfolio. There was no doubt it needed an extensive amount of refurbishment, but we could definitely see the potential of it becoming an amazing holiday rental after a little bit of BEESPACE magic. It’s prime city location was perfect for those guests wanting a luxury short weekend break in Nottingham.
Keep scrolling to see the transformation that this beautiful traditional building went through to become the monochrome, geometric airbnb of dreams! I’ve also detailed some of the renovation and design decisions that we made along the way, in the hopes that it will inspire and help other property developers looking to create their first SA.
➕ the outside – before and after.
⚡️ Property exterior – As the face of the property, the exterior needed to be welcoming, memorable, and impactful. I always encourage branding properties from the outside in, so there’s no surprise that the BEESPACE brand palette of black + yellow made an appearance here. As an SA project especially, it was vital that the property perked interest from the street alone.
⚡️ Good parking – An essential requirement for any type of property really, but definitely for holiday rentals as it’s something that can really impact on a guest’s experience. We ripped out the front garden and privacy wall to make way for a decent sized drive – it also opened up visibility of the property from the road too, which was an added bonus.
⚡️ Maintaining the history – We have a responsibility as developers + designers to respect the heritage of a property, and maintain that history wherever possible. You’ll see that throughout RUBEE 3 we’ve made a conscious effort to preserve as many of the original features as we could, including the beautiful entry door with its amazingly detailed original letterbox. Not only does this respect the property, but it also serves for a lovely talking point and experience for SA guests.
➕ ground floor – before and after
⚡️ Built-in storage – Where there is available space, use it! There’s a lot of nooks and crannies within an old property like this, especially either side of a fireplace. Plenty of storage was a must here, to keep all the practical SA bits out of immediate view, so we invested in really high quality joinery that was in-keeping with the aesthetic of the property.
⚡️ Open those fireplaces – I absolutely LOVE ripping out those ugly Tetris fireplaces and uncovering the beautiful, bare brickwork underneath. After they had been repointed (to improve their appearance), they made such a striking statement in the centre of both the living room and dining room.
⚡️ Stripping the floors – We were able to keep the original floorboards in the living room, but sourced a selection of in-keeping and cohesive tiles and vinyls for the hallway, dining room, and kitchen.
⚡️ Altering floor plans – We opened up the dining space into the kitchen to make it more open-plan. This meant we had to change the location of the cellar door, as it originally sat in the kitchen space which restricted an already tight area.
⚡️ Compromising on utilities – We managed to get total function from the kitchen area. Our only compromise here was having a double right electric hob – we could have gone for 4 hobs but that would have meant we couldn’t have had a washer dryer and that was also a well-needed item
⚡️ Floor zoning – As the kitchen was a traditional small Victorian one (which is absolutely fine when it comes to SA’s, as it’s all about practicality and quality over size), I needed to make it as impactful as possible. Cutting the floor detailing out like this allows the space to flow easier between the dining room and the kitchen, and it helps to give visual impact and detract away from the small space (and it looks pretty cool too!).
➕ second floor – before and after
⚡️ Reconfigured space – The stairs to the second floor lead straight up to the door of the bathroom, which sat below the main landing, proving to be slightly unsafe and impractical. We reconfigured the top of the staircase to include a higher right turn, and moved the bathroom door position to sit in-line with the landing so that everything was on one level. Watch my stories here to see exactly what I mean.
⚡️ Adding height + light – We raised the floors, opened up the pitched roof and added a velux to let loads of light in.
⚡️ A more practical bathroom – We altered the layout of the main bathroom by ripping out the bath and creating a large wet-room with walk-in shower – a much more practical solution for short-staying guests, especially after we installed the freestanding bathtub in the main bedroom. Doing this also enabled us to relocate the toilet to increase entry floor space.
⚡️ Coving + ceiling roses – Original features like these play such a huge role in the character and charm of Victorian properties, so I wanted to really enhance them in the designs. We added them back into these rooms to make the property feel really authentic.
⚡️ Feature fireplaces – I spoke about ripping out the fireplaces downstairs as they weren’t in-keeping with the new aesthetic of the property, but I absolutely loved the original cast iron fireplaces in these room and they were totally on-brand so they stayed as-is.
➕ top floor – before and after
⚡️ Improving stair safety – The second flight of stairs up to the third floor were again extremely steep and unsafe, a true kite winder staircase. From a building controls perspective, they were technically fine to keep however, as an SA property, we needed them to be as user-friendly as possible. We opened it up at the top, added another level, and extended the landing area into the room to increase foot space – watch my walkthrough Stories here to see exactly how it looked.
⚡️ Utilising space to create an en-suite – The shower-room was the perfect choice for the unused space carved out by the roof. A necessity for an SA that accommodates multiple people at the same time.
⚡️ Luxury freestanding bathtub – I think if an SA property wants to stand out amongst it’s competitors in today’s market it needs to offer that extra level of guest experience. We wanted to bring luxury and relaxation to RUBEE 3 by showcasing the gorgeous bathtub on a waterproof plinth.
⚡️ Installing Velux windows – This room in particular was extremely dark to begin with, as all loft rooms tend to be, but adding in the velux made all the difference and pulled in so much beautiful light.
⚡️ Cutting into the eves – We cut into the existing eves space to enable us to fit a bed under the velux window. We built some hanging storage into that too.
Hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the transformation! The entire project was taken back-to-brick, with new electrics, plumbing, roof, kitchen and bathrooms. The renovation took 6 months from start to finish.
You can see the full #RUBEE3 project here.
Want to chat through your own SA development and design plans? Book a 1-2-1 Consultancy Call with me, I’d love to help!
