Loft Conversion ideas and inspiration

Loft conversion ideas within the rest of your home

A loft conversion can be an extension of the accommodation within your home or it can be styled as something self-contained both by virtue of its location and its design.

If you are using a loft conversion to take pressure away from downstairs living areas and reception rooms then you will have the added bonus of freeing up more rooms on the ground floor for other uses. For instance, a skyline cinema and media room will allow a lounge which is now largely redundant to form a guest bedroom or a valuable office space for home workers. A teenager given their own private space with bedroom and bathroom will enable a redundant bedroom on the upper floor to be used for other purposes, perhaps to create a larger bedroom or en-suite bathroom or a cosy upstairs sitting room.

If you don’t use the space to fit a kitchen or bathroom which are largely permanent choices, then you will have the freedom to alter what you do with the new area as your needs change and family life evolves. A loft conversion which starts life as an extra bedroom can have many changes of identity over the course of a couple of decades.

How much value will a loft conversion add to my home?

Financial institutions confidently assess a loft conversion as adding anywhere from 20% to 25% to the value of your home. If you are mindful of the possible future sale opportunities for your property then think through the loft conversion choices carefully. You might love your new skyline kitchen and dining area but some people might still prefer to have their kitchen on the ground floor for convenience and as a social hub. Choosing accommodation for your new loft space which could appeal to other people in future years or which could easily be changed to something else, for instance, from a bedroom to a playroom or from a home office to a bedroom will make your property just that be more attractive to future buyers.

Are there other advantages to a loft conversion compared to a rear or side extension?

Pound for pound, a loft conversion will offer better value for money than a ground floor extension. Full height extensions compare more favourably as they are not usually double the cost of a ground floor extension.

One of the big attractions of a loft conversion is that it does not always require planning permission. Roofline loft conversions with skylights or Velux windows can often be achieved without planning permission providing your home is not listed or in a conservation area. Other designs can also fall within Permitted Development or PD depending on what sort of changes are planned to the roof structure and how much the conversion abuts from the existing roof. Like a single storey or full height extension, a loft conversion will be subject to building regulations irrespective of its planning permission status.

How much could a loft conversion cost?

The answer to this is wholly dependent on how big the loft conversion is and how you choose to convert the internal space. Kitchens and bathrooms are the biggest impact on cost and can add around £15,000-£20,000 to the final bill which depending on the loft conversion style, could hit between £40,000 and £50,000 whereas a simple roofline conversion with Velux windows can start at around £15,000.

It is possible to trim your budget by opting for smaller windows and/or fewer window but this can be a false economy if you end up with a space which is gloomy and uninviting. Some people convert in two stages, they begin with low cost Velux loft conversion if they need more bedrooms or a home office and then, later on, upgrade the conversion to a Mansard or a dormer conversion. This has the advantage of splitting the cost across two projects and spreads the financial load. Do you own a bungalow? Click here to see the cost of a bungalow loft conversion.