This site is an introduction to the process of undertaking a barn conversion or complete home renovation. For a complete guide visit www.france-renovation.com
There are some particular things that you need to consider when embarking on a barn conversion or renovation. See below the picture for some initial consideration on how to use the space available.
The primary challenge when undertaking a barn renovation is the amount of space that is available, and how to use this to its best advantage. to its best advantage.
Usually an unrenovated barn will have several metres of headroom, and a floor area of 120-250 square metres. That can provide a lot of space, and there are two completely different approaches that people take when deciding how to utilise the space. The first option aims to build a conventional house within the shell of the barn. The second approach tries to keep the barn more or less identifiable 'as a barn'. There is a third path that combines these two options, in reality with the emphasis on one or the other.
Because of the available headroom in a barn it is usually straightforward to simply add a first floor
(or upstairs) within the barn shell. The barn of 200 square metres now
has a total floor area of almost 400 square metres - a very large amount of space. The upstairs rooms, usually bedrooms, will have interesting ceilings and plenty of character from
the beams and exposed carpentry.
In the barn conversions I have seen prepared in this way the price in terms of lack of visual appeal has usually been too high. There is a resultant lack of interest in the downstairs rooms, and the sense of space - the primary attribute of a barn - can be lost. Another problem is that the downstairs rooms, now large floor space rooms but with low ceilings, may seem out of proportion.
The seond approach is to retain the full height of the barn, in a vaulted room. This will usually result in a magnificent lounge, dining room and kitchen, but there is now a problem with the bedroos. If these are squeezed into a corner somewhere, they will be difficult to make attractive. Second important problem with this approach is that you do not gain the extra 150 square metres that an upstairs will provide.
The third option - a compromise between these two options above - is usually the most satisfactory.
One method is to have the bedrooms occupying half of the downstairs floor area. The lounge can then be placed on top of these bedrooms, and will still be open plan to the kitchen, which isthe other half of the lower floor area. On entering into the barn you can immediately see the entire 'vaulted' space and from the upstairs salon/lounge you can gaze down on the space. Usually a part of the lounge will have lowish ceilings, because of the roof sloping down to the walls at the edge. This will help to give a feeling of privacy and intimacy, despite the large floor area....
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