Start with one everyday activity that your home does not accommodate well. Perhaps there is no comfortable place to sit beside the garden, or the kitchen feels separate from everyone else. A compact extension brief can begin with that specific need.
A garden-facing dining space
Consider a place for a table with views outside. Before deciding its shape, draw the table and chairs in use, including room to walk behind someone who is seated. Compare a deeper room with a wider, shallower arrangement.
A side-return kitchen addition
Where there is an underused strip beside a house, explore whether incorporating it would improve the kitchen layout. Ask your designer to show how daylight reaches the existing rooms as well as the new area. A larger footprint is only useful if the whole layout works.
A small sitting corner
An extension does not have to become a large open-plan room. A quiet seat, a reading lamp and a view may be the starting point. Think about privacy from neighbours and where furniture will sit against glazed or solid surfaces.
Choose the garden opening around the room
Mark the route from kitchen to terrace on the plan. Compare door positions with that route, furniture and the space needed for the doors to operate. Keep the layout useful with the doors closed as well as open.
Use a real project to start the conversation
Our St James kitchen extension explores a London home’s connection with its courtyard. Use the project as a conversation starter rather than a template: your boundaries, existing building and priorities will shape a different brief.
Bring a simple furniture sketch, photographs and a list of what feels awkward today to your first conversation and site visit. The next steps include reviewing feasibility, approvals, structure and year-round comfort for your property.