Charlotte's Whitsable Airbnb | Topology Interiors

Case study

Charlotte’s Whitsable Airbnb

Location - Whitstable

The Project

Our lovely client Charlotte (aka Charley) got in touch with us to turn a tired but charming home in Whitstable, Kent into a stylish Airbnb with the help of our e-design service.

We helped refurbish the home from the side-lines, acting as Charley’s personal cheerleader to get the work done, assisting with the renovation of her kitchen, bathroom & downstairs lounge / dining area.

Before we delve into this case study, let us say that you can now book a stay here on Airbnb.

So, go book a stay and tag us on Instagram!

Photos by the lovely Emily Bowden Photography

The Challenge

The main challenge on this project was taking the plunge to make the two front rooms with a staircase between them into an open plan space. Charley decided to do this, to make what was formerly a small lounge space into a spacious and bright open plan living-dining area.

We also asked Charley what she thought was the most challenging part of the reno process…
“There definitely always seem to be things that pop up that aren’t accounted for in the beginning. I had to replace a wall upstairs that was basically made of thin cardboard and also install a new water mains pipe. Once you take a property back to brick be prepared for things to pop up! Also the timeline to completion always seems to take longer than initially anticipated”.

The Goal

To not only increase the value of her property, but to maximise the potential of rental earnings through Airbnb. A lot of Airbnb owners miss a trick by not designing their properties to a high standard, or falling down at the last hurdle when it comes to the interior decor. It’s the small details and little added elements of affordable luxury which get that high ticket Airbnb listing price.

Starting The Process

All Charley needed to do to kickstart the e-design process is send us her floorplans, measurements & photos of how the space looked. Here on the right you’ll see how the spaces we helped design looked beforehand.

What made you choose e-design with an interior designer such as Topology?
“My budget didn’t really allow for a full scale interior design service but I knew I needed some creative help to get me started. This was my first renovation project and I really wanted to be able to bring to life the styles that I’d been gravitating towards on Pinterest. The e-design service did exactly that!”

Design Kick Off

To kick things off, Charley set us a selection of inspirational designs she liked and we cherry picked our favourites which were realistic for her budget and achievable with her property. Afterwards, we sent her a questionnaire to fill out, so that we could extract as much information as possible from her about what ideas & requests she had. Next up, in terms of the design process we start by drawing up a layout. Here you can see some drafts which we planned down to the nearest cm. We did this with all the rooms she chose to use our service for, and offered unlimited revisions until she was happy.

Our layout for Charley’s kitchen drawn to scale

Our proposed ideas for Charley’s new open plan living / dining space

The Concept

After the layout stage is nailed, we always mock up a ‘concept’ for a client. Essentially our way of showing the client what we think they should do with the space in a very rough form.

Design Development

At the concept stage, we highlight key elements for each space. If we take the kitchen as the example here you’ll see we proposed Charley with elements such as the cabinet colour, splashback and worktop etc. Charley then had the opportunity to provide feedback and request any tweaks until she was happy with it. From here the designs are finalised and reviewed so the renovation work could shortly follow…

Success & Results

For us the successful part of this project was seeing that Charley saved money, had a cheerleader to encourage her to do the work on his first renovation project and bring to life designs she was on Pinterest which she gravitated towards.

What would you say was the most useful or best thing about having an interior designer to help you remotely?
“Having all the notes and recommendations easily accessible on your dashboard was really useful. I also really liked that you were contactable on email whenever I had any questions”.

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Client Review

Charlotte S.

My budget didn’t really allow for a full scale interior design service but I knew I needed some creative help to get me started. This was my first renovation project and I really wanted to be able to bring to life the styles that I’d been gravitating towards on Pinterest. The e-design service did exactly that! Having all the notes and recommendations easily accessible on my dashboard was really useful. I also really liked that Topology were contactable on email whenever I had any questions. And the investment with them was 100% worth it

Talk to The Experts

Drop us an email over at contactus@topologyinteriors.com to get book in a discovery call or chat to us over email about how we could potentially help you.

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