Skip Channel4 main Navigation

|Powered By Google


4Homes
Episode 7: Reading
Honey, I Ruined the House
page 1 2 3 4

Property problems

Karen Harrison (45) and her stepsister Sarah MacKenzie (31) are co-owners of a terraced house in Reading that they bought in 1998. Sarah has just come back from studying for a PhD in Leeds to find that Karen has wreaked eccentric and downright bizarre havoc on the house in her absence.

In Sarah’s bedroom, Karen has constructed a multi-purpose cabin bed in a misguided attempt to maximise space. Needing a ladder to climb into bed, the room is more appropriate for a child than an adult. The master bedroom is similarly dysfunctional – it provides the only access to the bathroom. Desperate for extra space, Karen also tried to create more room in the attic. She built a trap door and another cot-style bed, but here even a child would feel uncomfortable.




Downstairs, the tiny kitchen feels even smaller due to Karen’s wincingly kaleidoscopic paint job. And while the front reception room is merely used as a dumping ground for clutter, the cramped back reception room is being used as a living room, a home office and a dining room in one.

With nowhere to sleep and nowhere to relax, Sarah is resistant to moving back in until Karen’s design disasters are remedied. They need Naomi to redesign the house so that they can co-habit once more.

Design to the rescue >>


page 1 2 3 4

4Homes