Laurence advises

Our interior design expert Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen looks at making the best use of a difficult corner in a loft conversion

 
Help me use my awkward space I've had my loft converted into a bedroom for my young daughter, but I've been left with a little corridor down one side. Although the corridor is narrow, it gets such lovely light from one of the two dormer windows in the room that we'd like to make more use of it. We're thinking about a window seat or storage. Any ideas?

Rachel Le Comber, London

 

Laurence says:
  The awkward space in question

Your letter made me smile because your query is so typically British. Just because you've found yourself with a priest-hole-sized space, you don't have to try and turn it into a living room of Lilliputian proportions.

In this country, the small square-footage of our homes is so very highly valued it means we have developed an obsession with wringing every last little square micrometer out of them.  

So the answer to your question is ‘leave well alone'. The British home can feel cramped and needs areas of hiatus, oases of calm where the eye can have a few seconds of peace before being assailed by the clutter and noisy decoration of other rooms. Your photograph shows a rather pleasing triangular void which, I assume, is left behind from the pitch of the roof, and you have a really quite nice, slightly Skando-chic little hallway with a refreshing innocence. I'd hate it to be compromised by a window seat.

If you must hide your daughter's things, tuck them away under the eaves or under the stairs leading up to the attic room and keep your storage plain and simple.

 

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