HMO conversions · Etruria Road, Stoke-on-Trent

HMO conversion — Etruria Road

A dated family house turned into letting rooms with a communal kitchen

Location: Etruria Road, Stoke-on-Trent

The finished communal kitchen at Etruria Road, with navy units, white worktops and herringbone flooring

The brief

A tired family house on Etruria Road to be converted into letting rooms, with a communal kitchen at the heart of it and a kitchenette in each room.

The challenge

The original kitchen was a small, closed-in room with a dated fitted layout. Making it work as a shared kitchen meant opening it up and rethinking where the appliances went, rather than simply replacing the units in place.

The result

A communal kitchen in navy with white worktops and herringbone flooring, and letting rooms that each take a double bed, a desk and their own kitchenette. Drag the slider above — it's the same kitchen.

Before & after

Drag the handle.

Same room, same angle. This is the part that's hard to argue with.

The same kitchen finished, with navy units, white worktops, tiled splashback and herringbone flooring

The original kitchen before work started — mint green units, patterned tiling and a tiled floor

What we actually did

The kitchen

The “before” photograph is the honest starting point: mint green fitted units, patterned wall tiles, a tiled floor and a window that wasn’t doing much for the room.

Everything came out. The finished kitchen runs navy units with white worktops and a tiled splashback, with herringbone flooring carried through. It’s a straightforward specification, but in a shared house the kitchen takes more punishment than any other room, so the money goes into the carcasses and the worktop rather than into anything decorative.

Rooms that work as rooms

Each letting room takes a double bed, a desk with a proper chair, a wall-mounted television and a fitted kitchenette.

Getting all four into one room without it feeling cramped is entirely a question of where they go. The kitchenette runs along one wall so the floor stays clear. The desk sits under the window for daylight. The television is wall-mounted rather than on a stand.

None of that costs more than doing it badly. It just has to be decided before first fix rather than after.