As the saying goes “a man’s home is his castle”, although more and more this should be changed to “a man’s chapel is his house” as people are converting churches into modern, elegant homes with definite “wow factor”. With thousands of churches being deemed redundant every year, buyers are snapping up these unique pieces of history. But be warned, renovating yourself can uncover a minefield of potential pitfalls that can lead to large blow outs in your budget.
Are churches a great place reside? Well with over 17,000 churches sold over England the answer seems to be a resounding yes! It’s Britain’s favourite conversion, beating even barn conversions for the number one spot. However, although churches attract large groups of buyers to viewings, many people have second thoughts when it comes to the crunch, realising that it’s just too different for them.
If you are considering renovating a church yourself, take care and budget wisely as many are listed as heritage buildings and therefore need specialised work by certified craftsmen. Furthermore, many churches have large internal original features that may prove stubborn to convert into separate rooms. An effective solution can be to create pods inside the main space which use large sliding doors or bifold doors to gain entry. This way spaces can be opened or closed as desired whilst keeping the natural large volume of the church intact. I have even seen pods that move on sliding door tracks, allowing the owners to rearrange their interior as they require.
Depending on the design of the church, natural light can sometimes be hard to come by as many churches have long narrow windows that do not open and may not be allowed to be altered. However, church buildings have door entry points that can be updated to modern glass exterior folding doors or sliding doors to allow lots of natural light and air to enter the building and increase the connection to outdoors. Astute decisions need to be made however when selecting door hardware to keep the aesthetic complimentary to overall look of the church. Luckily there are many manufacturers out there such as Brio and stegbar that make quality folding door hardware to suit pretty much all looks.