Homebuyer interest for split level living is on the rise – according to research from homebuilder CALA – with online trends demonstrating a 41% spike in searches over the past decade.

CALA Homes North Home Counties has reported several factors have contributed to the growing trend of split-level and three-storey properties – a result of the UK’s changing homebuyer demographic – as households’ living arrangements have broken away from the notion of a ‘traditional’ family structure.

The demand has been driven further by an increase in home-working, in addition to a growing number of stepfamilies and more multi-family households living together – the fastest growing household type in the UK.

According to CALA, building upwards to create space with additional floors – instead of outwards – is more economical and environmentally friendly for buyers. The properties leave more room for outside space, are easier to heat, and you can have the added benefit of creating hubs within the home for flexible, functional spaces for the whole family.

Whether creating a nursery, a home office, or a separate space for teenagers or guests, three-storey living offers adaptability; providing those young and old with the opportunity to relax in their own space to call home.

However, although the demand is higher than ever – for many – the stylish trend of a ground floor bedroom and an upstairs living room in a split-level home can be a perplexing concept.

Rebecca Charles, a Director of Killer5 Interior Design Studios, has been working closely with CALA over the years to curate design concepts on several of the homebuilder’s showhomes, to maximise the design of its split-level spaces.

As ‘three is the magic number’, Rebecca gives readers three reasons for considering a three-storey, split-level home, and three tips on how you can decorate and configure the space.

CONSIDERING SPLIT LEVEL LIVING OVER THREE STOREYS

1. A level for hosting, relaxing and entertaining

Split level and three-storey properties are becoming increasingly common across the country. Generally, it gives the purchaser a good deal of versatility in which they can tailor the living areas to suit their needs.

For CALA’s split level showhomes – such as The Benington at Café Fields, Puckeridge – we curated the downstairs room as a guest bedroom; providing a quiet space for friends or family to stay over for the weekend for a relaxing stay, rather than being woken from the main households’ hustle and bustle.

We all love having guests round for entertaining for a few days, but it can often be disruptive if either of you are fans of a weekend lie-in. However, after an evening of entertaining, the family can escape upstairs to their own quarters, with the guests to the lower-ground floor, should they want a few extra hours in bed.

We’ve also seen in-laws moving into this dedicated space on a permanent basis. The downstairs bedroom has a utility/kitchen area and luxurious en-suite, which serves as an ideal, self-contained space, whatever the occasion.

2. A luxurious retreat for the grown-ups and somewhere for the kids to kick-back

Extra space in a three-storey home is one of the biggest reasons behind the home-type’s demand. For CALA, we created a family living room on the first floor of the four-bed Benington showhome, which is next to the kitchen and opens onto the garden, at the rear of the house.

On the same level – to the front of the property – we created a luxurious dining room retreat for grown-ups, to ensure all members of the family can have a space to relax and entertain in.

3. Work hard, play hard

The four-bedroom Eltisley showhome at CALA at Wintringham, St Neots has a really lovely third floor master bedroom with en-suite and study – an ideal sanctuary to relax, separated away from the kids’ space, and an enviable home office/study. It could also work well for teenagers who want a sense of freedom and space, away from the family.

Similarly, the lower ground floor space on the Benington, which offers an almost annexed, self-contained level, would provide an ideal space for teenagers to play videogames, create music, socialise, and make plenty of noise, without distracting the family too much.

DECORATING A SPLIT-LEVEL HOME

1. Making the space cosier

A lot of people can be slightly overwhelmed when upsizing into a split-level property, with all the additional space and can often struggle to envisage it being a warm and inviting place to call home for the family.

We like to incorporate a lot of colour into our schemes to add warmth. Increasingly, we’ve been using a lot of teal blues and burnt oranges – which are very trendy at the moment – to add colour and warmth to a property.

We incorporated a luxe-feel into the Benington showhome, but one which wasn’t too contemporary, so families would still feel at home. We wanted to deliver impact into the dining room design, with large-scale patterned wallpaper, a statement mirror and boutique lighting. Using brass within the room developed the luxury-feel further.

That theme was then replicated in the master bedroom, where we incorporated contemporary floral patterns to the headboard of the super-kingsize bed and nice armchairs for mum and dad to relax in as they’re getting ready for a night out. Whilst in the teenager’s room, we went with a feature mural of old cassette tapes and guitars, clearly establishing ‘zones’ within the house for adults and the children.

2. Go bold!

A darker palette as we head into winter is a continuing trend, and it’s a misconception that darker rooms reduce space. Don’t be scared to go bold and just do what feels right for you. We start a scheme by looking at the furniture and working out from there, pulling out colours and building a scheme through the use of accessories to create texture.

Lamps and accessories are the finishing touches which pull design schemes together – tailored to the room’s particular style and theme – but they can be easily overlooked.

Finally, when looking at furniture, always make sure it properly fills the space. A normal double bed would’ve looked lost in the master bedroom of the showhome, which is why we opted for a room-filling super-king.

3. Maximising the space

The rear of the first floor of CALA’s Benington showhome is surrounded by earth and is built into an embankment. As a result, there is a 2-metre-deep area for storage running along the width of the property’s rear.

We decided to convert that space into a home gym – a space which the whole family can use; whether for mum’s yoga, dad’s weight training or the kids’ basketball.

That storage space opens into an oversized garage, which would be an ideal space for a larger workshop or a band-practice room, for those who aren’t keen on keeping a car in there and would like to maximise space as much as possible.