THE VIRTUAL launch of Lovell Homes‘ latest North West development has revealed what a dream home looks like for house hunters in Lancashire. The national house builder held its first ever interactive Instagram event over the weekend (5-7 Feb) to celebrate the opening of Woodlark Chase’s new show homes in Thornton Cleveleys.
More than 450 savvy buyers tuned into Instagram over the weekend and almost 300 votes revealed that 73% of people would choose an office over a playroom in their new home, 86% would prefer a back garden facing kitchen and a utility in a non-negotiable for 77%, while also receiving interior inspiration from the development’s interior designer and gaining a sneak peek of its beautiful new show homes.
The top trends revealed during the unique interactive launch reflected the chic style of the newly opened show homes at Woodlark Chase with “tone on tones” schemes including layering and strong accent colours. This popular use of natural tones – whites and soft taupe – with earthy accent colours are on display with forest green in the Rochester and ochre in the Woodford.
The show home designs also showed potential buyers that inspiration can be drawn from everywhere, from nature to the catwalk.
Karen Vincent Ernst, of Open Door, designed and curated the Woodlark Chase homes. She said: “A key part of the brief for Woodlark Chase was to incorporate elements of the local area into our design. We therefore pulled inspiration from the coast, wildlife, and nature and brought these natural elements into the theme of the show home design.
“When thinking about interior design, an important aspect is to create interest and impact in the room by paying close attention to detail. A great example of this is the Rochester master bedroom where we incorporated a zinc velvet headboard with an Aztec pattern on it. This seamlessly linked with the Andrew Martin curtains, and then we used lots of natural fabrics to really tie it all together.
“Within every room we also wanted to create a warm and cosy feeling with lots of textures and plenty of layering to give depth. This was particularly true of the Woodford kitchen as we utilised a tone-on-tones scheme – which is really on trend this year – by layering lots of ivory and taupe, accented by a strong ochre colour. We also incorporated plenty of gold and metal in the lighting, artwork, and accessories to add further depth.
“Another clever interior design trick when you have a great, big, blank wall, is to use weathered oak picture ledges to create impact and focus. In the Woodford we dressed the shelves with a combination of plates, photo frames and cookbooks to add personality and character.”
Anne-Marie O’Doherty, regional sales director at Lovell Homes North West, said: “We really loved this launch as we got to hear from potential buyers about what they value in a home even though we couldn’t meet them face to face
“It’s no surprise that 73% would choose a home office, given the shift to home working, but 77% voting a utility as a non-negotiable really shows the trend of how modern families live. People want a practical space for storage and to keep dirty wellies and washing out of view, which is why we’ve included it in our family friendly Rochester house.
“So much work goes into the design and construction of the houses as well as the interior design and finishing touches, that we usually love opening up our doors and celebrating a brand-new launch. However, that’s just not possible at the moment so we’ve had to adapt to the situation, and I think that getting house hunters involved has been a really fantastic way to mark the occasion. Instagram was the perfect platform for this development as we wanted to reach first time buyers and young families, and the weekend saw our highest level of engagement to date!
“This is a really lovely development and our two and three-bedroom homes will help meet the growing demand for high-quality starter homes, while our four-bedroom house types are perfect for growing families in need of more space.”
Located in Thornton Cleveleys, near Blackpool, the 86-home development offers a collection of two-, three- and four-bedroom properties that are currently available to purchase.
Site visits and show home tours must be booked in advance with visitors adhering to social distancing guidelines. Prices for homes start from £176,950 for a three bed, which falls within the region’s Help to Buy cap for first time buyers, and for those moving up the ladder four beds start from £236,950.
For more information about Lovell Homes please visit www.lovell.co.uk or follow @Lovell_UK on Twitter.
