| Everybody is familiar with the dramatic change that | | | | Redesigning an entire floor (or whole house) is an |
| can come about from simply changing the colour on | | | | altogether larger project. |
| your walls. But how many people have actually | | | | Cramped and muddled rooms on a single floor can |
| considered changing the shape of the space itself? | | | | often be rearranged to create the feeling of more |
| Sometimes we’re presented with | | | | space. |
| problematic spaces that demand solutions. | | | | The basic principles of this can be seen in good |
| A very narrow room with a high ceiling looks out of | | | | garden design. A diagonal line of vision across a |
| proportion - maybe installing a false ceiling with | | | | square space makes the space feel bigger. If re-siting |
| recessed downlighters is the answer. A bathroom | | | | a door or incorporating an archway achieves a |
| next to a WC practically instructs you to remove the | | | | diagonal line of sight through two or more rooms, the |
| dividing wall. Try applying this principle to an ordinary | | | | effect will be the same. |
| space as well, one which doesn’t have | | | | Gardens also use vistas, looking through and beyond |
| particular problems of size or proportion, but which | | | | the space you inhabit to an object or space beyond. |
| might benefit from a re-think of the space and how | | | | Creating an enfilade - a progression of rooms linked |
| it is to be used. | | | | together by a succession of doorways or archways |
| The past shows us examples of space dividing which | | | | in perfect alignment - was one of the ways the |
| may or may not be desirable solutions for the way | | | | architects of the seventeenth and eighteenth |
| we live today. The 1960s and 1970s gave us plastic | | | | centuries achieved this vista effect in their design of |
| and metal shelving units, open on both sides and | | | | stately homes and palaces. You might consider |
| jutting out across our living rooms. The style has | | | | borrowing this idea for your own home. |
| moved on but the principle is still useable, except | | | | Don’t forget about mirrors and glass. |
| today we would use fabric panels, glass bricks, | | | | The early 19th century architect Sir John Soane |
| chrome retail shelving, or folding bamboo screens to | | | | adored mirrors and the space-expanding effect they |
| achieve the same result. | | | | had on his interiors. His house in London was been |
| Straightforward square spaces can be given added | | | | preserved, complete with all its architectural quirks, |
| interest and the illusion of greater length by | | | | mirrored ceilings and walls, and interior porthole |
| incorporating a pair of screens that mirror each other | | | | windows. |
| across the room. These needn’t be large, | | | | Large Victorian mirrors, bereft of the huge mantles |
| they needn’t jut out into the room too | | | | and sideboards over which they used to hang, create |
| far. | | | | an elegant illusion of doubled space simply by being |
| Their mere presence is enough to create a | | | | propped up against an empty wall. |
| space-changing illusion. If the room is high enough, | | | | Sand-blasted glass panels, glass bricks, and etched |
| you might consider building a platform over one end - | | | | glass are all being used in creative new ways to help |
| for sleeping, reading, watching television. This is an | | | | increase light and a sense of space and airiness in |
| especially effective way of increasing living space in a | | | | today’s homes. Today’s glass |
| small studio or one-bedroom flat. | | | | designers can create everything from glass staircases |
| False ceilings needn’t be permanent. | | | | to glass fireplaces. And this glass isn’t |
| Swathes of fabric can create snug areas in an | | | | fragile! It’s tough, strong and beautiful. |
| otherwise large and clinical room. | | | | If you have a garden next to your room, try to |
| Or, you might consider altering your space by | | | | incorporate that space both visually and aesthetically. |
| changing the floor level. The character of a large | | | | Install French or sliding doors to bring the garden into |
| dining/living room can be made intimate and distinct | | | | your home. Increase that effect by using the same |
| by raising the level of the dining room. | | | | floorcovering inside and outside - sandstone, |
| This also offers the opportunity of using the newly | | | | terracotta tiles or slate would work well and look |
| created underfloor space for storage - even as a | | | | great. Even if you can’t install French |
| wine cellar. One clever architect recently tucked a | | | | doors to make the room flow into the garden, a |
| full-sized bathtub under the bedroom floor in a tiny | | | | simple expedient of sympathetically planted window |
| flat! All of these changes (except for the bathtub | | | | boxes will help make the garden flow into the room, |
| under the floor) have been made without changing | | | | especially if the boxes are planted in colours which |
| your structural walls and are usually limited to one | | | | co-ordinate with your room’s decor. |
| room. | | | | Be brave! Make your living space work for you. |