Castle to caravan
The average British home has shrunk by 25%. Across half a century of fiscal and GDP studies carried through independent peer-led reviews, the average British home size has evidentially been declining.
Economist and columnist, Roger Wolfson, identifies this behavior to many factors. Considering the annual rise of the global population, in turn raising the pull towards cities for employment along with property investment strategies has ultimately led to home price increases and their shortages on the market.
However, the smaller our domestic spaces, the greater the challenge to employ better design in our homes. Here are six interventions that can add spatial relief to confined spaces.
Big Windows
Natural light is a basic necessity for living spaces. As such it makes sense to allow as much of it inside one’s home. Typically, through property yield quotas and limited space, architects are building homes closer together.
Introducing floor to ceiling windows or simply lengthening a Victorian sash can create an open and distinctly larger space to a home.
Mirrors
As visual illusions go, adding reflective surfaces to a room is fantastically affordable and practical, it offers creative challenges in where to attach mirrors in a room.
A floor to ceiling mirror will double the visual impact of the room without little else intervention. Considering the light reflective qualities, finding inventive locations to install mirrors can make a home a unique space.
Lighter wall palate
Bold colors and small spaces make for darkened rooms. Naturally, a human reaction to lower lit conditions is to slow moment and preferably withdraw. As such, anything that is brighter in hue and less cast in shadow invites movement and freedom. Adding brighter whites and muted colors can make small spaces open and more inviting.
Take doors off
Simply detaching dividing doors to rooms, apart from utility spaces like bathrooms and outdoor spaces, allow the one eye to read space as an open book. Rather than becoming a series of small rooms, doorless spaces open up homes to breathe a sense of movement into them.
Remember to finish the door frame with filler and wood treatment to give the intended look.
Take out non supporting walls.
Open Planning is the most effective way of making smaller spaces seem bigger. Extracting non-supporting walls, despite costly, can make the utility of space seem far greater owing to the increased size of the room.
Considering the phrase ‘couldn’t swing a cat in here ‘, open planning encourages multi-purpose spaces which means social events and home projects are made more possible.
Creative storage solutions.
Removing free-standing storage furniture frees up a lot of space. Home Sweet Home Lounges offers lounges with built-in storage which is one way to save space. Or you could utilize other nooks and crannies of a room with bespoke designed storage units that can provide the functionality of a wardrobe while giving the area better ergonomic access to those living there.
Added touches like doorknobs and wood types make for great punctuating points of design to a room and can make a space more personalized.