Designs that will bring a smile to your face
How well do you feel in the architectural skin you are in? Considering the amount of time and money we spend in and on our homes many of us tolerate our surroundings on the grounds that we don’t feel we can change them up, or alter our ingrained habits.
If you are furnishing the rut, here are a few prompts to get things headed towards a happier, more fulfilling life at home.
From the moment that first pert mortgage form is slid across the lender’s desk there’s a hum of pressure to start sizing that house to the financial rung you’re swinging from on the property ladder. However, one of the best words to appear in the real-estate lexicon this year has been right-sizing.
What’s right for you, your family, in your situation, right here, right now? That bigger house you baulked at in the less gilt-edged estate in the next town that could provide the extra rooms you need. What’s the city or county plan hold for future transport links and amenities?
Every local authority has current plans open to examination. Cork for example has a CDP that started in January of 2015 and runs until 2020. Online tools include a Map Browser at corkcocodevplan.com. Alternatively, would shedding some square metres, indoors and out, make life more tolerable?
If you cannot stand to move, there there are ways in which the house, fixtures and furnishings can adapt to the challenges of ageing — widening doorways, door ramps, an adjustable bed. There are a number of mobility and housing grants to cover at least part of these essential improvements. citizensinformation/en/housing.
Yes, this is your time to have a well-directed, productive whinge. If you’re not determined to sell, then what’s consistently bothering you about the place?
How, if at all, are the spaces discommoding you, cramping the style you feel you deserve and fuelling arguments? You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge. Set aside an afternoon (with your partner if you’re sharing the house).
Survey the exterior and individual rooms, noting problems with flow, storage, décor and, frankly most important, scruffy areas where the property needs structural up-dating. There’s no point making grand plans to wallpaper over creeping damp or putting in a new condenser boiler with 100m of limp fibreglass fluttering between the attic joists.
Start with a dry, well insulated envelope with the rooms designated as intelligently as possible and design inward. Try the old bible of how-to. Reader’s Digest DIY Manual: With Trade Secrets, Practical Money-Saving Fixes and Project Management. €28.99. Easons.
If you’re thinking of a re-shuffle or even extending, try a free floor-plan tool such as smartdraw.com. Going large? The Home Renovation Incentive Scheme runs until the 31st of December. Going easy? Deal with one room at a time.
If you want to know how God feels about money look who he gave it to. This is not about budget.
Trust me, writing for 20 years in and around the subject of design and interiors, the homes I remember most vividly have been modest ones, put together not with an open cheque book, but with faith, patience and an assured creative hand.
There is now a vast, vibrant encyclopaedic range of tools, diaries, information, instructions and sourcing for every possible taste and project all over the house online. If you want to fashion an 18th century print room using your PC’s printer everything you need is there.
Fancy building a wildlife pond to ornament that small garden and attract newts, frogs and birds, get on with it. The trick is to use the major interior hosts, (PinInterest is simply the best) as a jumping-off point, a stirring journey to blogs, magazines, websites, clubs, discussion groups, customer reviews and online stores.
I spent last week in the company of bohemian blogger Gabi, of Moon to Moon, and who knows where I’ll go today for new ideas. frommoontomoonblogspot.co.uk. Keep a digital folder of ideas for schemes, layouts and stylistic cheats. Go digital with gomoodboard.com, again all free.
Notice the order of that word. Life comes before style. Your home is an outward aesthetic, stylistic show of who you are and where you are in your life — at least that’s the theory.
I put up a wallpaper with an oversized floral print in my then 9-year-old’s child’s room. Immediately she began fashioning crepe paper insects to bounce from the fluffy blossoms and slide along the acid green leaves.
Having relented to the use of Blu-Tack to keep the crawlies in place, my daughter had reminded me decorating was supposed to be fun, expressive, fully enjoyed.
If you want your teenagers to sit with you in the evenings, ditch those expensive open weave linens and opt for somewhere for them to sprawl with their Skechers on.
Don’t buy a designer dog and then expect it to live in a crate for 20 hours a day because the Axminister carpet at €60 a metre cannot take the strain. Does baby really need an en-suite?
A new tome on the gorgeous and unfussy by someone who could gold clad the walls if he wanted to, try Terence Conran’s Plain, Simple, Useful to find out how to takes a deep relaxing breath and still feels proud to show anyone inside. €39.50. Easons.
There is always plenty of discussion in interiors and design around air quality and cutting back the toxic burden at home.
While these are essentials in creating a healthy house (look up MVHR the new standard for ventilation)- I want to focus here on light, quality natural light. Sunlight increases the release of the feel-good hormone serotonin in the bloodstream — in short it makes us happy.
There’s evidence to suggest that going outside to the garden can stave off moderate depression.
Exercise out there on a couple of gym mats in good weather and you’ll get not only the serotonin release but Vitamin D, a flood of delicious endorphins, and lower your melatonin level which will help you sleep in a good circadian rhythm.
If you have the chance to extend, talk to your architect about a balance of more shadowy private spaces and areas that can be deliberately drenched in natural illumination.
Try to follow the sun throughout the day, South West to West — especially important if you are retired or working from home.
Glazing 35%-55% of a south-facing wall matched to privacy blinds can have a dramatic and spirit-shaking impact on how the rooms feel, and will provide useful solar gain without undue heat loss.
Clean windows and less window-dressing can give an instant hit of uninterrupted light.
If you think you might be suffering from Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) log onto www.mentalhealthireland.ie for useful links.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
