How To Renovate

EP38 Design Lessons: What I Would Do Again And Again

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 38

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For the next two episodes, I’m doing something a little different, I’m calling it Design Lessons, and this week I chat through a few things that have worked on every project and would do again and again, and next week I’ll discuss what I would have done differently - so you don’t make the same mistakes. 

The purpose of the podcast is to provide renovation education and what better way than for you to avoid the failures I’ve had - and there have been many over the years!

So join me inside as I cover all the good stuff, from lighting to kitchen design - I’ll see you there!

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant.
Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of how to Renovate. For the next two weeks, I'm going to be doing something a little different. This week I want to talk about design lessons and what I would do again and again, and next week I'm going to be talking about design lessons, what I would do differently. So this week we're talking about the successes I've had in renovations and I want to go through a few things in this episode of what I do again and again in projects and things that I've found really work and are really successful in renovation projects. And next week I'll go over some things that weren't so successful, and so these two podcast episodes really are to kind of help you not make the same mistakes I have. I'll obviously talk about the things that worked and perhaps in this episode there'll be something that will help you along with your renovation that you're currently carrying out. So the next two weeks I'll be delving deep into all my past renovation projects to share some design lessons that I've learned over nearly 17 years of renovating. So let's get into the episode, okay. So design lessons what I would do again and again. Number one is to plan the lighting early. So this is a really big one for me. I learnt my lesson on this one very early. On One of the very first renovation projects I did, I didn't do this, I didn't do the lighting planning early enough, and then, when we moved into the home, I found that it was something that really really frustrated me. So from that very first project onwards, I made sure that I always planned the lighting early, and early is the important thing here is because you have to do it right at the start. So even before you start speaking to your architects, think about how you want to use the space and where you want to put your furniture, because those two things will determine where your lighting will go. So if you start talking to an architect without knowing how you want to use your space or where your dining table will be or where your kitchen will be, then it is something you're going to have to come back to later, and hopefully later doesn't mean when you're actually on site and the builder and the electrician are asking you where you want your lighting, because at that stage it might be too late. That's why I say always plan your lighting early. Think about how you want to use the space and where your furniture will go, because if you want to have a reading area or if you want to have heavy or impressive lights above your dining table as feature lighting, that needs to be determined right at the start of the project. So that's number one always plan your lighting early. Okay, moving on to the next one, guys, number two.

Speaker 1:

So number two is I always try and use continuous flooring as much as possible. So mostly continuous flooring, and by this I mean the same kind of flooring, and for me it's my preference, and I find, actually with a lot of my clients as well, it seems to be engineered wood or real wood, and I just think that using the same flooring throughout a property or even throughout a floor of the home, just makes it feel larger, so it makes it feel more spacious, it leads the eye through the home. So if you've got any sight lines, it's great to have the flooring continuous so that those sight lines aren't broken as well. So I just find that this is something that I tend to do over and over again, and then, of course, it does depend on the rooms and functionality as well. So so in a bathroom, obviously, I would never use engineered wood. I always use tiles or something more practical for wet areas, but in terms of kind of living areas, even bedrooms, where one space is flowing into another and you want a sense of spaciousness continuous flooring can really help with that.

Speaker 1:

And then, number three, one of my favourites, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, something I do again and again is to focus on bringing in the natural light. I'm sure I've said this before, but I'm from Cape Town, south Africa, and over there we have longer summers. I live in London now over there. Longer summers. I live in London now over there. Longer summers, much more light, a lot more sunshine. The style of the homes are different as well, so every home really is on its own plot. So more opportunities for windows all around the home, rather than here in London, where homes are most likely terraced and you can only bring light in from the front, the back and sometimes the top in the roof if you have roof lights. So when I'm working here in London, this is something that I think I'm a little obsessed with I'm always trying to bring in more light because I just feel it's so good for our well-being, it's great for just feeling a bit more positive, so I love trying to bring in more light, especially into those zones where you're spending more time, so the living areas, the kitchen, your workplace maybe. If you have a home office, I think it's always really important to have lots of natural light in there. I think it really is good for your well-being. So that's something I always try and do in my projects, whether it be for myself or for my clients.

Speaker 1:

Moving on to the next one, so number four is about bathrooms. So I always tend to use a mix of tile and paint or tile and a different material like polished plaster, and the reason I do this is because I find personally that floor to ceiling tile can be quite clinical feeling and of course it does depend on the type of tile. But I love to use a mixture and I find this is something I've done over and over again in my projects creates a bit of a warmer feel in the bathroom when you have a combination of materials, and then, of course, using paint gives you an opportunity to bring in some colour, perhaps a bit of a different surface. Of course, you have to be careful about where you use which material, so the tile will always go in the wet areas, in the shower, around the bath, around the sink, and then the paint can be used above, around it or in areas that aren't so wet, perhaps behind the radiator. I just think it's an opportunity to bring in some colour and a bit of difference in materials and a bit of warmth. And polished plaster really does the same thing. I love polished plaster. It's so tactile, it's quite smooth, it's got depth to it. So I love combining tile and polished plaster as well. I just think it brings a bit of character to the bathroom space, which can be a bit boring sometimes. And then also on this point, I think doing a combination of the two, especially tile and paint, can also save you a bit of money, because the tile can be quite expensive to buy, also labour to install tiles, you need adhesive, you need grout, so that can really add up. So I think finding a gorgeous tile and then perhaps keeping that just to certain areas means you can perhaps afford that tile if you combine it with paint, whereas if you were to tile the entire room floor to ceiling, perhaps that might be out of your budget. So that those are reasons why I love combining tile and paint or tile and polish plaster in a bathroom.

Speaker 1:

Moving on to the next one, number five big drawers in the kitchen. I think I've talked about this one before as well, so this is something I always do in kitchen design. If I can convince the client to have almost only drawers, I will. I have them in my own kitchen. I've planned them into my own kitchen since I discovered how great they were, since, I think, our second renovation.

Speaker 1:

They are just amazing because you can pull out the entire drawer. You can see everything that's in there. You've got easy access to everything that's in there and it's just so much more functional than having a cupboard. You have to crouch down. You have to take out the stuff at the front if you want something at the back. Sometimes you've lost something. You don't know where you've put it. It might be hidden in the back of the cupboard, so you've got to open all the cupboards, get loads of things out, whereas with the drawers especially if you have the lovely wide ones so anything from 600 to 800 wide are really great for storing anything from crockery to pots, pans, small appliances even I put in those drawers and then, of course, the very shallow ones at the top. The wide, shallow drawers are great for huge cutlery trays. Again, you can pull out the drawer. You can see everything. You've got all your utensils, even spices. They're great for spices as well. I've got a spice drawer at home. It's 800 millimetres wide. All of the spices are in there and you can even have extra space for things like any jars of nuts or seeds or whatever. Everything can be in that one drawer. So number five big drawers, something I always do again and again. Moving on to number six, which is to integrate storage into the floor plan. So this one is similar to the point I made on lighting.

Speaker 1:

It's to not to wait until your renovation is done to think about the storage and how you will fit it into your floor plan, but it's to plan it early. So at layout planning stage is when you start thinking about storage. So thinking about what you have to store, doing an inventory of what you need to store. I have gone to the links where I've had clients put everything they have on hangers onto one rail and actually measure that rail to figure out exactly how much hanging storage we need to integrate into their homes. It's about thinking about what you need to store before the storage is built, so that you're not left at the end of your renovation project, moving back into your new home with all your things and then frustratingly finding out that you don't have enough space to put all of your things. So integrate your storage into the floor plan. Think about it right at the start.

Speaker 1:

Something I love doing at the layout stage is to plan a storage wall into the layout. So what a storage wall is is when you still about 60 centimetres of space off of the floor plan, but you, you do that from floor to ceiling, which gives you this enormous amount of storage for the sake of losing just about 60 centimetres off of the floor area. And this could. It depends what could be stored in there. That could be for wardrobe, let's say. But let's say you had smaller items. Perhaps you only needed a 30 centimetre or 40 centimetre depth to that cabinet. You could then take that 30 or 40 centimetres off of the floor area, which is really not that much space, include a storage wall all the way up to the ceiling, and then suddenly you've given yourself a huge amount of storage in that room. So I love including a storage wall and I always recommend planning your storage very early on in the renovation process, because it just gives you the opportunity to look at the floor plan and see where there might be an opportunity to use some little nooks or corners, perhaps square some things off or take a wall back a tiny bit to include some storage. Hallways, again, are a great place to think about this and to plan in advance, because if there's a way that you can include a floor to ceiling storage in your hallway, it just saves you on all that visual clutter. There's so much that goes on in a hallway shoes, coats, hats, bags, packages so if you can include and integrate any kind of closed storage into a hallway or storage that can be closed with doors into a hallway, then that really just makes for a so much more efficient home and entryway and will just get rid of all that visual clutter and really honestly just gives that relaxing feeling when you come home to an uncluttered space.

Speaker 1:

Moving on to number seven everybody and number seven is niches and recesses in the bathroom. Now I love this one. I've been doing this for, I think, since my own very first renovation. So by this it just means in using some of the wall cavity space to box in so that you are including a niche or recess shelf in areas where it would be really useful. So I find this is usually inside the shower, where you want a space to put your bottles and shampoos. And then also I love to put a horizontal one. If there's a bath or a bathtub, I love to put a horizontal one. If there's a bath or a bathtub, I love to put a horizontal one. It's such a lovely place to have some candles and to also have your bottles and soaps and things close by when you're having a bath. And you can even take this further.

Speaker 1:

What I love doing is integrating lighting into the niches and it really gives kind of a really upmarket feel to the bathroom without that much effort. All you need is an electrical point and the electrician who will fit the correct type of electrics into it. So usually it's an led light strip which is waterproof. And when you're wanting a more relaxing experience in the bathroom, when you want to have a bath or a shower, let's say, you can then just only turn on that one recess light and it gives such a beautiful glow, such a relaxing feeling. It feels almost like candlelight. It's just a bit of a bar experience in your own bathroom at home. So I love using niches and recesses, and there are so many ways you can make them a bit creative. Perhaps you can play around with different tiles on the inside and on the wall. You can play around with the lighting, like I said. So it's a really, really great way to not only add a bit of style and lighting, but also functionality and somewhere to put those many, many bottles and things you always have laying around in the bathroom.

Speaker 1:

And finally, for this episode everybody, number eight is what I would do again and again is always add a place to sit in the kitchen, and I don't mean your dining table. I know not everybody always has space for a big dining table and chairs in their kitchen. But even if you have a dining table, or even if you don't, what I always love to include when I'm designing a kitchen is just somewhere to sit down in the kitchen. I feel like it just makes the space just a little bit more relaxing, a little bit more sociable. I feel like if there's always only that one person in there cooking on their own, if there's a family member that can come and join them and sit and chat, or if there's guests around and, let's say, the dining area is in a separate part of the home but there's somewhere to sit in the kitchen. It just makes a little bit of a more social experience if the guests can come in the kitchen, there's somewhere to sit, keep the cook company while they cook, have a glass of wine while they chat and cook.

Speaker 1:

I think it's just such a lovely thing to think of and to do and again, you have to plan it ahead. There won't always just be a space to put a chair in a kitchen once the kitchen's planned, because you'll probably want to use all of the space for cabinetry and so on. So you need to think about it before you plan the kitchen. Ways I've done this before is if there's an island, I'll always put a little overhang on the island so that there's a place to slot a bar stool underneath. Even if it's a really minimal bench style bar stool without a back on it, that doesn't take up much space, so that if you don't always want the stools in the way you don't always have loads of space to have the stools out at least they can slot under and then that is a place to sit when you want to use it.

Speaker 1:

I've also included before window seats. So if you think about the design carefully. If you're, if you're lucky enough to be doing the renovation completely from scratch, perhaps you can include a window seat in the kitchen. Those are also really great to have as a seating area in a kitchen space. If there's a fireplace in the kitchen or fireplace nearby, great place to put a comfy armchair, even if it's small, where someone could sit and keep you company. Even if there's a little corner where you could put a simple bench seat with some cushions and a shelf above with a lamp or your recipe books. So there's various ways of including this into your design and it doesn't always have to take up a lot of space. But I think it just makes the kitchen feel a lot more inviting if there's somewhere to sit, somewhere to gather, somewhere to keep the cook or the chef company. So I just think it's a really, really lovely thing to do is to include somewhere in the kitchen to sit.

Speaker 1:

But that is my last point for this episode. Everybody, I really hope you enjoyed the episode this week and I hope you'll join me next week where I will be doing my design lessons for things I would do differently. But I hope this gave you some inspiration if you're renovating. For a couple of things to include in your renovation, because these are things that have really worked for me and, like the episode's called it's, things I would do again and again. So I hope to see you next week for the next episode. I wish you a good week and it's bye for now. For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudiocom. Forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, there is one on planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.