How To Renovate

EP55 Working With Features You Can't Change

• Tash South

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Sometimes in renovation, you hit a wall—literally. Whether it's a support column smack in the middle of your open-plan dream, or a chimney stack that you just can’t remove… every home has its quirks. But here's the thing: some of those stubborn features can be opportunities in disguise.

In this episode I’m walking you through how to reframe those unchangeable features—the ones that can’t be moved or removed—and turn them into standout elements of your design. Stick with me here - with some clever tricks like tricking the eye and custom joinery you can turn those problems into stunning solutions.

Inside I chat about some creative design solutions for columns, bulkheads, low ceilings, and awkward windows and how colour, light and texture can help hide or highlight the right features

So if you’re  feeling stuck, hit play, this episode is your permission slip to get creative. Sometimes the flaw is the feature!

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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.

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https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

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https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello everybody, hello, my lovely renovators, I hope you are all doing really well this week. This week on the podcast, I am talking about those, those tricksy little features that you can't change, you can't do anything about when you come to renovating your home. Now you know, there's things that you might be stuck with perhaps a supporting column that you can't move, or a doorway that you can't widen, or a beam that you can't recess into the ceiling for a flush finish, or maybe it's an awkward ceiling height, perhaps a low ceiling, or a window that's maybe in an inconvenient spot. So in this episode we're going to talk about how to work with these features. Every home has its own kind of quirks and structure and sometimes, no matter how much budget you have, how much money you throw at the problem, some things you just can't change and you have to work around them. But you know what? Sometimes you can embrace those kind of so-called flaws and you can make them intentionally part of your design. And one of my favourite examples of this is one of my favourite interior designers called Kelly Wiesler. She designed this hotel in the state where she had to work with a few columns so kind of these circular columns that could not be moved from the hotel and she worked with them as kind of sculptural statements, kind of bold statements, and I think in fact she even added more columns into the space to add symmetry and really make a feature of the columns. So I think that's really a signature statement and I think if you just think about your problem in a different way, you might come up with a really creative solution, and that's really what I want to explore in today's episode. Okay, so let's get into it everybody. Let's talk about how we can make those so-called problems into design statements when you're renovating. Let's get into the episode. Okay, number one, let's look at reframing the problem. So instead of seeing the feature you can't change as an issue, perhaps look at it as a challenge, a way to kind of get creative, to work around it or to work with it so that you can make a feature out of it.

Speaker 1:

I remember I worked with a client a few years ago now and they had just bought this gorgeous house, really spacious, but unfortunately the floor tiles which were used throughout the entire home, so the entire ground floor, and this was a big house they were kind of a creamy travertine color and some of them had these kind of engravings in them, and so the clients weren't really keen on both the style of the floor and also the colour. And. But to change those floors, to rip them all out and replace them with something different, would have been extremely expensive and also extremely wasteful. Because there was nothing wrong with the floors. The floors were in great condition, really sound, no structural, no structural problems, no cracks. It was just the aesthetics that they were unhappy with, and so they called me in to work with them with the rest of the interior so that they weren't so dominant in the space. So of course this isn't a structural problem, but it's still a problem that was there that they couldn't change or didn't really want to change because of the expense and also the waste. And so I worked with them and we managed to work with the colours on the walls, with the furniture, breaking up the kind of monotony of the floor colour, with rugs and so on. And so we worked with those floors and we added that colour of the flooring into the scheme to then make it look like it was always intentional.

Speaker 1:

So these are the things you can do if you're perhaps working with something already in the home that you perhaps don't have the budget to change or don't want to change. But of course this also comes down to the kind of structural elements when you're doing larger renovations, when you're actually breaking down walls and redoing homes and adding extensions and so on. So let's talk a bit more about that. So in reframing the problem, perhaps think of the obstacle in a different way. So instead of something that's perhaps an awkward wall that's not quite in the right place, or an ugly column or bulkhead that's kind of not quite where you want it to be, or even there at all, so if we just reframe it and look at these obstacles perhaps as giving the room character, something you could work around to add character into the property, when you don't have the option to move those things, so if we just reframe it slightly before we start approaching it in a more creative way, that then in our minds just kind of reduces that feeling that it's a huge issue, a huge problem that we can't get rid of. If we change our minds and decide that we're going to work with it. So just kind of flip that narrative from something negative to perhaps something you can make a feature out of or something you can work with. So what if the awkward bulkhead or nook became perhaps it was too shallow for a piece of furniture? Perhaps you could add some floating shelves. Perhaps you could make it a coffee station, perhaps you could add some storage or something specific that would fit in there. And if you had an awkward column or an awkward wall, perhaps make a feature out of, think of something to add in it or around it, or light it so that you can actually make a feature out of it or somehow make it useful. So number two fixed features you can work with. So here are a few of the most common unchangeable elements I see in homes and some ideas on how to embrace them.

Speaker 1:

So, number one support columns. So you don't always have to disguise these. Sometimes you can dramatize them if you wrap it in a really cool finish. You can wrap them in timber, you can add a marble effect, plaster. You can find really, really amazing wallpapers now that you could add to that column that make it stand out. It could be texture, it could be something that looks like wood, it could be something that looked like stone, so you could really make a feature out of it. Even tile, tiny tiles wrapped around a circular column, even, or a rectangular column, can really add an amazing feature. There's so many gorgeous tiles out there now and that would really make a stunning feature out of a column, especially if we have two that frame a space. Perhaps you can do what Kelly did and add another column so that you add that symmetry and then finish them off in the same material, because that would really add to the rhythm of the space and also that sense of symmetry so it wouldn't just look like one awkward thing in the space, it would look more intentional if there were two of them, for example.

Speaker 1:

Next, low or sloped ceilings are often a bugbear with my clients and you know sometimes you just can't get around it. It's just the way it is. If you're doing a loft conversion, if it's the style of the home, if it's, um, if it's a historic home, sometimes you just have to work with the sloped ceilings and sometimes I feel they can be quite fun to work with. And if they are low, sometimes what I love doing is painting the entire room in quite a dark, cocooning kind of welcoming color. I just love that feeling if it's kind of cozy and the color wraps around the room and it feels like a warm hug when you go in there so you can actually think of really lovely ways to work with those low ceilings. Just work with it, go with it, go cozy, go rich with a colour, especially if it's a bedroom or a reading corner, even a bathroom space, somewhere where you go in to get away from the rest of the house, relax and just feel cocooned.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's look at windows next. Sometimes windows are in awkward places and sometimes either it's beyond the client's budget to move them or for some reason the window perhaps can't be moved. So I think when windows are in awkward spaces, you can trick the eye with this. So what I love to do is use window coverings to trick the eye. So let's say, your window's in a tricky space. So what you can do is trick the eye with your curtains. If you hang your curtains strategically, if you hang them floor to ceiling, that gives the illusion of the window being taller. Let's say it's a short window, you want the illusion of it to be taller. If it's an awkward space on the the wall, if it's placed awkwardly on the wall, you can arrange your furniture so that the window doesn't become the focal point. You can also work with your curtains again and you can add drapery on both sides. Perhaps the trick is to add equal drapery even though the window is not centered and that gives the illusion of it being centered. So there are various ways you can work around that. Another trick is to add are various ways you can work around that. Another trick is to add mirrors, so you can add a mirror next to the window, across from the window, so you can bounce the light around. If the window is not in the ideal space, that's what the mirror would do catches the light, it gives the illusion of more light in the room or the effect of breaking up a solid wall with something that looks like a window, because it's glass, obviously. So there are various ways you can trick the eye if the window is not in the ideal space that you would love it to be.

Speaker 1:

The next one is bulkheads and beams. These often are seen in ceilings and I think people get annoyed that they don't have this beautiful flush ceiling. But really you can make features out of these and an easy way is to use paint. You can make a feature out of it. Paint it in a different colour. I don't know if you've seen, but quite often in kind of modern extensions, they will actually paint out the beams, the steel beams, in a really dramatic colour. I've seen them in red, I've seen them in, I've seen them in turquoise, and it really kind of draws the eye to it as an architectural feature, rather than trying to kind of hide it away and pretend it's not there. It's drawing it out and then perhaps using that same colour throughout the room or complementary colours to it throughout the room, so that it works well in the space and as a scheme overall. So I actually love that one, just painting the beams out in a different color.

Speaker 1:

And you can also not only do you have to paint them, but if it suits the property, what you can actually do is clad your beams in timber. So let's say you have a more traditional property, you want a more traditional look. You can then clad that. You get thin layers of kind of timber sheeting that can be used to clad your beams so it gives the effect of a solid wood beam, but actually it's just the thin covering of wood surrounding the beam, so it kind of envelopes it and it makes it look like a solid timber beam. So I love that idea as well. So work with your bulkheads and beams, make a feature out of them if there is a reason that you can't get them flush into the ceiling and actually sometimes people leave them out intentionally to do exactly this they don't want them flush because they want them to be part of the structure and part of the architecture that you see. So you don't have to pretend these things aren't there. You can actually make a feature out of them. So acknowledge that they're there, acknowledge that perhaps you can't change them, but you can work with them. So, moving on to number three, so number three is one of my favorites to deal with these kinds of things, and it is custom joinery. So using custom joinery as a creative tool in your renovation.

Speaker 1:

I love adding custom joinery into a home. I sometimes think that's kind of a huge part of interior design is working with the space you have, making it function with whatever you can add in terms of custom joinery, and it doesn't always have to be expensive. I'm sure you've seen on Instagram. You can use Ikea hacks. You can use ways where you can use off-the-shelf shelves or wardrobes or whatever it may be, and make it look custom by kind of building it in, perhaps getting a carpenter to make it look more streamlined. So I love using custom joinery.

Speaker 1:

For example, if you can't move a wall or a pipe, custom joinery is your best friend. You can build it in and make it into a feature and it can make awkward spaces feel quite intentional, which is quite a lovely thing. So let me give you some examples. You can build around pipework to create kind of storage nooks or bench seating. You can create banquette seating if you have something that you need to hide Perhaps it's a, a pipe, perhaps it's something that needs to be boxed in. You can create bank of seating out of that, obviously if it's in the right place. Or perhaps a floating desk or shelf or a little storage area is the solution. If you have something that's kind of that's kind of protruding needs to be boxed in, you can perhaps disguise it as a bookshelf, as a desk. So there's lots of creative ways you can deal with these problems, and actually little details matter here because, you know, a perfectly sized shelf or bench seat or something wrapped around can turn an unusable space into something quite purposeful and personal and something quite unique in the home. So I just love using custom joinery in this way.

Speaker 1:

Okay, moving on to number four, everyone we're looking at using colour, light and texture to work with these elements that you can't change. So colour, as we talked about, is a great way to either make something stand out actually or blend it in with something else, so I'll share this with you. So in one of my projects, um, again a few years ago, we had this issue where this was quite a small apartment and for some reason in the 80s, when it was last renovated, they boxed in so many of the pipes, but in a really dramatic way, so they left so much space around the pipe to box it in, so so actually the apartment lost loads of floor space due to all this boxing in. So when I went in, I re-laid out the entire apartment, but we started tearing down all the boxing in to actually see what was behind the walls, and we came across in the main living room, in the corner that we didn't know at all would be, there, a huge kind of soil stack, a huge pipe that ran all the way down the centre of the building from top to bottom, and it was one of the original pipes. So this used to be kind of a waterworks back in the day, back in the 1920s I think. But this pipe was still in use so we could not move it because it serviced not only that pipe apartment but all the other apartments in the building. So that is a really great example of something you just cannot move and you had to work around it and we didn't want to box it in again because we just opened up the space so beautifully.

Speaker 1:

And so what we did with this pipe running down in the corner of the living room is we bought a bioethanol fireplace. So I don't know if you know, but these are standalone fireplaces. They are kind of eco, so you fill it with kind of a gel fluid and you light that and that is what the fire is and it has zero emissions, so it gives off zero smoke, really safe to use in small areas. And they come in lots of designs, so freestanding designs that you can place anywhere in the home without any sort of chimney or flute and so on. And so we purchased one of these in this really cool circular shape in a kind of a fire engine red, and what we did is we just placed it in front of the soil stack in front of this pipe and then color matched that red and painted the soil stack in the same colour so that it looked like one element. So in the corner of the living room we had what then looked like a round fireplace with a red pipe running behind it up to the ceiling. So it just naturally looked like a chimney. So that way we tricked the eye in many different ways. We also didn't lose the extra space by having to box that in and also it. It made quite a lovely feature and it just looked like one element. No one ever questioned or saw it was just a freestanding fireplace placed in front of a pipe. It just looked as one piece because they were painted the same color. So so this is exactly what I mean. It's working with something that you cannot change, but making it look intentional and making it look like it was just meant to be Okay.

Speaker 1:

So now let's look at lighting. So lighting is a great way to make something look intentional as well. Let's say we're working with the columns we've been talking about. If you have a column that you cannot move and let's say you have worked with it, you have clad it and perhaps in a tile or a wallpaper or a texture, and let's say you have added another one to add that symmetry. The next thing that really makes it look intentional is to light those beautifully, and a way you could do that is with perhaps two floor lights that illuminate the two pillars from below and pick up on the textures and pick up on the tile or the colour or whatever you've used on the columns. So lighting is an amazing way of making something look intentional, especially when it comes to architectural features.

Speaker 1:

Or let's say it's a bulkhead or an alcove. You could use lighting in a similar way. You could add lighting at the top, you can add lighting at the bottom, you could light that recess so that it looked intentional like a box that glows in the evening. And then, whatever you've done with the alcove, whether you've used it for floating shelves or whether you've used it for your artwork you then light that appropriately so it looks super intentional and actually really well designed. And so working with these so-called issues can really add to your character of your property and add these really unique little moments and vignettes as you walk through your home. And then also the lighting in that situation on the artwork in an alcove. It's drawing your eye to the artwork, to the beautiful artwork that you have placed in there, so that then also immediately takes the attention away from what may have seemed like an awkward space. And then, of course, you can add to that with what we've spoken about already perhaps a shelf, some bespoke joinery, perhaps underneath your art piece, and that you styled beautifully. So all of those things draw the eye to what is actually beautiful and makes your awkward space look actually intentional and really lovely. So that brings us to the end, everybody. That brings us to the end of this episode.

Speaker 1:

So don't be discouraged. If you're working with a wonky corner or a too low ceiling or an annoying column and you're thinking, oh why is this even here, don't be discouraged. You can work with it and you can make it into a feature, because a lot of the time, good design isn't always about working with something that's perfect from the start. We have to work with the flaws. We have to work with the flaws. We have to work with tricky situations. We just have to reframe them and be creative and look at them differently and then turning it into something you're proud of, something that works in your home and for you. So I really hope that's given you loads of ideas, everybody, for if you happen to be working in a tricky space or you have some of these challenges in front of you, some of these things you can't change. I hope I've given you some ideas today and some inspiration of how to work with it. But that's it for this episode and I hope to see you in the next one. But it's bye for now, everybody. See you next week For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation.

Speaker 1:

You can go directly to southplacestudiocom forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudiocom forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on um 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.