Episode 4 - Getting Into The Detail

Sue and Debs give priceless insights into how to easily create the perfect floorplan, and how to avoid costly mistakes and time wasting!  Also discussing show stopping ways to inject character into plainer spaces, and they pass on 3 super style Makeover Memo's for you to try that give immediate impact for very little time and money!  Well worth a listen,  the conversation is rich with tips and insights for anyone who loves interior design!

Takeaways

• 3 incredible Makeover Memos centred around Mirror
• Floor planning is essential for effective space utilization.
• Hallways should be kept free and simple to avoid congestion.
• Creating functional boot rooms can significantly improve organisation.
• Flexible seating arrangements enhance social interactions in living spaces.
• Practical bedroom design should consider future needs and growth.
• Injecting character into plainer spaces can transform a room.
• Architectural features can elevate the aesthetic of plain interiors.
• Coving can create a high end finish and atmosphere in a room.
• Ceiling roses provide an elegant finishing touch to any space
  
  

 PLEASE LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE TO GROW THIS PODCAST WITH US!

THANK YOU!

Contact
 email - contact@allaboutdesign.online
 Instagram - all_about_design_podcast
 
 Novo Interiors - www.novointeriors.co.uk
Insta novointeriors_uk
email - susan@novointeriors.co.uk

Music Credits
 Music from #Uppbeat 
 https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/good-feelings
 License code: GFDQBSDPBEIR08XJ
 
 Music from #Uppbeat
 https://uppbeat.io/t/oliver-massa/orange-clouds
 License code: 9HPDRFIOL6DVYLVD
 
 Music from #Uppbeat
 https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/thrive
 License code: XPA3DJXY7HJFSPBJ
 

Transcript

Welcome to episode four of All About Design and I'm joined by Debs again this week 

And we're going to be talking about how you can add character into rooms that are perhaps lacking some architectural features. 

Whether it's a new build or existing rooms that you have. 

Sometimes you end up with a blank canvas you might want to consider, architectural features just to give it little bit more texture and interest to that space. 

Makeover memos are back this week and we've got three amazing ideas for quick and easy interior projects that won't cost a lot and give absolutely incredible results. This week centered all around one of interior design's best friends, the mirror. Before we get into that, let's dive into just about the most important thing in interior design. It's top of the list, space planning. You have to have your floor plan right for everything else to work. 

So spatial planning is the thing that we do first every single time when we're putting the scheme together, because if you have anything that's large scale and it doesn't fit, then the whole thing falls apart straight away. So the best thing to do is get yourself tape measure and some graph paper and just draw it to scale. Make sure you put in where the plug sockets are. 

where the light points are and measure the ceiling height, that's a really important thing. You can go into as much detail as you like basically what we want to see is where the placement of the furniture is going to be, how it's going to work together. And the things that then you want to start thinking about are what are your focal points in that room? So is the television going to go over a fireplace? 

Or are you going to be wanting to look out of the window to see the garden 

You're absolutely right, Sue. the floor plan is the key to everything. There's lots of things that can be answered by a floor plan. So it is a key thing to have, I think, at the beginning of designing a room. 

It's a bird's eye view of what your room will be like. So you can easily see whether or not you've got the circulation space to move around. If you've got somewhere that you need to be able to walk around, at least 90 centimetres is what you'll be looking to have around that piece of furniture. 

We're going to go into a little bit more detail about some of the main rooms of the house and what you might need to be thinking about before you go out and spend all your money on furniture that you either can't get through the front door. That's a very important thing. Happens a lot. Or even round the corner. You you might have a kind of pinch point. 

There's things to consider in different rooms, different needs. So space planning and floor planning is the way it's just to kind of forewarn you it might not fit or it might not work. 

Putting the furniture on a plan, you might find that you can go larger. You can create flow space, but you don't know that till you actually get the plan.

Thinking about, once you come in the front door, the hallway, 

When we first moved into that house, we had quite a wide console table. it was the first thing I bought And it probably wasn't the best thing in many respects. It was made of mirror. So the edges quite sharp and got damaged over time. And it was wider than it should have been. But when you're just in your house and you've got 

limited amount money to spend. I'd found this piece, it was definitely going to go there because I had nothing else. But now years later when I've redone that area, I've gone for a very narrow console table and thinking about the legs as well, Yeah, so you can see through the legs, it gives that open feel. you can actually make places feel bigger. because you can visually see walls. That's a hot tip really, isn't it? Yeah, so looking at your floor plan, most hallways aren't particularly wide. The area that everyone walks in and you've got five or six people coming to visit you, and everyone's taken off a coat, or there's bags being thrown on the floor by the kids or whatever, a lot going on there, you need to think about, 

One, can I put some storage in there? But if you can't, then just keep the furniture very small and slim I think so. And I think a hallway it becomes a dumping ground. Now... you can consider lots of options to make sure that you've got key storage in the hallway so that you don't see this clutter It's just making the most of the space and if you do built-in furniture you can tailor it. You've done a lovely boot room recently so that you can make it work for your family needs. Well I mean I was going out of my mind every day when the kids came in because the bags get bigger and bigger, the kids get bigger and bigger and the shoes end up being huge and we had a tiny little cupboard under the stairs and just you'd open the door and throw it in and then the next time you came to use it you'd be in there on your hands and knees going in there to try and find it so we actually took half of the single garage that we had. and raised the floor slightly so it was equal to the house and built in, it's just changed my life. This amazing boot room sounds a bit fancy pants, doesn't it? But it is, I suppose that's the best description of it. And my goodness me, I've even got empty cupboards in there because suddenly I've got space, I've got a shoe rack, I've got coats on. pegs But it really is sad to say quite life-changing. I am obviously getting old And these sort of things do give you pleasure, but everything has its place now. And I think it's exactly what you've done there is what we're trying to say, consider the space you have. And if you can rearrange things, a hallway is a key moving area. It's a busy area. Keep it free. keep it simple. The first thing you see when you walk in the home and the last thing you see when you walk out. So for the kind of keeping you feel calm, collected. 

So space planning for that area, if you're starting from scratch. 

Have a think, draw it on some graph paper to scale. And if you've seen a console table or piece of storage, maybe it's a bench unit that's got some shoe storage in it, some hooks on it, they're really great all in one place to put everything in. But draw that on and just see, have I got at least 90 centimetres? or a little bit more to get past that If you haven't, then think, maybe something a little bit slimmer that could be a console table. So you've got somewhere to put your keys, et cetera. But they can be about 30 centimeters deep instead So that's one of the main places where you're going to get that congestion that you need to think about. And mirrors. Mirrors. Get that light in the room. And it's practical as well when you're walking out yeah, floor planning in your hallway is a good start to everything. 

So in a lounge, Good thing to think about is the focal point and will you have a TV over the fireplace? Obviously in days of old people had a fireplace, didn't have TV to worry about, but sometimes we've got a fireplace and a TV next to it. It's taking up quite a lot of your room and you don't have so many places to put a sofa. So a lot of people now... 

will put the TV above the fireplace and then you've got one place you're looking at and you can build your furniture grouping around that. I'm a big fan of that and quite a few people say, no, I won't be able to watch it, it's too high. It's not, 

Maybe just cut out a piece of cardboard and stick it above your fireplace and see how you'd feel looking at it. But I don't think it's going to cause you any issues to look at that. No, and I think, you hit on it before about... placement of furniture in the room, you don't have to have all big bulky furniture. And one of the biggest things in lounges is consider the sofa and the arms, because if lot of sofas have massive bulbous arms, which you don't necessarily need for comfort. So, you could have a slightly wider seat, smaller arms. 

And one of the big things we like is slipper chairs where there's no arms. So just freeing the space. The eyeline is looking through the room and it's traveling. So it gives you that idea that the room's bigger. And that is just literally back to the floor plan, what fits, but consider little elements like that as well. So if you've got a view into a room and the door is right up against the sofa and it's got very high arms, you suddenly lost quite a lot of the light coming through the window. 

And lifting up the big furniture, have little legs on it. You've got the light coming through. So especially in smaller rooms, it just gives that feeling of airiness that you might not get if you have solid down to the floor furniture. So it's thinking about placement of furniture. How are you going to use the room? Is it a TV room? Is it a sociable room? So if it's sociable, you want enough seating that you can sit with each other together. And that's where things like Ottoman seating, armless chairs, come in 

These can be optional pieces that you pull out and use in different ways. You can have Ottoman seats that you can use for your feet as a poof or you can use them as an occasional seat. Really consider what is the purpose of the space. You might realize 80 % of the time it's just two of us in that room. 

But when we get people over, we want to have some more seating. And that can be multiple ways, can't it? It doesn't have to be massive permanent seating that you never get sat on, but takes up the space, sucks up the light, and just makes the room feel packed. And I think it's quite interesting because if you have the same family, always together, it's different. But if you have people visiting you and the only place you can sit is next to each other, sometimes you don't want to sit too close to somebody that you don't know that well! 

So it's quite good to have a couple of different seating areas and options, like Deb said. of the things we do often put into a scheme is a little ottoman or two that can be popped underneath a console. So it looks like a little grouping. It's really pretty, actually. So that gives you some extra seats as well. I was going to say to your little vignette I love the console and the ottomans because it looks so good, but it's so practical on all levels. You know the aesethics is kind of the arts and crafts movement again, isn't it? It works, it's practical, but it's beautiful. "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to either be useful or beautiful" Something like that, wasn't it? It's William Morris. He'd be very proud. Thank you. But I think that is the truth. don't just put things in. Think about how is it going to work? Do I need to have two massive sofas because there's only... three of us and actually one of us likes to sit on a... chair. You don't want it to look like a furniture showroom. So this is what we say to quite a few clients suddenly you've got four or five different styles. And I mean, I'm all for eclectic, but that's taking it a little bit too far because it's just a bit of a mishmash Do you really need this? Should we be thinking about how we can make this room really beautiful? Perhaps we'll use an area where you might have put a chair that you don't really need. for a beautiful dresser you have some beautiful artwork that you really want to sort of display? And that can be over a console So not every part of a room needs to be stuffed full of furniture. So again on your floor plan, you know, be really critical. Consider it. 

Have I got circulation? Is it symmetrical or asymmetrical? Because you might be more drawn to something. If you're a very tidy person, might feel you need symmetry in that room. So you're actually gained by floor plans. 

Definitely, yes, worth taking a couple of hours. Live with it for a day or so and then, you will have answers to a lot of questions without going in blind and going, my gosh, how big that sofa should be. I can't quite open the door actually, because I've seen on plan that that would be the case. So do I want to go for that compromise or will I go for the 220cm with a slightly slimmer arm, because I can still get three bottoms on there quite easily. I think, am I right? I might be going out on a limb, but people try to fit the biggest piece of furniture they can into a room. I get it, you want to accommodate in this very nice you can do that without having to go overboard. That's what we're trying to say come back to your, floor plan, restrictions, limiters, brilliant, because you know what you can go for. 

So bedrooms, they're probably one of the... trickiest because they're not usually the largest rooms in the house but we're always trying to cram a lot into them. And the first thing to consider is who's using the space again? We keep saying this, but it's kind of true, isn't it? There's no point making a room that doesn't work. So is it a children's room which needs practical space for storage And does it need to grow with them? 

That's a big consideration, especially if you're doing anything like built-ins you have to consider they will change, their needs will change. And built-ins, I believe, are the best way to get the most storage out of your room, because they can be tailor-made to fit nooks, crannies, and actually straighten out problems that maybe you've got. But again, consider everything when you're putting them in because they are a permanent feature. And they're expensive And it might be that it won't work for you, But you have to think, Am I having a double bed in here? Is it a single bed? So it's thinking about the flow of the room, can I get to the curtains? See this happen a lot. You don't want a bed up against the radiator in a window. 

I know sometimes we are limited by space, but if you can consider it from the start, you may be able to avoid these pitfalls. Definitely. Children's rooms, they need to grow with them. So I think it's about six, seven years, usually between doing a room and then redoing it. I've done rooms in the last year or so for... girls that are about eight or nine. And then you know that that's taking them into their late teens. So that room has got an awful lot to do. And in that time, they're gonna need desk space, they're gonna need dressing table space. So quite often, the mirrors that are lighting around it. 

Also, not just a desk chair, I always try to put in a nice little armchair or side chair. Another place so they don't have to sit on the bed to be comfortable. Obviously it depends on the person, if you're doing a teenage boys room, it would be very, different. So it's just... thinking about the elements that need to go in there. Can they be built in? Will that help you overall? And I try and put on the biggest bed I can, generally, because, if it's a single bed, they might want a double bed in about five or six years' time anyway, everyone likes a bigger bed. Think about the window treatments as well. it going to be Rome blinds? Is it wood slat blinds? If you're having curtains, have they got space to fall? It all goes back to floor planning because you realise you're restricted and 

This key stage will save you a lot of pain and a lot of money actually because you won't be making mistakes We're giving away all our secrets here aren't we actually we shouldn't do that. Don't tell anyone. Yeah yeah well do do tell them how wonderful we are! 

And also with the hallways, consider landings and spaces like that where you've got little nooks and maybe wasted space. Could have storage. 

Just really be the inspector of your house and go around and just consider what space you're not utilising 

I've done this in the past and it's worked really well. Use cardboard and cut out cardboard replicas of the size of the furniture Because paper works but it can kind of crease and not give you a realistic scale on the room. So thin cardboard means that you can come back to it time after time and move things around and play with the scheme. That's really good. Then you don't have to keep redrawing your plan all the time it gives you a true vision of the scale And it's fun. Fun with your cardboard. Well, you could take photos of the various different option, different sized sofas, different combinations. It doesn't have to be perfect in the way of pretty looking. It's just the scale you need. That's a great tip. 

So Makeover Memo's are back this week and I can't tell you how easy these three things are to do, but how big their impact is. adding some mirror into your interior, which is always a winner because it reflects light, adds movement and gives an immediate high-end feel. if you have a dark wall, in a dining room or a transition area, anywhere that you need a little bit of reflection, but it also provides an instant art installation feel. This one is just to simply install mirror within the panelling So you can do this to any budget. If you want to customise the size, it's obviously going to put the price up or you can source off the shelf panelling and off the shelf mirror tiles. 

People like Ikea and Amazon do them cut to size with self adhesive backs as well to make it easier for you. So otherwise you would just use a mirror adhesive. I can't say that So you install the panels on your wall and then the mirror just gets put within this space it creates. Amazing. Repetition. as you know, is always a winner in interior design. And just having six or nine or 12 mirrors on a wall, reflecting the light as you move around, looks incredible. And it's relatively inexpensive to do. Also very quick, you can definitely get this done in a day. 

Just make sure you do measure everything out on your wall before you start. Nothing worse than going to all the effort and realizing you haven't got enough space to stick the last mirror on. Our second makeover memo this week is so simple. And again, it's timeless, so it won't date. So it's money well spent. 

And you wonder why you didn't do this before, I think. I use this on bedside tables in particular, but it could also be used in other situations such as on a coffee table or a console table. And so you just go and get yourself a piece of mirror cut to size to go on top. Simple as that. And again, you may not want the bright silver mirror. You may want something that's aged or antiqued. or even the bronze mirror, but it's just so easy to keep it clean. Saves staining and ring marks from cups and glasses. And more importantly, it reflects light beautifully. If you don't want mirror on that particular surface, you could just use plain glass and it saves you from again, the ring marks and makes it much easier to clean. Just make sure, very important point, that when you order any glass or mirror, you must ask for polished edges and tipped corners. so they're safe for you to handle because the edges otherwise are razor sharp so your glass provider or mirror provider will make sure that's done for you. Usually it's 6mm toughened safety glass or mirror if it's going on a tabletop. And the last little makeover memo is a tiny little idea but again really powerful it's just to find yourself a tray that you love 

And if it's got a mirrored bottom already, great. If not, you can get a piece of mirror cut to size, or you could take a trip to somewhere like Homesense or The Range or Dun Elm, or one of those beautiful little antique centres we were talking about. 

And then on there, you just put things that look lovely in reflection as well. It bounces the light around. You can just put a beautiful vase of flowers, or you may have a little bowl with some fairy lights in or some candles and little books. 

But whatever you have, it just reflects it beautifully. As you move around the space, it looks gorgeous and bounces back light from windows or table lamps, just like a little jewel sitting in the middle of your coffee table. So really, really, easy thing to do. Doesn't take a lot of time or money and will give a big impact. I'll put lots of lovely images to demonstrate these three super style makeover memos. 

on Instagram and Facebook. And if you need any further information on this, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

So another thing we wanted to cover today is... Injecting character and a bit more interest to maybe plain interiors. It could be a room you've inherited or you've just built an extension and you've got this box with plain walls to deal with. And there's a good few ways that you can easily, what we'd say is an architectural feature. So that's something attached to the walls, it's fixed, it becomes kind of the next level up from the plain walls. So it's still a surface that can be painted, decorated and given colour. But it just gives life to the room. 

An architectural feature. You might not necessarily notice them because they are part of the room, They're kind of the unsung heroes really. And they can be manipulated to work with a historic home or a new home. 

Absolutely. So two things that spring to mind. The first one was a house that was probably 15, 20 years old and the client had a very large lounge but it was just completely plain. There was no fireplace. It had coving, had skirting but it was very, very plain. suggested building in fireplace with a chimney breast. So quite often you think, don't take space out of a room, but this could allow that. And then it gave the room. the focal point. So the fireplace went in, a wood burning stove. Television was on top. And then it returned back to the wall where we'd built out. We built in some wood storage and some display areas, it's great for all the games and toys to go in there. 

It worked. It was really successful They were highly delighted because suddenly their room had character. If you have got a home of age, 30s, 50s, 60s, whatever, consider something that is sympathetic to that home. A lot of things get ripped out over the years. 

But equally in modern homes now, can easily, panel walls. We've looked at panelling a lot and love it. Oh, it's brilliant. Well, this was the other example I was going to give. It had a 1930s house and it was a hallway. Beautiful panelling on the side of the staircase and it was solid wood, But then the staircase wall was very tall sort of double height space. plain and actually what we did is copy this. panelling from the side of the staircase exactly, so the scale and the rhythm of it, onto that plain wall Looked like it was built and made like that from the get-go instead of being installed probably 80 years apart. So definitely you can build these things in but obviously you don't want it to jar you want it to look right. Absolutely and if you've got a little tiny bit of something in your home and you think I love that, like an architectural feature, you can take it through the home, So there's a link, especially with those kind of features. It's not samey because you can treat them in different manners, but it just has that flow, which is really key. 

But there's other things you can do, wainscotting, could you explain what that is? So wainscotting is panelling but it's only halfway up the wall, it's to the chair rail, it's the old style of doing it really. A lot of rooms have had it for that reason, to protect the walls I think it's between third and half the height of the room. Proportion if you have a picture rail and then you want to put in some wain scoting or some lower level panelling you almost want it to appear like it's in thirds because that's the magic number again in interior design. 

But I think you've got to, get a good craftsman in, it is a sightline thing as well, because sometimes, we don't have straight walls, But that is a really practical way to have a hard-wearing surface that's also an architectural feature. You can paint it. 

You can change the color of the paint. You can go for something a bit bold. You can have fun with it, but it's the kind of essence of the wall rather than just a decoration. again, a good investment for practicality, but also beauty as well. Yeah, they look really handsome, don't they? And then above it, you can go for a paint or a mad wallpaper. You can have the wallpaper still inside, of paneling on the higher wall. 

And of course if it is a hallway you can get paint that is high traffic area friendly. Treat it almost like the same the skirting gloss paint or a satin finish. Things like skirting boards you can just bead the top of them. and create a thicker look, a bit more, add that extra missing link between it being bland and a bit more interesting. And I think when you add panelling to a wall, because of the different light coming in through the windows, obviously during the day, it creates some really lovely shadows. And in the evening when you've got... 

table lamps on instead. Again, that's a different sort of look, but it's giving your wall texture and character It does need to be done well. The mitres of the joints have to be perfect. You know, it's attention to detail. 

If you get that right, it's beautiful. And if you did panel the whole wall, use it like a wall, add artwork to it. It's a base. It still works like that. And lighting can be attached to it. You can actually dress it as well because it's a base rather than a finish. 

If you're in English Heritage or the National Trust, go along and have a look at any of these beautiful old houses and they're fantastic for getting some inspiration from And another one to mention is Tongue and Groove. That kind of it wasn't as much in fashion, 

Historically Victorian houses had wide plank tongue and groove in hallways with a bead across the top. It was the more accessible version of wainscoting in some respects. But again, when these things are painted, you just get such a great texture, the light you talked about. easy to do and easy to cover up some blemishes If you've got uneven or bad walls, it's actually a good way to take out half the problem. Yeah, if you've had some damp come in and you've had to have it repaired, obviously don't hide it. Solve the problem, but then you might just think, actually, do you know what? 

can just make that look perfect very quickly. 

Something you were talking about was coving and ceiling roses. Yes. Some rooms, it's really beautiful to have a clean edge. 

You can still be quite contemporary. Coving there's so many different types out there. And also you can have them illuminated. So if you want that more modern edge, you can have lighting in them. And that's another opportunity to give another level to the room. And ceiling roses. 

It just means that that feels like the principal room or it feels like a room of celebration. It's really nice. It's gorgeous. I had a client who had a very cute crystal chanderlier in their dining room and it was quite old, and 

They were like, oh, I think I'll change this So was like, well, hang on, let's put ceiling rows around it. Very simple one. They're so reasonably priced as well. So easy to put up. just literally stick them up and then there's usually a hole in the middle and then whatever's on the lighting will cover up the holes. comes through. These subtle things you don't realize how much difference these make to the visual impact of the room. Well, they really do. And I think, if you walked into a room that just had a little bit more attention given to it, like a ceiling rose or like a really nice coving or some panelling, already, I'm sure you've added value to your home because it looks rich in history and rich in detail So it really does take it up several levels And a lot of homes, especially if they're older homes, over the years, styles have come and gone and coving and things like that could actually have been changed or downscaled So it's an opportunity to inject the right scale again back into the home and that is something to consider. You don't want to go overboard either because it will just drag the walls down. So consider the age of the home, the height of the ceiling and how you can enhance it. 

And instead of doing a floor plan, you do a wall plan. So mark on your height and the width of the wall, again to scale, and start working out how that style or pattern of panelling is going to work. 

Perhaps it might not suit your room to have that. So just work out to scale how it's going to look and then your craftsman could come in and install that for you really easily. It takes about a day to totally change a very flat boring wall into something that looks like it's got age and history. 

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining me again. Thanks for having me Sue. Always a pleasure. And join us next time and we look forward to seeing you back. If you have any questions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to write in. We are at contact @ allaboutdesign.online. 

And please, please, please, if you enjoy listening to us going on and on about the thing that we're obsessed with, interior design, tell your friends and share and like our podcast and leave a review. That would be really helpful. Any questions or any topics you want us to cover, please do email us. That'd be great to hear from you and we'll see you next time. Take care.