Utility
Install a deep, elevated sink. A deep sink comes in handy in the laundry room. Most standard sinks range between 8 and 10 inches in depth. The 12¾-inch bowl depth in this laundry room allows for scrubbing and spraying to minimize splashing water outside of it. (These sinks can also do double duty as pet bathing stations.) The problem with a deep sink installed in a standard 36-inch countertop relates to ergonomics. It causes you to stoop over to reach the sink bottom. For example, if you take the 12¾-inch depth of this sink and subtract it from the average 36-inch countertop height, that’s only 23¼ inches high. Measure up from the floor and see where that dimension hits your body — probably somewhere on your thigh!
Embrace open shelving. Open shelving makes any quick reach easier. You’ll also likely find you’ll keep things neater too, since things are on display. For frequently used items, a shelf height of about 62 inches is the most comfortable dimension for most people in a standing position. Reserve higher shelves for occasionally used items.
Empty space. Sometimes it’s better to leave your options open. Clear out a room and see the potential: Add a disco ball and music, and it becomes a dance club. Hang curtains from the ceiling and add a trunk of dress-up clothes, and it becomes a theater where little ones can put on plays. Haul in the instruments and hang a backdrop with a band name, and it becomes a practice and performance space for a band. Add folding card tables and string twinkle lights overhead, and it becomes the perfect space for a big dinner party.
Ping-Pong party room. Table tennis and a chalkboard for keeping score are the essentials; a mini fridge and extra seating would be icing on the cake. Pull inspiration from the custom table shown here, and give an old Ping-Pong table a cool new paint job to spice it up. Add casters to the bottom to make it easy to maneuver out of the way as needed.
Include contrast. “Always think about interesting contrast,” says Freda. Mix square and rectangular shapes with circular ones. Put spiky-leaved plants next to billowy ones. “It’s visually more interesting than if everything is similar,” Freda says. “If you have a square space, I’d do square planters, but then a circular table in the middle so there’s at least one counterpoint.”
Consider your view. If you’ve got an unsightly view from your backyard, Beyerl recommends using elements to control the sight line. His favorite: trellises. He used them for this Chicago home to block views to the notorious network of wires running through the city’s alleys. “Trellises give you the advantage of perception,” he says. “They conceal the view but let light and breezes pass through. They’re less oppressive than an actual fence.”
Enclose the space. This may sound counterintuitive to making a small space feel larger, but it’s something that might work for your space. “When you enclose a small space even more, you play up its coziness and make it intimate, something that’s hard to achieve with large spaces,” Arthur says. “This also takes it to the next level of feeling like an outdoor room.” Pergolas are great for creating an intimate feel, but you can get the same effect with plantings. Architect Gary Beyerl’s backyard (shown here) is 10 feet by 20 feet. Because he has apartment units attached to his home, he wanted to do something that would afford him privacy. He used vertical plantings like humongous trumpet vines and a redbud tree to create an envelope of plant material. “By extending the plant zone up the vertical surfaces of an urban space, you can make a lot of visual greenery work to your advantage,” he says. “I’ve got a verdant environment even though it’s tiny.”
Tip: Create a focal point with the shower plumbing wall. Because the shower fixtures were so pretty, Neithart wanted to showcase them and tie them together. She brought this section of wall 2 inches forward and covered it with accent tiles. “If you create a landing strip for the plumbing, it makes it special,” she explains.
pebble tile in this bath delineates the area for the shower and frames each side of the shower opening. The pebbles have the bonus of adding texture underfoot. Tip: When considering pebble tile, remember that much more grout will be visible than with standard tile. Talk with your tile setter about how much grout to expect and whether there's a choice for more or less. The answers might influence the color of grout you select.
We also liked the romantic Parisian look of the French door with the curtain on the back,
Here’s another example of storage between columns that are acting as a room divider. The open, floating shelf system here has a very different feel from the previous example but achieves a similar result.
Make it a room divider. For a row of columns between two spaces with different functions, consider adding some low storage that can also act as a room divider.
Let your column tell a story. Consider using a reclaimed structural element as your feature column (after clearing it with your structural engineer, of course).
Create a spot for a minibar. Forget the wine rack! Use the column as an opportunity to create a minibar or an ice station.
Make a wine rack. Encase the column and add some cubbies, and you have a perfect spot to store wines. You could do something similar for shoes, CDs or anything else that could fit into cubbies.
Urban AbodeSave to IdeabookEmail Photo Make two columns into a bookcase. Use two columns that are close together to create shelving and lighting for display or storage space. You could even clad them to match other built-in furniture in the room, and no one would even know they’re structural.
Terra-cotta pavers can be tricky to work with because of their intense pinkish-orange color. A warm yellow siding color and a light jade-green door work well with the terra-cotta.
I like the shelves at end of bench
clever step design
barn doors
The small ledge in back of the sink exists because of plumbing that couldn’t be moved. “We had to have that, so I installed the black-painted wooden shelves,” says Doherty. “Sometimes structural issues lead to the best elements.”
Hardscaping. The emphasis is on the usable living space; plants are used to enhance the patios and tends to be on the perimeter and in containers.
Bold fabrics, curved walls and intricate lanterns continue onto the loggia. "This home has a fantastic outdoor space that we defined with outdoor drapery," Umansky says. "The drapery is made using 100 percent solution-dyed acrylic fabric, which is perfect for outdoor use and a breeze to maintain," she says. "You can clean it with a bleach-water solution."
mirrors instead of windows
could a pergola double as a clothes line?
light frame
I like the "seat"
roof extension
I like the floor!!
colour in the laundry!
storage
hanging rod
focal point distracts from view.
Nestled on this rocky hillside is a so-called Earth Witness Buddha, which shows the holy man sitting in meditation with his left-hand palm upright in his lap and his right hand touching the earth. This represents the moment when Buddha was tempted by a demon but resisted, getting support from the earth, and finally reached enlightenment. It’s perfectly placed (respectfully high on the rocks) and surrounded by all manner of delicate grasses and perennial plants and flowers.
She stripped off the paint, then applied a diluted gray stain she calls a denim wash; she learned this technique for instilling instant age on a movie set.
corrugated
The upstairs bathroom is small, so Sherman made it a wet room — a waterproof room where the entire space is the shower. He left a window (the lower half is obscured) and tiled the floor with brick (a long drain is located under the window), because he wanted the space to feel like an outdoor shower. “I’ve always wanted one but can’t have one in the city,” he says. “I just made it feel like it’s outside.”
An arched trellis can provide privacy,
ust as with a small interior room, an outdoor space feels bigger and more welcoming when it’s well lit. Try adding landscape lighting to the plantings in the corners of your patio to draw the eye all the way to the edges of the space.
Tasmanian oak doors slide open, connecting the garage, landscape and main house seamlessly. The same polished concrete floors used in the main house continue in the garage.
like deep framing
sheet metal makes magnetic wall!
A basement room is a room that most homeowners don’t have and therefore there is a mysterious curiosity when someone is guided down into the burrows of an underground room. If you want to heighten this curiosity, then a hidden passageway behind a book shelf or concealed doorway will arouse the senses and create a sense of anticipation that a traditional entry simply won’t do.
Q