Why small should always be beautiful

08.07.2017

In our role as interior architects and designers we often find clients worry about and put most emphasis on the larger spaces in their homes, how can they fill them or make furniture fit, should they go for a neutral or vibrant colour scheme to really show off the space? But it’s often the smaller spaces in your home where you can have most impact and can afford to get creative and make a real statement. Whether it’s a signature wallpaper in your downstairs cloakroom or bespoke furniture that fits an unusually shaped room, small changes can make a big difference when it comes to square metre challenged spaces!

Here’s how our team have maximised small spaces on a couple of recent projects:

Boring basement to ‘wow factor’ wine cellar

The brief on this recent Harrogate-based project was to convert a basement into a wine cellar which would house over 2,000 bottles. Space was limited and a tricky layout:

 “Initially, I had no idea whether the space would be capable of housing such a large capacity of wine. After measuring up, I had to play around with designs to figure out which type of storage would best utilise the space. In the final design, we decided to take out one of the walls which opened the room up and gave us a few extra inches for storage. If you’re struggling for space in a room, taking down one wall can really make a difference in terms of adding extra space, which didn’t exist before, whilst allowing light from other areas of the house to flood through.

I installed floor to ceiling bespoke wine cabinetry which we manufactured slightly slimmer in order to fit more bottles in, and had an area at the bottom where larger bottles could be laid flat. This was important as it was quite a tight passageway and the extra storage areas at the foot of cabinetry meant that floor space could remain clear.”

Having special bespoke furniture made for your home means that you can decide exactly what shape and type of storage it needs to be so you aren’t wasting valuable space with something that isn’t exactly what you need.

Box room to master suite

The designer continues: “In other projects, we’ve altered the layout of the room so that it becomes a better use of the space by either knocking a wall down, dividing two smaller rooms or reconfiguring its furniture and features. In this Manor House project, we transformed a small box bedroom next door to a master bedroom suite into a dressing room and en-suite space and worked in tandem with our interior design team so that materials and flooring all matched the light colour scheme to open the room up and create a light and airy finish. This resulted in a more user friendly design and added value to the property in terms of creating a functional and luxurious space.”