Design Lesson
How To Use Architectural Features To Enhance Your Home
Design Lesson
How To Use Architectural Features To Enhance Your Home
I love how architectural features add character to an interior.
The key to creating a new architectural feature is to make it look like it was always there. Consider your home’s existing architecture – maybe your bay window needs a window seat, or you want to add faux rustic beams in your living room to echo your home’s country vibe. Once you’ve decided on a feature you’d like to incorporate, collect inspiration photos, build a mood board, and then hire a designer to do a drawing with specs, so the feature will be built perfectly by your tradespeople. In the kitchen below from HGTV’s Save My Reno, we added a cozy arched dining nook with exuberant leafy wallpaper, which amplifies the teal kitchen cabinets. A custom yellow-velvet upholstered banquette makes it all pop. It’s a small feature that added oodles of impact without major structural change.
CABINETRY, Stockbox Kitchens, stockboxkitchens.ca. COUNTER, BACKSPLASH, Ciot, ciot.com. FLOORING, Torlys, torlys.com. Photo by Valerie Wilcox for Save My Reno.
Space Oddities
So many homes have odd nooks and crannies – features that leave you scratching your head because they have no function and are just, well, weird. But once you figure out how to make those quirks work, these spaces can become both purposeful and a special moment. To keep this kitchen (below) feeling open, we added shelves in between the pantry cabinet and wall. Adding shelves or retrofitting a cabinet also works in odd spaces like beside a fireplace or below a staircase. I’ve also added desks under dormers (make sure you have enough headroom). If you have a large space under a dormer, you can even slide in a bed and dress it with pillows to create a daybed. Or if you have a large landing at the top of a stairwell, the simple addition of a chaise can create a dreamy reading nook.
Photo by Vanessa Galle
Faux Fixes
If you live in a rental, a builder-basic home or are sticking to a budget, consider spicing things up with easy, temporary fixes. There are so many products that can give your home personality and pizzazz. You might not be able to build an arch, as we did on Save My Reno (opposite page), but Urban Walls (urbanwalls.ca) has great arch-shaped wall decals and murals. You can also paint a faux headboard in a striking colour or add a bright and cheery colour behind your desk. I love Maitri Mody’s Instagram feed (@honeyidressedthepug). She uses furniture painted in the same fun colours as her walls and fab wallpaper to transform her small Brooklyn apartment. It’s so inspiring! Her ever-changing checker-painted head- board wall – sometimes it’s turquoise and white, sometimes lavender and pink – is a happy-making expression of her personality and style. If you’re a renter, be sure that whatever you do can easily be returned to its original condition; otherwise, you’ll need permission from your landlord.
Fast Feature Fixes
- Create a floor-to-ceiling gallery wall.
- Bring in a large mirror to give the illusion of space.
- Use shelving units like IKEA’s Kallax to create a room divider that also displays objects (baskets will contain the clutter).
- Group large plants or create a plant screen to divide an open space.
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