
How To Create Space and Cohesion In the Home Using Interior Features
Most of us decorate our homes in stages. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, the job of beautifying never seems to end. You get to the end of the task, and you realise that there’s no cohesion.
And you start all over again.
Sounds familiar?
Perhaps it’s time to question the way you create space and cohesion in the home.
Consider:
Unify the energy and beauty of the changing seasons from your outside space into your living quarters with bi-fold doors and glass stairways.
Matching doors, the use of glass, and creative stairways create flow by welcoming natural light, promoting the impression of space.
Here are our tips for creating space and cohesion in the home by choosing the right home interior features:
Repetition Creates Rhythm
Rhythm and flow are design principles that help create a sense of unity throughout an entire living space.
A pattern or motif repeated throughout large spaces creates a feeling of unity and stability.
Repetition can also be created through structural home interior features.
Consider:
- Matching doors throughout the entire home.
- The use of glass to help illuminate darker spaces
- Flooring materials that flow from one room to another.
- Staircases that invite light into a room (rather than block it).
These ideas provide a palette of unity throughout the home, offering a design foundation that supports the individual personality of each room; without interrupting the cohesion of the design concept.
Matching doors
Quality interior doors help to elevate a bland space. Choosing a door design that fits around the entire home brings a genuine sense of cohesion to your home interior.
Points to consider when choosing matching doors:
Lighter woods – such as oak – keep the atmosphere light and airy.
- Glass panels help light flow into dark, windowless hallways and landings.
- Metal doors come in a wide range of finishes, and add a modern aesthetic
- Pocket doors (aka sliding doors) allow you to maximise your usable footprint space; particularly beneficial for smaller rooms
Threshold bars
Threshold bars can be unsightly, and totally unnecessary.
Choosing a flooring material that stretches across the entire home brings unity to the design concept.
If you’re considering using the same flooring material throughout the home (ie, laminate flooring or tiling) there’s not always a need for a traditional threshold bars.
Create a continuous floor that extends from one room into another; separated by doors that glide over an unbroken expanse of wood.
Connect the indoors to the outdoors
Bi-fold doors that extend across an entire back wall help your home interior feel spacious; flooding your space with natural light.
Think rhythm:
A beautiful, polished, wooden floor in the interior can extend to a decked area in the patio outside.
Lead the eye from the inside to the outside by laying your interior wood flooring in the same direction as your patio decking.
Transform:
The outside into an extension of the inside, even when the doors are closed.
Staircases
Staircases can offer so much more than just a practical function. Create space and cohesion in the home by choosing a design that maximises flow.
Some ideas:
- Split-level staircases provide tall ceilings and locations for large windows.
- Transparent railings, built of glass and metal, create a cohesive flow, appearing to take up less visual space.
- Stairways situated near windows maximise the energy of natural light. Accompanied with glass railings, your staircase becomes a real design feature worthy of note.
Glass
Glass as a structural material presents an opportunity for insulation and interior partitioning.
Completely open-plan layouts, while undoubtedly popular, present challenges.
Arches, rather than doors, keep a long corridor open and airy, but food smells and noise from other rooms are likely to pollute and interrupt privacy.
Glass doors?
Glass doors are uber-modern, and can be smoked for privacy. Wooden doors with glass panels are perfect for dark areas of the home.
For a totally modern feel, glass brings beauty and cohesion like no other structural material.
Windows
Windows aren’t just a portal to the outside, they can be beautiful as well.
Stained glass inserts project a rainbow of calming refraction that subtly transforms a room throughout the day.
Enlarging existing windows can transform a space; flooding a room with natural light and offering the impression of more space.
AUTHOR :
Martin Greenwood – Director, Shire Doors
Martin is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working across different sectors and markets both in the UK and overseas. He is currently director of Shire Doors, who specialise in supplying and fitting premium aluminium doors, windows and architectural roof systems from showrooms in Shipley and retail showroom in York.
*Abbott-Wade makes no endorsements and cannot take any responsibility for the content of external links.