GOOD DESIGN TRUMPS STYLE
Thinking about an extensive home renovation? Do yourself a favour and talk to the neighbours about your plans, says Washington, D.C.-based architect Chris Snowber. By making them aware of what to expect, you can circumvent the element of surprise — and it
Q Row houses can be dark, having windows on only two sides. Any recommendations for lightening things up? A Some obvious moves: Use lighter paint colours, particularly the trim on the windows, and opening walls up to get the light as deeply into the house as possible. Lighting can be used to extend the bright feeling into interior spaces, particularly the new LED fixtures that offer you a choice about the colour temperature of the light. Not to get too tech here, but traditional incandescent lighting tends to be overly warm, yellow/orange in tone, with a temperature of about 2700k, whereas if you use 3000k fixtures, things brighten considerably. The light is more white, without getting “cold.”
Q Will architects or designbuild firms help clients create a long-term plan for renovating several areas of their house, even if they can’t tackle them all at once? We want to redo several rooms and would like to create a smart, long-term plan so that everything is done right the first time. A For our firm, this is a common request. All of our projects are master plans, to some degree, because once we have developed a design and got pricing, we might exclude certain parts of the work, possibly to be done at a later time. But for many projects, we go through exactly the scenario you describe, developing an overall design and then perhaps developing complete drawings for only part of the work. That way, there aren’t fees expended for work that may happen months or years in the future.
Q We are planning an extensive home remodel, part of which will result in an open floor plan to make the most of the somewhat limited square footage in our early ’80s ranch. Are there any interior architectural details we could add that would define the space and add height to the room? The ceilings are only nine feet and can’t be raised. Similarly, when we get ready to upgrade the outside, what details can we add to make the house look more modern? It has painted siding with lime-washed brick on the front porch and around the basement and has terrible shutters. A As you consider walls that you might remove, you should first get a good understanding of which might be structural. Although a structural wall may not be able to be removed entirely, it could perhaps be opened quite extensively, and the posts and beams that result can often be used to provide just the kind of spatial definition that you mention. As we do a great deal of renovation work, we find ourselves using partial walls as a space definer. Also, nine feet is a pretty good ceiling height to work with! A more modern exterior would probably start with losing the shutters and perhaps a window replacement plan, with more open areas of glazing and much greater energy efficiency. A new element, such as a modern, covered, front entry, can greatly alter the look of a house. Q I live in a community stuck in the 1970s. It seems to me that the house designers went down some inadvisable directions originally (split level and bi-level Tudors), and I’d love to mix things up with a modern improvement. But I worry about sticking my fingers in my neighbours’ eyes, so to speak. Thoughts? A Well, you’re probably not the only person with concerns about the esthetics of the neighbourhood, and I really think that good design, regardless of style, will only help the neighbourhood. We also always encourage our clients to keep their neighbours informed ahead of starting a project; it can break down for neighbours a disturbing feeling of surprise about what’s about to happen. There are limitations, of course — you don’t want them to think they have veto power over your work — but some level of communication is important.
Q We live in a classic 1970s split-foyer house. There is an addition on the back of the house that gives us more space, but we struggle with the crowded foyer. Any suggestions for how to mitigate this and make the front, which is plain brick with shutters, more interesting ? A Unless there’s room to expand the space around the entry within the home (there probably isn’t), building out toward the front with an enclosed or possibly just covered entry can go a long way toward making the front hall less tight. It could also help with the overall curb appeal.