They are fairly deep, at least 1 ft I'd say without getting on a ladderð I'll be back with some more pics of updated space, wish me luck!

I don't think you need to do anything with that space if you drywall over them. The architecture IS the art in your house. I wish people could resist the urge to hang something on every blank wall.

I would drywall because they date your home to the 90s while you're trying to bring in more modern touches. Putting something in them only draws the eye up there, which wouldn't be my goal. Or you could hang abstract art over the niche in the triangle to cover it and add a horizontal piece next to it, accentuating the angle. It's all about the angles in your home. The one above the other doorway definitely needs to go though.

Joni from CdTX on addresses the subject of niches a few yrs back.
For the most part...not a fan .

http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2012/10/dear-miss-cote-de-texas.html

Can you run a power line up there? That would probably cost less than dry walling it over. A light feature would bring a modern edge and be functional for mood lighting to the space. Then, paint the inside a dramatic color or put stones like the below picture.

{{gwi:2138206}}

[Modern Dining Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~s_2105) by Other Metro Interior Designers & Decorators Ugljesa Kekovic

{{gwi:2138207}}

[Contemporary Dining Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~s_2103) by San Francisco Architects & Building Designers Chr DAUER Architects

{{gwi:2138208}}

[Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by Boca Raton Interior Designers & Decorators Susan Lachance Interior Design

I think you have a lovely home, but those niches can be a problem. I like the idea of the iron square and shutters, stain glass panels would be nice, too. If you dry wall it you could actually make it into hidden cabinet, used as a safe, not especially convenient. I would love a hiding place in my home to store things when we travel.

I would have those niches drywalled closed in a red hot minute.

what did the boy suggest????

ken

It would make me uneasy walking under wrought iron, bronze sculpture or ceramic vases several times a day. Flat wall art seems to get lost in the niches.

I would wire them for lights. Then have custom stained glass installed that fit over the front like a window.

Ok, so I most likely will not drywall them over. We've lived with them for 10 years, what's another 30? :) also wiring for lights sounds fancy, thats way beyond our diy skills.

Nightowlrn - love the orange niches for some reason!

Ken_adrian- the boy wants a sign that says "cupcakes make people happy".

Cran- that is a neat idea. And thanks for the compliment on the house.

I did go to home sense today and found some wooden open art like the metal ones upthread, but they were taller than i was.

Thank you all for putting thought into this, I really appreciate the help!

This post was edited by aklvdb on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 5:32

Wall them up. You've already got a lot of angles and planes going on up there. You don't need someone going, what's that thing up there? I wouldn't mind having a niche on the first level, esp. if the house were the right style. I might pop in an icon, or the saint du jour. Although, it would be an open invitation to my kitties to knock everything out of the niche.

saw this and thought of this thread

:-)

A cat is really the only thing that works in a niche that isn't in a shower.

So i could put a cat or a dryer up there! Good to knowðÂÂÂ

Ken_adrian- the boy wants a sign that says "cupcakes make people happy".

+=====>>>

there you go ... what more is there to decide ... set up the easel ... get out his paints ... and let him at it ...

go to hobby lobby or some sort ... find a common frame size that fits ... not only the hole ... but some art paper ...

let your little whistler go at it.. shove it in the frame ... and up it goes.. and when you get tired of that wisdom ... have him do another ...

have fun with him ... he will be a teenager all too soon.. and hate you .. like mine do me ...

ken

Thanks Ken_adrian, I do enjoy him, he is the total light of my life, even though he drives me crazy sometimes!

(he's 4, and very passionate and opinionated, which I am grateful for as he has his own mind and doesn't let himself be swayed which I think will prove a wonderful trait when he's older, but right now he just drives his poor old mom up the bend sometimes :) ))

We'll think of something (somewhere b/w drywalling them up and lighting them up), I know it does date the house, but we'll be here for the next 30 years at least (God willing), thanks all!

I would find a framed piece of art that is slightly larger then the opening and hang it so it covers the hole....then I would hide stuff in the space.

ML

I think maddielee idea wins! Or the gargoyles, which could also be dressed for the holidays.

Thank you! Hmmm, a big picture to hide the hole. It would have to be just over 48 x 24. Then I would be worried about things falling on people. Lots to think about.

I read this thread at the beginning and thought about walling them over as well but thought that suggestion was a little ornery. However, just came to discover that others thought the same thing!

Honestly if you were do just wall them over your choices for artwork all over both walls goes up dramatically. You're not tied to having to put something there and then having to do complementary art work on the rest of the wall.

Here's about what it would look like. I don't know that you need to emphasize the space over the door with art, more likely you want something above the sofa area

The way I see it, it's either the gargoyles or wall it up.

I prefer the cat.

I suggested hanging art work over the niche but felt one picture on the edge would look odd, so that's why I suggested a horizontal complementary piece. Line the bottom frames up and it might work.

I am not a fan of nitches of any type other than in showers, but walling it up seems like it would be pricey and difficult. Getting the area to look like it wasn't patched will require skill. And, would most likely then require repainting all the walls if they are the same color. Christmas gargoyles are really starting to grow on me.
{{gwi:2138209}}
{{gwi:2138210}}
{{gwi:2138211}}

Or a seasonal rotation of gargoyles. And next Christmas a perfect spot for Elf on the Shelf. Or rotating Elves on Shelves.

What about going to someplace like Home Sense or Pier 1 and just pick up some vases or interesting shapes, colours, textures and get an idea of what sort of thing works. That stuff is easily returned.

Oh, what about painting the interior of the niche and then showcasing something. One of the problems with the niches is that they just blend in with the rest of the wall. No one will ever notice if there is something up there unless you somehow call attention to the space.

This post was edited by blfenton on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 19:14

Ok, I just have to say, for the record patching the niches is sooo not difficult or a huge deal. Re-painting would take much longer and be much more costly, so for now have fun with them, ignore them what ever piques your interest. The next time you need to paint, call a DIY'er or a sheet rock taper and have them disappear. No doubt by then the dust they collect will out weigh the FUN they will be until then.

House Crashers on HGTV put up a rolling library ladder to the niche and then put bottles of adult beverages in it.
It was also over a doorway. The ladder stood to one side.
Just a thought...
I would get a couple of large art canvases and a few bottles of acrylic paints in colors that are good for your room and on a day that the 4YO is especially trying, drag them out and create a memory together. Then there you go -cover the niches up.
( I had that 4 YO boy once ;)

Basketball hoop!

This niche gig seems like a re-run to me. I swear I saw this before. Anywho, I would hang stained glass windows inside those openings. Hanging them will alleviate the chance of them falling out, it will be easy to dust with a ladder and a duster swoosh. Show us what you come up with...so I can save it for the next time this shows up. LOL on the cat idea / my cat would have found here way up into that on her own :)

Lol Hydragea, basketball hoop!

I agree these spaces are less than ideal from a decorating sense. I think Palimpsest's mock up does a good job of showing how they might look better gone. But in the meanwhile, I'd probably have fun with them, until I felt ready to do the drywall/painting.

I was half kidding about the gargoyles; I might do something like that myself, but I have a weird sense of humor. :-)

One last idea is one of those do-it-yourself clocks where you stick the components on the wall itself. You can arrange the numbers or dots however you want, so you could acknowledge the rectangular shape of the niche by how you arranged them.

I'd pick a very minimal clock style myself, but I could not get the really minimalist ones to show up when I put them in your photo.

I also like Ken's idea, echoed by others, to consider using one as a showcase for your son's art. So much better than the refrigerator front! It's not a long term solution, but I think having some silly fun with the space is a good short term use.

Those niches could hold paper mache monsters, or folded paper birds suspended by thumbtacks at the top, or tree branches with ornaments made by your little guy. Or drawings/paintings. I like the idea of giving kids a prominent spot like that, if he would enjoy it.

I'm going to stop now, but it has been fun to see everybody's brainstorming!

drywall them, unless someone knows something is there, they will not look up.

Ok, hard to mention everyone, but basketball hoop? The kid would be in heaven! A lttle tall right now thoughâº

The gargoyles look so festive!

I did buy some vases, but they are so large and orange!

Palimpeset, we did have a pic above the sofa, then we painted and I didn't want to put more holes inthe walls until we were sure. I can prob post a pic tomorrow, on my phone right now.

The art is a good idea, thinking about (i think) breezygirls art inher dining room. I have some hardwood planks and i could put some wire and clips and there we go. Ds is not much of a crafter, but I'm sure he could help me out;)

A library ladder would be so cool!

Paying someone to dry-wall over is going to cost the same as having an electrician wire them.

Building the substructure for drywall in niches like these is a trick, and then getting the dry wall flat enough for a seamless transition -that isn't a common diy project either. But if you do decide to drywall over them yourself, I want to see the after pictures and hear details about the DIY disaster story ;).

Perhaps because I have done both, I would choose wiring. Besides, it's a neat architectural detail that the builders took time to create, why not make the most of it?

Whoever threw those niches into the design should have been flunked out of architecture school. They make the wall area cluttered and busy. As a number of people have suggested, drywalling over them will be best. The second choice is to hang artwork over them so they are completely hidden. The worst thing to do is to put anything in them, which only attracts attention. I like the lines and surfaces of those rooms; I just don't like the complication caused by those niches. As Mies van der Rohe said in relation to architectural design: "Less is more," which is an apt assessment of your problem.

Posted by kudzu9: "(those niches) make the wall area cluttered and busy."

I would tend to agree, but it is very hard to tell from the photos. If I were to start undoing the architecture of this room, from what I see in the photos the balustrade would go first, then the niches might make more sense.

Here is a before pic, out of like 1000 pics, this is the best I could find.

And I had to look up balustrade. Oh my, that's a major thing. It is a nice house, really!

And ha ha Lilylore, ya, that ain't happening, the divorce would be much more expensive a vase or some bad architecture !

This post was edited by aklvdb on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 4:29

I agree with everyone who states you should drywall over it. But, if you choose not to, mudhouse's idea to use clock numbers and hands is the best. You won't have the problem of vases or other useless knickknacks collecting dust and, at least, the clock serves a purpose.

I also think her mockup shows how this would help minimize the awkwardness of the space.

The fact that we frequently have these same threads asking what to do with niches of this sort shows how confounding they are to those who own them, and brings to question why builders included them.

In your original question you mentioned about going towards a SW theme but I don't see anything in the couple of pictures that have been shown that indicate a SW theme. Do you have other accessories/colours that are following that theme?

We did blfenton, we had vases and the terrs cotta colour in art, but we've moved away from that.

Blfenton suggested elf on a shelf, you could also do Mensch on a Bench or a Witch in a Niche, but maybe not Hubby in a Cubby.

I like the hubby in a cubby idea! His own little dog houseðÂÂÂ

If this has already been mentioned, I missed it. In the very first photo, over to the left, is a hutch type piece of furniture recessed into which appears to be another niche. The one that's the subject of this thread is one niche too many.

There is a niche there too for the buffet and hutch. Seemed to be the thing in the 90s. Rounded corners everywhere too.

Rounded corners. :) My house was built in 1991 and man, have I got rounded corners.

It so used to be the thing. This house was built in 1995. Considering, people do think we built it a few years ago, so we have updated a bit. But those people aren't on GW!

I would do stained glass with timer lights behind the panels. Something like flameless candles, or timer string o lights that are around during Christmas. Or if you are lucky and can find them, there are remote control lights out there- I picked some up during Halloween that were supposed to go in pumpkins.
Then you would have the niches lit up or not at will, or timed during the later evening hours when a little ambient light is nice.

Even the stained glass could be easy- they sell the fake stuff at most home improvement places, or you could make your own using liquid glass. I've made several fake glass panels out of the liquid glass stuff. Or you could use rice paper, and just do solid frosted panels.

Is the house in Arizona? Seems like I have seen a lot of builders go crazy with drywall cutouts in that area. Not sure if it was also popular in other areas?

I could use some niches, but then again I have a lot of tchotchkes and vintage glass.

I have one in a very awkward position above my fireplace to allow for retrofit HVAC. I had to put a short painting under it and have it filled with vintage toys (and an occasional cat).

Cats seem to like niches:) my poodle, not a fan that high up :) the house is in the Canadian prairies, maybe trying to be like Arizona, wish the weather would follow though!

I'm in New Mexico, and builders here went crazy with niches too. Some still do, especially in the living room entertainment areas, but I think it's more passe now.

Here's a 1996 Phoenix home; I think you have to look hard to find the fireplace. You could definitely fit a hubby in a cubby in this room.

It's like were the same mudhouse, except I'm 2400 kms away wishing for some warmth! (-43 celcius this am!)