The throw pillows and gray resin rattan sofas on this patio outside a home in Newport Beach, California, pick up the tones from the cobblestones below, creating a cohesive look for the outdoor living room. The soft cloud of Sunbrella shade fabric overhead, by Designs by Dian Window Treatments, shelters the area from the Southern California sun and light rain.
In this laundry corner, which is essentially a small niche, the machines are found in a spot next to the furnace. The infrastructure of this laundry space is simple, but it’s wholly functional and done creatively. The counter and the shelving are useful and offer plenty of space for folding and organizing, and thanks to the cheery lime paint, they also brighten the area. The simple yet stylish utility baskets complete the look.
Kate Roos Design LLC A former desk area was transformed into stylish storage with the insertion of a custom hutch that has a weathered gray stain. The same marble used for the countertops was used for the backsplash. “The clients wanted more wood in the new space for a traditional feel,” Roos says, “but the darker gray feels a bit more updated.” She also removed the door on the staircase to create a more open feel. “The kitchen and dining areas are now more warm, bright, inviting and modern,” Roos says, “while complementing the home’s turn-of-the-century style.”
While sprinkling candles throughout a house is a classic way to add a relaxing layer of light to your home, lighting them is not always practical or desired. A more reliable way to get a similar sparkle is to add small glowing accent lights in otherwise dark spaces, such as the trio of lights that brighten up a stairwell in this Orange County, California, home designed by Geoff Sumich Design.
This covered patio in Houston is a hub for outdoor entertaining. Designed and built by Remodelers of Houston, the patio features an outdoor kitchen, a wood-burning fireplace, a hanging porch swing and an outdoor dining set. The remodeling team built the pergola with custom milled cypress, a North American wood chosen for its durability and weather resistance.
My favorite high-impact room repurpose is to convert a closet into a more useful space. If you are the parent of a crafty child, as I am, you’ll understand the need for a large workspace with storage options for never-ending craft supplies and tools. For my daughter’s room, I added a storage bed with drawers in the base to hold clothing, freeing up room in my daughter’s closet to add a crafting work surface plus shelves and cabinets.
Another interesting trick was placing windows behind the cabinets that flank the range. Paired with glass-front cabinet doors, this allows natural light to filter through from the side yard. The cabinet-door glass is leaded, another nod to the home’s history. Along with the open shelves, they give the range wall a light feel.
This bedroom in lower Manhattan, New York, makes good use of a narrow space with the placement of the sturdy desk and chair at the foot of the platform bed. The style and color of the furniture ties in well to the elaborate window frame on the brick wall. The feature wall on the left, reflected in the round mirror opposite, and a framed artwork showcase the occupant’s interest in astronomy.
Drop-down desk. The smart bed in this room doubles as a bureau. The deep recess contains shelves for books and stationery, and a hatch folds down to form a mini desk. The owner can prop up the surface on some pillows and work from the comfortable mattress in front of it. This may not suit someone who often works from home, but it’s perfect for a teenager who needs an extra spot to do homework.
Take stock of wardrobes. Have kids try on clothes to see what still fits, and make a list of what they need before you buy anything else. Keep hand-me-downs that don’t fit yet in another spot (like underbed bins) to make more space. Pick out a few outfits for the first week of school and put them together on hangers or in easy-to-grab baskets.
Coffee table. Steeves chose the rug and coffee table in response to the heavy foot traffic in the room. The coffee table is round, and the ottoman slides beneath it for easy storage. It is ash with a weathered gray finish. A local Vancouver company custom-made it to her specifications. Rug. The rug is a basketweave pattern composed of carpet tiles. Steeves chose tiles because they can stand up to high traffic and you can pull out individual tiles and scrub them down with a mild detergent. She ordered extra carpet tiles just in case they need to replace any in the future, and she also notes that if a traffic path becomes worn into the rug, they can rearrange them to balance out the wear and tear.
Etch Design Group Email Save Noah’s room. The team designed the boys’ bedrooms so they could grow into them. Eleven-year-old Noah loves to pin things, so the designers gave him a large cork wall.
Here’s another example. If your countertops are full of mail, keys, homework, magazines, electronic devices and so on, then maybe a main station is for you. A piece of furniture that has numerous compartments or drawers can help store those miscellaneous items. If clutter collects in your family room, you might consider side tables with drawers or open side tables with a large basket or wooden crate for magazines, books and knitting supplies. Or maybe an ottoman that allows for storing items inside, such as blankets, pillows and things that are used sparingly.
Create a cocoon. If you think a small space only should be painted in a pale color, think again. In fact, a bold paper can bring a small space to life and make it feel special — designed and cozy rather than cramped. And if you’re feeling really brave, consider using more than one design. Two contrasting wallpapers may sound like an interiors nightmare, but in this teen bedroom, the result is fresh and fun. grandkids bedroom-built in desk
Earmark a spot to store library books. If your kids visit the school library each week with their class, you know how easy it can be to lose track of that library book. Hang a book basket (or label a shelf) for each child near the front door, and make a habit of putting the current library book in the same spot every time.
Store frequently used files in the entry. Instead of scrambling to find that school health form or insurance info for field trips, keep these items filed in wall pockets or folders right near the front door. Think about what else you might find convenient to keep close at hand, and tailor your front door folders to meet your family’s needs.
Keep coats and backpacks off the floor with kid-height hooks. What’s the first thing kids do when they walk in the door? Shrug off heavy backpacks and pull off coats. Coming home after a long day is a relief — make it easy for kids to hang up backpacks and coats by installing a few child-height hooks. Be sure to choose nice, sturdy hooks that can handle bulky winter coats and book bags.
Try a new shoe storage solution. Facing a pile of mixed-up shoes and boots can make the last moments of the morning scramble more frantic than it needs to be. A crate, cubby, or basket for each member of the household allows a certain amount of messiness (just dump them in the bin!) while still maintaining a basic level of organization, since each person’s shoes are kept together. If one bin is overflowing, you’ll know exactly who needs to put a few pairs of shoes away elsewhere
Make good use of your hallway. Entrance hallways attract clutter like a magnet — unless you provide suitable storage. Make the most of a narrow hallway by creating a little alcove with lots of hanging space, shoe storage, a phone charging point and even a custom umbrella nook. If you have little ones, make sure some of the hooks are within reach so they can hang up their own things. This hallway has a cozy, lived-in feel, but every item is neatly in its place.
. Multipurpose table on wheels. Not crazy about having a full-time dining table taking up floor space, Richard and Linnaea Bursch in Portland, Oregon, tapped designer Pangaea to come up with a better solution. She delivered with a table on wheels that can be tucked under the large island to create a breakfast bar, and rolled out to accommodate more formal occasions when needed
Opening the dining room and kitchen to each other meant the spaces needed to be designed together. “The rooms have such a strong relationship,” Scheff says. She made sure the furniture, lighting and color scheme in one room worked harmoniously with the other.
Most of the cabinetry (from Martha Stewart’s collection) is made of a patterned wood-like laminate, but the designer chose to go solid and glossy for the upper cabinets to create contrast and a sense of lightness. “Having dark uppers can make the space feel heavy and imposing,” she says.
The kitchen’s dining space is a retro-inspired nook outfitted with vintage lockers that the kids use for storing schoolwork and supplies. The table is often used for homework after school.
Vine-covered patio. Enjoy dining or relaxing outdoors under the leafy boughs of evergreen vines and fragrant climbers. In this London backyard, the designer used a series of trellises, topped with fragrant wisteria and white-flowering climbing roses, to cast shade over an outdoor dining table. When choosing vines to plant over a trellis, consider whether you’d like them to provide shade, fragrance, color, fruit or all four to enhance your outdoor dining area. A few top choices include clematis, climbing roses, grapevines, chocolate vine (Akebia quinata, USDA zones 5 to 9; find your zone), honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.), wisteria and potato vine (Solanum crispum). The table and chair combination in this backyard also cleverly increases flexibility. Set in the corner by the L-shaped built-in benches, the wooden table feels pleasantly tucked at the back of the stone patio, perfect for a dinner party of six. Pulled out to occupy the center of the patio, the table (plus more chairs) could seat eight people, with the option to seat more on the bench seats.
Platform 5 Architects Save Email Extend your fence material. In a small garden you will want your bins to disappear as much as possible. Creating a screening structure from the same material as your garden fence can be a good way to make them recede. A neat wooden box like this will discreetly store your bins whether in the front or back garden.
Tuck it into a border. Can you spot the trash bins on this drive? They’re neatly tucked away in the wooden box to the left of this image, and the impact of the structure has been much reduced by positioning it in a decorative floral border and planting low standard trees right alongside it. The structure also has a green roof planted with succulents to further disguise the box and make it as visually appealing as possible.
Design it into an outbuilding. In a larger space, an open-sided outbuilding like this one is ideal for storing and hiding bins. It’s painted a heritage shade and is partly screened in front with evergreen topiary to create a visually appealing feature — a great way to smarten up a drab drive. This idea would complement a traditional or cottage exterior, but if your style is more contemporary than country, you could choose a sleeker style, or paint it a darker shade to tie in with the exterior of your home.
Make it part of the garden. The aim of this front garden design was to create a wildlife haven, and rather than see the bins as an unsightly obstacle to be hidden away, the owners decided to make them integral to the design. They created a sturdy wooden structure with a living roof that works as an extension of the garden and is planted with wildlife-friendly flowers and foliage.
Choose a screen. The curved screen in the corner of this courtyard is an attractive feature in its own right, thanks to the decorative cutwork pattern, and offers an elegant way to hide ugly plastic bins from view. By using a screen like this, you can section off as much of the garden as you need — to store bikes or garden equipment as well as bins. To blend in the structure even further, you could grow climbers up and over the screen or along the wall behind
Make it easier. Grilling can also involve a lot of back-and-forth between the kitchen and grill to pick up utensils and ingredients and then deliver the cooked food. A pass-through like the one seen here makes a great addition to any grill setup if you can swing it.
Give it shade. Just as lighting helps facilitate good grilling at night, shade can make a world of difference on hot days. Here a simple shade structure has turned a small porch into a space brimming with character. Imagine this grill sitting on the deck just by itself.
1. Follow function. This grill setup packs a lot of function into a small corner. The sink is a great feature that saves countless trips indoors to wash utensils and vegetables. Plus, when the owners aren’t grilling, this spot likely serves as a great gardening station.
Set a nautical theme with a recycled sail. There are shade sails and then there are actual sails, repurposed to cast shade. For a fun, nautical look — and an instant conversation starter — try to get your hands on one of the latter. Boat sails need to be replaced once they become damaged, but they can have a second life casting shade over a terrace. If you know any boat owners, they may give you a worn-out sail when they’re upgrading to a new one. The mast and boom sides will already be fitted with grommets for easy hanging, but you will need to fix grommets to the outer edge of the sail in order to mount it to a rope and hang it above your patio.
2. Use Sail Shades These versatile covers can provide a combination of shade and sunlight on a deck. Colorful options and interesting shapes enliven the exterior of a home.
R.Z.Owens Constructions Save Email The orientation of the site meant that the backyard would be overshadowed by the house. Alta Architecture was determined not to devalue the backyard, but it needed a strategy to get more light into the home and create an outdoor entertaining area that connected to the interior living areas. That’s where the courtyard comes in. “Unlike many suburban houses that try to maximize [the] envelope to get more [space], we introduced a courtyard in the middle, so that the large living area at the back will be able to receive northern sunlight,” says Fred Fang, the lead designer of this project. The central courtyard serves as a sheltered entertaining space and brings northern light directly into the open-plan living-dining area. This way, the bulk of the house actually protects the courtyard from the hot afternoon sun, making it perfect for entertaining, even on hot summer nights.
Farther up the main corridor, there’s a direct connection from the garage into the house, where built-in storage provides a convenient place to stow jackets. The room has a built-in cabinet at seat height, which is a handy place for family members to put on or take off shoes.
Rausch integrated built-in storage into the dining room, which had become a dumping ground for backpacks and kids’ art and crafts, so that activities can still take place there while everything is more organized and out of sight. “It made sense to leave things where they naturally put them, but just make it more organized,” Rausch says. A built-in storage system has a charging station in the cabinet, and drawers that hold art supplies, games and toys. “You get a lot more storage when you do built-ins,” Rausch says.
basement entrance
kids room
Larry’s favorite spot in the house is in the living room’s weathered leather armchair, near the kitchen island where he can chitchat with guests while relaxing.
To create additional space, they moved an exterior wall 5 feet into the backyard. The Pifferinis decided to replace the sliding glass doors in the dining area with a single door and large picture window. Susan says there were “too many collisions with the transparent panels.”
Susan wanted bench seating to anchor the dining table to the corner of the room. Additional storage is below the bench for pillows and linens.
Because the Evanses’ lot drops off drastically, the lower level is a walkout. The sign hangs under the deck in the backyard. “Chloe is our baby, and she pretty much runs our house,” says Lori of their dog and the pub’s namesake. Local artist Lee Halliburton made the sign for them.
Because the Evanses’ lot drops off drastically, the lower level is a walkout. The sign hangs under the deck in the backyard. “Chloe is our baby, and she pretty much runs our house,” says Lori of their dog and the pub’s namesake. Local artist Lee Halliburton made the sign for them.
On the opposite wall is a hanging rack to keep backpacks and towels organized and off the floor. It’s flanked by two shutters that, with the help of simple binder clips, serve as the perfect place to display recent drawings and finger paintings.
deck
Keep it simple. Understand and be realistic about your interest and time availability for maintaining the garden. When it comes to planting, less is often more. In this landscape design by Huettl Landscape Architecture, dark river rock contrasts with geometric concrete pavers. Ornamental grasses are kept to a minimum, reducing maintenance and watering that might come with a lawn or flower bed.
3. Botanical charm. With its botanical wallpaper and simple furnishings, this entry radiates nature-inspired calm. And don’t think of a look like this only in the country — why not infuse your city apartment with relaxing rural pleasures? Tidy tip: Hidden storage inside the bench seat and a row of pegs provide ample space to stash your belongings. Get the look: ◦Colors: mossy green, white, natural woods ◦Botanical wallpaper or art ◦Vase of cut ferns or a potted plant ◦Shaker-style peg rail ◦Natural-fiber rug ◦Ladder-back chair
When you’re thinking small, vintage is a great way to go. Pieces like sofa tables and consoles are often handmade and of great-quality wood. This vintage piece adds to the overall ambiance of this modern farm-style kitchen, keeping it friendly while adding a point of interest. If your main concern is more counter space, a butcher block island is the way to go. You can order a relatively inexpensive island online and have a local craftsman make a quality butcher block top for it in any size, shape or design. You’ll get an affordable custom piece that adds interest to your space. Tip: If you’re using an uncommon piece of furniture in your kitchen, ensure that you’ve sanded and coated it with a heavy-duty polyurethane or topped it with a butcher block or thin piece of acrylic to protect the surface and make it easy to clean.
Because the Browns didn’t have any room for a bench and built-ins along a wall at the entry, the architects at Openhaus Design came up with this mudroom-in-a-closet idea. A bench slides out of the closet, and each family member has a storage cubby. But we can also accomplish this with a small seat, basket for shoes and no-shoes-indoors policy.
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