Archives January 2021

In the throes of a global pandemic, it’s probably no surprise that designers are focusing on wellness in home design.

Perhaps simply as a result of people spending more time in the home, the annual home design trends survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) shows new emphasis on indoor air quality, task lighting and the inclusion of exercise or yoga rooms.

The popularity of the home office also increased a huge 39 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

Wellington architect Judi Keith-Brown was not surprised by the results. She says most of her work is in renovations, in which the focus is on fixing houses “so that they are happier places to be”.

Keith-Brown works with interior and landscape designers and helps clients with briefs that are all about light, warmth and exposure to outdoor spaces, whether that’s by creating outdoor areas or making sure there is “visual onto green space”.

She cites a recent example in Petone where her team brought in a skylight to a dark hallway, and opened the house up to a north-facing courtyard.

”You want to come into the house seeing there’s another room. It’s sunny and pretty and the kids can play in the sandpit and you can look out to the vege garden.”

Keith-Brown says lockdown has made people think more about the time they spend at home “to make it work for their wellness”.

“So many people still leave early in the morning and get home late but you want to be able to come home after the end of a wintry Wellington day in a vicious southerly and you want your house to feel welcoming.”

She said homeowners had been wanting to improve their workspace because of increased numbers working from home.

“You need to have somewhere that you can shut the door on work and hide stuff away.”

Kitchen as a centre of ritual

Kitchens also became more important spaces in lockdown.

“Kitchens we used to just whip in and out of but now we’re living in them,” Keith-Brown says.

Student architect Emma Rea focused on the kitchen in her project which was a runner-up in the 2020 NZIA Student Design Awards.EMMA REAA drawing from Emma Rea’s entry in the 2020 Student Design Awards: ‘House as Autobiography: An Architectural Mis-Translation of My Kitchen’.

She says the kitchen’s centrality became important during lockdown.

“When everything was contained within the home, those rituals within the kitchen became an important way of having purpose and a rhythm and routine.”

In her project, which was also about the relationship between drawing and architecture, bowls of fruit and bunches of flowers from the garden illustrate abundance and health.

Rea says hand-drawing is a “slow and contemplative” process, which allows the designer to “carefully articulate the relationship between spaces”. 

In the kitchen, this means thinking through the relationship between, for instance, the bench and the table, cooking and sharing food. 

Co-housing design for wellness

Architect Caro Robertson, from Spacecraft Architects, helped the members of the Urban Habitat Collective design its under-construction 24-unit co-housing development in Newtown.

She says wellness is “one of the major things we think about with all our houses”.

At the development, all apartments will have a dual aspect, meaning they open to two sides. This is good for cross-ventilation, as well as giving more feeling of open-ness and space in small scale living.

Because the idea of building community is inherent in the co-housing concept, the design accentuates this, Robertson says.

While the apartments are self-contained – each with its own kitchen, bathroom and living areas – members will also have access to shared facilities: a common house, guest bedroom, rooftop, storage, laundry, workshop, garden and decks.

Robertson says research shows resilience and community is built by “lots of low level, non-pressured interactions”.

“So bumping into people on the stairs or just seeing them in the garden – these are the things that build the trust you need.”

Understanding this, the architects plan is to make the stairs a “social and special place” instead of a dark and cold thoroughfare. 

The complex will house about 100 people when complete. 

She says the shared workshop will allow for creativity and will be “good for cost-effectiveness as people will be able to do things like build their own furniture”.

One of the advantages of renovating an apartment is that, unlike a house, there is a limited number of things that you can do to add value, and we can concentrate on the areas that will get maximum bang for our buck.

We can take our first cues from other apartment updates in the building. Simply viewing the before and after photos online provides a visual reference as to what adds wow factor.

Structural changes to the interior walls and doors will have the most dramatic effect on the floor plan’s functionality but let’s take a look at some other renovation options that buyers will love.

1. Ceilings

Many 1970s buildings have what I call ‘popcorn ceilings’. The actual name of this type of ceiling is ‘vermiculite’ – a sprayed and coloured concrete with a textured, popcorn-like finish. If you try to paint vermiculite with a brush it will absorb all the paint on your brush and you will dislodge it, making it look even worse.

There are two common options for tackling vermiculite. A specialist company can apply four coats of vermiculite recoat, which will leave you with a snowy white but still textured ceiling; however, you will still only have the option of track or hanging lighting.

The other option, depending on your ceiling height, is to install a new ‘shadowline’ plasterboard ceiling over batons. This will lower the overall height of your ceiling but will give you a flush, smooth finish with no edge cornices and the possibility of installing recessed LED lights instead of track lighting.

The difference is the wow factor that buyers notice immediately, particularly if they are walking from a common hallway which has popcorn ceilings and into your apartment with a ‘shadowline’ ceiling.

If you have also installed recessed LED lights with dimmers, you are now competing with the presentation and feel of a brand-new apartment.

2. Painting

Every property will benefit from a good coat of paint. The secret to a great paint job is preparation, so be sure to scrape off any flaking paint from ceilings and walls and wash walls down with sugar soap before painting again.

Colour trends come and go but a classic white colour provides a light and bright starting point, allowing the apartment to take its personality from the colour and texture of the furnishings.

3. Lighting

Older units often have very basic lighting. In many cases, they have flat oyster lights, single hanging feature lights and a variety of track lighting everywhere else. This is an area where you can really make a difference. In addition to ceiling lighting, think about wall washing lights, floor lamps and table lamps, all of which allow you to create mood and interest without using overhead lighting at all.

4. Electrical

If the power switches for your unit are located in a common area cupboard, you can add value by installing a switchboard inside your apartment. If a fuse trips, it’s so much faster and safer to reset the switch in your own switchboard.

5. Windows

Generally, the owners corporation own your windows and front door, so they can’t be changed without authority. As windows are readily seen from the street, they are very much part of the look and fabric of the building, and consistency is important to the owners corporation. However, check your by-laws as sometimes windows and doors to balconies have been ruled to be the responsibility of the owner.

Where a door and window combination open onto a balcony, you may be able to request changes from the owners corporation when they are in keeping with the building’s theme.

Apartments on busy roads or in noisy locations will benefit from treating the windows with some sort of system to reduce the noise. I have sold properties which had windows retrofitted with a double-glazing system: in essence, they install another level of glazing made from acrylic inside the window, which is held in place by magnets to make it easy to install and manage.

6. Floors

Your older-style unit will most likely have carpet in the bedroom and living room, lino in the kitchen, tiles in the bathroom and concrete on the balcony. The variation may be some type of parquetry timber floor in the living room.

These days, every second buyer talks about their allergies and how they can’t live with carpet anymore. That’s a big tick for a timber floor, and you have a choice of engineered boards or laminate depending on your budget, but both will be more buyer friendly than carpet in the living room.

I am not a fan of tiles on the floor in the kitchen because they are so unforgiving. Bathrooms are a tile area and I prefer carpet in bedrooms. Some people don’t like carpet in the bedroom so it will end up being your choice. If you do opt for carpet, it likely won’t be a big space so choose a quality wool carpet, not a synthetic type. Carpet people can tell the difference and the investment is worth it.

7. Balcony

The balcony floor is often ignored. In your unit it will probably either be plain concrete or tiled, hopefully using a plain tile.

If you have tiles and they have a pattern that dates them, you may be able to replace them or, depending on drainage and the doorway height, you may be able to tile over the existing tiles (or plain concrete). If you do go for tiles, make sure they are slip proof, because it will be a wet area at some time or another.

The other option that is popular with tenants who want to upgrade their balcony without getting permission is to buy pre-made timber or timber-look squares that clip together and allow water to pass through the spaces so that there is no drainage issue. They may also be called ‘wooden pavers’, ‘deck squares’ or ‘timber tiles’. They can easily be cut to size to fit and as they are not fastened down and they can’t be seen from the street, there is no issue with the owners corporation.

8. Airflow

If you are double glazing for traffic noise reasons, then you also need to look at air conditioning; the two go hand in hand. Every new apartment on the market will offer air conditioning, so to compete with them we need to include air conditioning in our upgrade as well. One split-system air conditioner with the header unit well positioned will heat and cool your whole apartment.

9. Dining

You have to eat somewhere, but eating TV dinners on your lap went out with your 1970s flower-power wallpaper so hopefully you have room for a dining table and four chairs. A dedicated dining table and chairs is often seen as a luxury item in a one-bedroom unit because space is tight, however try to fit at least a round table and four chairs to create the impression of a larger space than you may have. At the very least, you may be able to design a kitchen bench with an overhang so that you can include two stools as a breakfast bar option.

10. Study nook

All the up-market apartments now feature some sort of study nook, so if we can include this as well, it ticks an important box for many buyers. It can be as simple as a bench along a dead-end wall just wide enough to take a laptop and high enough to sit with a stool, which takes up less space than an office-style chair. There you have it – an instant study nook. If you can create anything more, that’s a bonus.

11. TV cabling

Cabling is always a challenge. It never seems to come into the unit in the right place. Nothing looks worse than cables taped to walls… well, some things might look worse, but you know what I mean.

12. Storage

No-one has ever said, “This place has too much storage”. Just bear that in mind when you are upscaling your unit – storage is luxury.

If you happen to buy the top floor apartment in a small building, you may be able to negotiate with the owners corporation for exclusive use of the ceiling space above your unit. If the roof has enough pitch you can install a pull-down ladder and put down basic flooring over the rafters to create a storage space for light but bulky items like suitcases. When it comes to storage, you need to think differently to find opportunities that others may miss.

13. Bathroom and laundry

Older-style bathrooms are likely to have a bath with a shower over it and a plastic shower curtain, a pedestal sink, old-looking loo with exposed plumbing and an opening shaving mirror with storage for next to nothing. It may even feature a mosaic-style floor and a pink, yellow or green colour theme.

You do have the option to call in the professionals and let them spray-paint the wall tiles and the bath in white. You would still have the same floor and fittings and, unfortunately, as big an improvement as it may be, it’s still the old bathroom in disguise. Depending on your budget, this may have to do.

In my mind, the bathroom and the kitchen are the two areas that you will need to do properly to impress. The bathroom may also be the only place where you can put an under-bench front loading washer/dryer because you need the existing water and drainage to make it work. If there is no room in the bathroom, the kitchen is the only other laundry choice. If you are not keen on that idea, then it’s back to the bathroom for a full redesign and the bathtub probably has to go.

The bathtub is a luxury but the laundry is a necessity so a compromise may be necessary. It’s better to have a generous shower with easy level access plus the concealed laundry under a bench with a designer basin or two on top, than a bath and no laundry.

If you are lucky enough to have a separate laundry, make the most of it. Stack your washer and dryer and put in as much storage as possible. Include as many cupboards to conceal shelves as possible and the space will look even better.

14. Kitchen

There is a saying that ‘kitchens sell houses’ – well, let me tell you that kitchens also sell apartments. The hard part of upgrading the kitchen is sticking to your budget. You can easily go over budget on your choice of brand name appliances alone. Getting the kitchen right, in my opinion, is best left to a designer. That said, you are looking for great bench space, great storage, clean lines, clever design and a timeless feel. Kitchens can date a unit faster than any other room, so choose classic looks that will stand the test of time.

For reasons we probably don’t need to explain, 2020 was not the year for embracing ground-breaking design trends. Sure, we spent more time indoors than any other year on record, but this insularity was borne out of survival, and often tinged with emotions many of us would care to leave behind. But, as our calendars have now switched to 2021, it gives many of us hope for a renewed sense of purpose and greater clarity on how we’d like to live at home.

Admittedly, ‘turning over a new leaf’ is typical new year speak. But resolutions aside, after the 2020 we had, surely, we’ve earned the right to kick some new home habits into gear? From incorporating soothing natural colours (beige no longer reads as boring) to diving headfirst into vintage, here’s what some of the world’s leading designers have to say about design in 2021.

1) Natural does it better
Blame Covid-19. Or being stuck inside for days at a time, but the natural, earthy tones that have permeated our wardrobes for the last few seasons have also hit our homes. “In terms of 2021 trends, we’ll see heavy textures, beiges and browns, and vintage and antique pieces gaining more popularity,” says Kiel Wuellner, vice president of design at US-based design, furniture, and staging firm Vesta. “Designers and owners are gravitating towards rugs and pillows that embrace flaws, natural movement, and subtle moments of rough textures to add character to spaces. For the past decade, greys used to rule the design world, but beiges and browns are now gaining popularity.”

2) Vintage is in
“Vintage, one-of-a-kind pieces will add a layered look to a home and make it feel liveable and not overly designed,” says Wuellner. The lived-in look is a sentiment Highlyann Krasnow, founder and creative director of The Design High is also calling for, albeit via pared-back design pieces. “Less is more with furniture – think simple lines and not over-designed,” she says.

3) Make it calm
Unsurprisingly, the desire for tranquillity within the home is high. According to Scandinavian furniture giant Great Dane, this is set to continue in 2021. “With design being a response to human needs, the new year will place value on instilling balance and calm in the living spaces, making it a place where one can switch off from work, technology and endless notifications. Design trends will seek to achieve calmness and serenity through natural textures, forms, colours and aesthetics.”

It’s a move London-based interior designer and architect Laura Hammett also supports. “Living spaces are starting to reflect the current situation, and people are embracing calming colour palettes that create a sanctuary in their home,” she says. “We will see soft, warm and comforting tones and textures.”

And if you were slow to get on board with last year’s table scaping obsession, it’s time to get acquainted now. “Soft lighting and curated table scapes will also be on trend, with more people entertaining at home,” adds Hammett.

4) Hold the whites, please
Calm may be the vibe we’re all gunning for in 2021, but that doesn’t necessarily mean stark white has to reign supreme. “With more focus on creating a productive home environment while maintaining elements of play, homes are moving away from white walls,” says Sara Ianniciello, director of design at Whitehall Interiors. “We are amidst a colourful revolution in the design industry. We at Whitehall Interiors take inspiration from fashion among many things, and trends are already showing that 2021 will be a colourful year. We will be looking to infuse more colour and boldness in our projects in in 2021.”

5) Multi-functional matters
“This year has made us rethink our homes as never before,” says Hammett. “The need for multi-functional spaces and separate areas that allow each family member to have their own space has resulted in a return to separate rooms and zoning, leaving the open plan living behind. There is a growing trend for spaces that are connected but can also be closed with sliding and pocket doors to provide privacy and flexibility.”

Adam Meshberg, founder and CEO of architecture and interior design firm Meshberg Group, agrees, stating that residential floor plans will start to incorporate breakout fitness rooms and office spaces. “While many multi-family [homes] have always touted workspaces, there will be a wave of large spaces with breakout rooms and phone rooms, all with social distance in mind to cater to this new remote trend that will extend beyond the current pandemic,” he says. “And instead of expansive fitness centres, we’ll see custom designed individual breakout fitness rooms with VR components and fitness on demand equipment like Peloton rooms and Mirror rooms with self-disinfectant technology.”

“The pandemic has forced people to spend more time at home, so every room needs to have more than just one use,” agrees Wuellner. “An increasing number of clients are requesting their spaces serve multiple purposes, and living spaces now function as relaxation spaces and work and home-schooling spaces too.”

6) Mindful design choices
With the world slowing down last year, there’s been an uptick in reflection and a natural tendency towards more conscious consumerism. “At Vesta, we’ve seen an increase in informed clients wanting to know more about the pieces they’re investing in, where they’re made, and how it shapes their home,” shares Wuellner.

There will also be a focus on local, says Hammett. “2021 will be the year to support local businesses. People are now buying more mindfully, supporting independent shops and small suppliers, especially when it comes to home accessories and artworks.”

7) Go bold, or go home
Feeling a little underwhelmed by all this calm? On the flip side, now has never been a better time to make a statement, whether it’s through bold wallpaper or large-scale art. “I’m thrilled to say that there is more interest in wall-covering,” Carolynne Kollar, interior designer at Mojo Stumer. “It’s not about innocuous durability, but more about adventurous personal choices that might have seemed extreme just a couple of years ago.”

8) Attention to detail
“I think the biggest trend going for 2021 is attention to detail,” adds Kollar. “Now that we all spend more time at home, renovations are becoming more personal, individualised, and truly thought out.”

That’s not to say design has to be fussy. Again, for Krasnow, less is more. “I think the minimal design aesthetic we are seeing comes somewhat because of Covid-19. Less clutter, less to clean,” she explains. “In the kitchen, think fewer materials, using the countertop as the backsplash for a more seamless design, and hidden or no hardware altogether.” If you ask us, anything that makes cleaning easier is a win-win.