Designing for the ‘Ahhh’ Moments.

I’ve been working on the plans for my own renovation.  I admit I get kind of obsessed, and no sit down with a cup of coffee is complete without pen and paper as I continuously evolve the design.

I was thinking about it and it came to me that something that I focus on a lot when I design a home is to create what I’m going to call ‘moments’ throughout the house.  (Perhaps there is a fancy word for this out there in ‘architect land’, but not one that I know of?)

These are places that feel special.  A place where you might pause and go ‘ahhh’. 

In the rush to plan layouts, budgets and finishes, these small, human moments are often the first things to be lost. And yet they’re what we remember most. It might be the view from a comfortable seat, the way a block of cabinetry floats centrally in a room or a special piece of art that is hung on just the right textured wall covering in just the right spot so that the afternoon sun picks up the depth of the oil paint.  For clients it has been a window seat complete with plush upholstery included as part of the kitchen design, the corner glazing that opens up the view to the garden, the indoor/outdoor bar that opens the kitchen worktop onto the patio, the gifted vintage chair carefully placed under the open stairs.  

To me, these are the very things that bring a renovation to life.  The things that make a home special.  And loved.  And a joy to live in.  Every day you get to experience and enjoy those ‘moments’.  

My new project is a mid century terraced house in a row of matching houses.  There is little scope externally to create an architectural statement.  And it would feel wrong to do so.  But what there is (and there always is in every house) is the opportunity to pack it full of ‘moments’.  I am loving coming up with these in this planning stage.  I am overdoing it.  Only because I know that as the renovation progresses some will need to be let go of.  That’s okay.  With many designed in, I can be sure that these little joyful gifts of delight will be plentiful in the finished project. 

So I’d like to suggest that you might want to think about where you are creating ‘moments’ in your renovation.  Your current home will already have some (perhaps by accident rather than design) so it will help for you to notice the sort of things that just make you feel good.  You might also want to flip through magazines, Instagram, or wherever you like to go to get your stimulus.  See what you appreciate in other’s homes in terms of these specific moments and see if you can plan them into yours.  It might be that the moment is spatial - relating to the structure of your home or it might be that they are more about your interior decisions. 

If you’re planning a renovation, it might be worth gently asking yourself where these moments could live.  I promise, you will be happy you did!