Your home has a specific number of square feet of living space – that is definite. Interior walls may be either modified or removed, but, unless exterior walls are demolished for expansion, you will still have the same number of square feet of living space. What is not definite is the visual perception of the space – that is somewhat malleable. If your focus is on an object within a couple of feet your vision is restricted to that object and its immediate surroundings; lift your gaze, however, and look at an object 15 feet away and your visual periphery expands. It is that simple shift in focus and motivating the eye to continually move forward in it’s gaze that “opens” and expands the perception of space. There are several methods, some very basic and little more than common sense, by which this may be accomplished and, for the sake of brevity, this post will “focus” on
FLOORS:
- Keep the number of flooring transitions to an absolute minimum. Every time you switch flooring materials – wood to tile, carpet to tile, tile to tile, etc. – it stops the eye from moving forward. Wet areas necessitate the use of flooring materials impervious to water, but, Kitchens and Laundry Rooms are not prone to flooding. If you have a Family Room or Great Room adjacent to a Kitchen, Breakfast Nook, and Laundry Room I suggest installing wood, tile, or laminate throughout. Always have a couple of boxes of material of the same dye lot available for damage replacement. Water may be a potential culprit, but, no more than your son’s cleats, your daughter’s nail polish, or a precariously placed hammer.
- Avoid thresholds when possible. Thresholds “read” as a visual stop because it crosses the line of visual progression and, when using the same flooring material from one space to another, they imply that the room’s floor was installed as an afterthought. Flooring installers frequently install thresholds at doorways because it is easier, but, unless it must be done to correct for the misalignment of a house built out of square, don’t allow it.
- Avoid contrasting grout lines with tile installation – match the color of the field of the tile and seal the grout so that the color stays true. Tile with contrasting grout creates a grid, and grids constrict eye movement.
Contingent on the layout of the home you may consider installing tile flooring on a diagonal as opposed to a straight set (90 degrees). A large format tile, 18″ or larger and preferably rectified, installed on a 45″ angle with a grout matched to the field of the tile, will visually open space. An angled installation will require more material (approximately 10% more) and the labor will tend to be more expensive because of the additional necessary cuts, but, it may well be worth the expense. - Wood flooring should be installed front-to-back (front door to back door) in the home with very few exceptions. There are some instances in which the layout of the house necessitates a diagonal installation of wood, but, in no instance should the flooring ever be installed across the point of entry – your visual progression stops at every plank. The grain and planking of wood floors inherently lengthens, pulling your focus forward. Installing planks crosswise completely negates the positive attributes of the material and only reverses the lengthening effect.
- If wall-to-wall carpet must be used it should be relegated to bedrooms. Hallways installed with the same hard flooring as the body of the house allow the eye to move forward . . . until it reaches the bedroom door.
Budgetary constraints will obviously limit choices on flooring materials. Should carpet be the only affordable option for the body of the home I suggest that it, and your hard flooring, at least match in color so that the eye reads them as being the same and doesn’t register each transition. There are other methods to visually expand space that compensate for problematic floors . . .
WALLS, the topic of my next post.
