Character Building: Interiors

ABOVE: A cosy fireplace is one of the best ways to create character, but it’s the lifestyle it evokes that makes the house warm

Avoid Oversized Rooms

Character is most commonly associated with cosiness — meaning that an easy way to avoid blandness is to avoid ostentatiously large room sizes, particularly in the key living areas. Oversized rooms are the ones that get used less in new homes because they are all about show rather than lifestyle — they therefore lack personality and, consequently, character.

Design for Warmth

The American architect Jeremiah Eck, author of the seminal The Distinctive Home – a great starting point for anyone interested in reading more on character and new homes – talks about how when self-builders and designers are thinking about rooms, there is a distinct difference between rooms designed around entertainment (and therefore pleasure), and those designed with warmth and comfort in mind. In its simplest sense he’s pitching rooms based around a large television – entertaining rooms – against those designed around more emotional aspects such as relationships to light and cosy spaces, where much closer attention is paid to layout, lighting and feel. While most self-builders specify the former, it’s the latter that tend to have true character.

ABOVE: Character is about the details but it’s also, more importantly, in the original layout and planning. Here, built-in furniture, a feature fireplace and a change in floor heights means this new living room has bags of character

Shape and Height Counts

Those keen on ensuring character can do two things in terms of room design to avoid blandness: play around with room shapes — as in, avoid oblong rooms and try to introduce niches, corners and crannies where one might find more interest and actually discover things; and secondly, introduce interest from above, meaning avoiding allegiance to the standard 2.4m ceiling height and mix it up a little, with double-height spaces and smaller, cosier snugs with lower heights. It creates interest and therefore character.

ABOVE: It’s easy to imagine the owners enjoying a family meal at the table, or working at the island. The character comes through in the design choices

A Great Kitchen

The biggest difference between the majority of period homes and the 21st century newly built home is the size of the kitchen. We all know that today it is used for so much more than simply cooking in, and as a result this is likely to be the centre point of the layout. It’s also, happily, one of the easiest in which to inject character as it’s the most lived in of all the spaces. People’s idea of character is often built into imagined glimpses of other peoples’ lifestyles — meaning that it’s as much in the mind as in reality. Therefore, the kitchen should be presented as representing the kind of lifestyle you aspire to — perhaps a busy family life with lots of wholesome cooking and fun, informal, family eating times. As a result, it’s critical to build in areas for relaxing, areas for standing around with wine — and the character will form with that.

Find out more about exteriors, including advice on kerb appeal and landscaping...

Find out more about design details, including advice on stairs, fireplaces and lighting...

Further Reading

• House Design Explained
• Design Problems and Their Solutions
• The Essence of Good House Design