Color and pattern are crucial to the success of the whole layout. Overall cohesion is best maintained by the use of the same or coordinated wall coverings, fabrics, and flooring throughout the area. The flow of colors between sections of the room visually holds the space together.
On the other hand, you can positively emphasize a change of shape or function in the room with color or pattern. By following an obvious structural division, such as the line of a former dividing wall or an alcove, you can modify the color scheme and atmosphere in each activity area. Avoid too many changes, or the area can look cluttered and lose the sense of space.
Flooring
Floor coverings usually play a significant part in reinforcing the overall or subdivided nature of an open-plan space. In general, it is best to keep to the same tone throughout the area, even if you vary the material. You can combine a pale carpet in the living space, for example, with woodstrip flooring over the dining section, or vinyl tiles in the kitchen area.
It’s worth remembering that footsteps tend to reverberate in a large area. All-over carpet or natural-fiber flooring, laid on good-quality padding, muffles the sound and forms an excellent background for decorative rugs. If you prefer the bare-floorboard look, scattering a few rugs over the floor helps to deaden the sound.
Well-placed rugs are also useful for demarcating definite territories in the room – perhaps in front of a fireplace to anchor a seating arrangement or under a dining table to mark out the eating area.
Windows
Many open-plan conversions result in a room with a window at each end, often of a different shape and size. The same window treatment may not be appropriate for both. However, using the same or complementary fabrics to make a blind or perhaps a valance for a small window at the back of the house and more lavish curtains for the front windows establishes continuity between the two ends of the room.
Accent Features
Dashes of the same eye-catching color, appearing on cushions, ornaments, pictures, plants, and rugs dispersed around the area, are all excellent devices for drawing attention to specific zones while unifying the whole scheme.
Lighting Schemes
A flexible lighting system is vital to making the whole open-plan area work effectively. The immense diversity of activities that go on in an open-plan area calls for general, task, and accent lighting.
Efficient background lighting, supplied by sconces or other wall-mounted lights and spotlights on the ceiling, is supplemented by localized task and accent light sources in separate activity areas. Table lamps, desk lights, floor lamps, and freestanding torcheres are portable light sources and flexible design tools that create warm pools of light around the room wherever you want them. At the dining area, concentrate most of the light on the dining table. A rise-and-fall pendant which lifts out of the way when not in use is an ideal light source, as long as you remember it is fixed and governs the table position.
An outlet sunk into the floor under a sofa or armchair means that you can have table or floor lamps close to the seating area without the need for a light cord trailing dangerously across the floor from the wall. For a variable atmospheric effect, fit dimmer switches. These let you adjust the level of lighting in different areas of the room to suit the occasion and to balance natural and artificial light.
Popularity: -0%
- Open Plan Areas, Part 1
- Global Dining Rooms, Part 1
- How To Choose Lighting, Part 1
- Apartment Bedrooms, Part 1
- Apartment Halls, Part 1