7 Interior Design Problems Solved: Open Floor Plans, TV Placement & More

Dear Alice | Interior Design

In this Q&A episode, the designers from Alice Lane address various listener questions regarding practical interior design challenges. The di

Key takeaways

• Use oversized rugs and drapery to create 'visual walls' that define zones in open floor plans.
• Aim for a 'Level 5' smooth wall finish during the construction phase to allow for high-gloss paints or wallpapers.

Main topics

• Open Floor Plan Zoning
• Integrating Religious Art

Notable quotes

Your home shouldn't feel like a gymnasium.

Conclusion

The episode provides actionable, high-end design strategies that prior

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) They think they need to push all their furniture up against the walls. Speaker 1 (0:02) Any surface, any situation, level five is always the goal. Speaker 2 (0:06) Do you know what? I don't have a doorstop. I'm going to have to get one of those rubber domes. Yeah, I Speaker 1 (0:10) know. I'm going Speaker 3 (0:12) to paint something right there. Speaker 1 (0:13) So every time it just like hits that Speaker 3 (0:15) guy's nose. Speaker 2 (0:16) People on TikTok were ruthless. They hate my solution. They're just like, you can't see the art. And you're like, well, yeah, it's not that interesting. It's like two pieces of seaweed. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. If you're new here, we're the designers behind Alice. Lane. We are an interior design firm that has spent the last 18 years designing custom homes. We've done remodels, full interiors. And each week we sit down at this podcast just to discuss what we're learning, the design principles, the mistakes. I feel like that's how we learn the best. And just any insider knowledge that we have every single day with our own clients, we're paying forward here. So if you're new, welcome. We're so glad that you found us. We Speaker 1 (0:54) are going to do an episode on listener questions. Sometimes we get them and And we can build an entire episode around. Sometimes they're just quick little answers. So we compile those and put them in one episode. And Speaker 2 (1:04) if you guys have questions. please send them to dearalice at alicelanehome.com because we'll be able to answer them here. We feel like we've recorded a podcast on everything. We've been at this for six years or so. So it's always fun when we see your questions and we're like, oh, maybe we haven't answered. We haven't talked about Speaker 1 (1:20) that. Speaker 2 (1:20) We need to talk about it. So we love hearing from you. Or Speaker 1 (1:22) it's time to do it again, to revisit the subject. Speaker 2 (1:25) Our Speaker 1 (1:25) first question today is from Gabrielle. She asked, I would like to ask about the trend of shifting away from open floor. plans to separate rooms. I like separate rooms where possible. However, I want to make the most of my vaulted ceiling in the kitchen lounge dining space. What are some tips and tricks you could offer to make open floor plans more cozy and better flowing without putting up full walls? Speaker 2 (1:49) Gabrielle, I have this exact same situation at my house. And I think a lot of people have sort of that. kitchen, lounge dining situation, which is all sort of sharing a roof line. Speaker 1 (2:01) And Speaker 2 (2:01) a couple of things I like to do to sort of define these spaces without putting up walls are rugs. Really grounding a space in a rug, I think, gives it sort of the feeling of walls. It defines the space, gives the furniture something to sit on. It also softens it. It gives you like this really fun sort of color scheme to work within. I was Speaker 3 (2:20) going Speaker 2 (2:20) to say, and go larger than you think, Speaker 3 (2:22) even like, especially in these open floor plans, sometimes like the space starts to feel quite vast because you have vaults and like these spaces are shared and and again like jess said almost every home that we do we have some type of gathering space like this that's usually off the kitchen where we do still employ the open floor plan concept for this area because that is their like main big gathering area but we do have to define it and i think one of the best ways is by the by the rug go bigger than you think Speaker 2 (2:49) drapes Speaker 3 (2:50) yes Speaker 2 (2:50) also are going to help define those spaces what we're looking for is definition and gabrielle what you're looking for you're saying i don't want to put up full walls but you kind of are trying to define these spaces so drapes are going to give you those full height you know really beautiful fabric folds and they're going to give you interest at architectural visual walls exactly also the cozy like it brings the cozy in Speaker 3 (3:12) i'm like i To your, when I first, you read this question, I was just like, Jess has this situation and it is so cozy. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:19) I do Speaker 3 (3:19) think the way that you defined your areas is really, really smart. So I want to hear your other tips. Well, I think Speaker 2 (3:24) another really cozy thing is in the dining portion that you also have, Gabrielle, I did a banquette. So I tucked that into a corner and it's, it's an inside corner just off of my family room. The banquette is two walls of it. And then I have a round table up to it along with some chairs. And there's big windows behind it and drapes that are really helping to define that space. And that is like the definition of cozy. I have a lamp on top of my table. We all gather around it. If I'm working on a special project, I'm actually not even going into my office. I'm sitting at my kitchen table. I'm opening up my laptop. I've got my notebooks and books all piled there. And that is my place. I just love it. It really is just so homey and cozy. Yeah, I love that. Speaker 3 (4:07) I'm thinking about even just some of these larger rooms that we're space planning. And usually you do have a couple of different zones. Again, if you're thinking about a party, like you don't just have one big giant sectional and then just everything's focused in this one big group. You usually have like a part that like we're watching TV or conversing around a fireplace. You have a banquette. Sometimes we'll just do like a little game table or something in this corner. And again. even though it's like this big room if you can create intimate moments yeah Speaker 2 (4:34) within Speaker 3 (4:34) that thing i think that that depending on how big or small this open floor plan is you can create definition in the zones and make it feel cozy because you've identified things that you can do in the space except for do cartwheels because it's so big yeah Speaker 2 (4:46) you have to give zones if you're having a party it's lots of little conversations it's never one big conversation where one person is talking to everybody at once. It's like the women are over here and the husbands are over here and the teenagers are up at the island. And so, yeah, people just kind of gravitate towards whomever and it's tons of conversations. You want to create little spaces for them. I know a really big popular thing right now. I just had gotten sent a text maybe a month or two ago from a friend who wanted to create like a mahjong table within sort of that open floor plan space because you want to leave that out. You don't want to have to clear it off in order to eat on it. And And so she was adding kind of a separate game table to the space, which is also super fun. So defining those spaces. So we talked about rugs. We talked about drapery, banquets, lighting. I think really much like a rug grounds a space. I think the lighting helps to do that as well from the ceiling down. So over your island, you're going to use really nice size lights, I think. When they're too small, they don't really help identify the space that much. Like dust speckles. Speaker 3 (5:50) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:50) Instead of just like actual like. Speaker 3 (5:52) substantial sculpture hanging from the sky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Speaker 2 (5:56) then it's also lighting up your surface and making it feel glowy and more cozy and warm. And that light is really getting on everybody's face and everybody's looking really gorgeous. Speaker 3 (6:06) I think the immediate thing you can do to make it not feel cozy is to turn on all the cans. Don't turn on the cans. If you only have cans and you don't have any of these specialty lights that Jess is talking about and you're like, why does it feel so empty and cold and like alone and afraid? That's probably the reason why is the lighting's off. even if you don't have all the key players to the banquette, all those things, I guarantee you, if you start to incorporate just the right lighting, the pendants over the island, and even just the lamp light, Speaker 2 (6:32) if Speaker 3 (6:33) you just have all those spots turned on without having overhead, you're going to automatically be drawn to these cozy moments in this grand big space because they're offering conversation in this group and then in the Mahjong table and then on the island just because of your lighting. And Speaker 2 (6:49) I also want to say about lighting, like your kitchen table is probably going to have some sort of large pendant or chandelier over it. You really want to hang that suit no more than what, 36 to 42? I usually say Speaker 3 (7:01) 36 to 42 is kind of like where we lie depending on the light. Above Speaker 2 (7:05) your Speaker 3 (7:05) surface. Yeah, depending on your ceiling. But like recently we've been hovering on the lower side and I've been loving it. Yeah. Like the 36. Even like the 36. There's these ones like in our Desert Oaks projects. The actual. like pendants, they were from sewn, which is this British company. So they're not massive, but the space is big, but they have like some really interesting present, but they're kind of, when you look at it, you want them to kind of hover Speaker 2 (7:28) and Speaker 3 (7:29) just like dropped a little lower. So when they had them initially hung. They're more Speaker 2 (7:33) important in the space, the closer they are to eye level and you actually get credit for them. If they're hung too high, it's just kind of awkward. So the lighting piece of this. is really important that you're defining each space but getting the height of it where it really matters. Anyway, when you were hanging these sewn pendants over the island. The Speaker 3 (7:53) builder initially like hung them I bet around that 38 to 40 inches and I was just like okay can we go lower can we get go lower and what I realized is not only is that shade kind of hovering so I can like see it and feel it like when I'm sitting at the island but also the chain story was so interesting that I wanted to fill that architecture because it was so good. It has four chains that these pendants Speaker 2 (8:15) hang from. So that Speaker 3 (8:16) became part of the hero of the pendant that I wanted. If it was choked up, you would never see the chain. Speaker 2 (8:21) And so you Speaker 3 (8:22) want to pull that down to really define that space in this open ground area. Yeah. Honestly, it's like about adding interest to create the cozy. Speaker 1 (8:29) I'm going to say this too. This isn't something you can do with an open floor. I think it's something you should do. I think that's probably the reason people are getting fatigued of. huge great rooms. It's because most of the time it is just a sectional with an entertainment console and a TV. And Speaker 3 (8:46) two smaller rug. Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:47) But if you kind of use that space and define smaller spaces within them, it's going to create interest, obviously going to fill your space with more. And yeah, you're going to love that. So not only can you do it, you should do it. Depression and Speaker 3 (9:01) anxiety are on the rise. And I I swear I'm like space is such like an important thing for our brains. Yes. If you do create just like this idea of feeling safe. and cozy, you know, and what feels like an ominous world, that really does help with your mental state. Speaker 1 (9:17) Your home shouldn't feel like a gymnasium. Speaker 2 (9:19) Exactly. I feel like Gabrielle's going to ask a follow-up question that's, if I have pendants over the island and if I have a chandelier over the dining table, am I still putting a light in the great room? And to that, Gabrielle, I would say I didn't in my great room. I have cans up in my ceilings, but what I did do is use the most lamps in that space. Every surface has a... really nice size lamp. Can Speaker 1 (9:42) I say one thing I love that you did in your vault is that you have the tongue and groove poplar up there. So that texture and that element of like wood feels like it lowers that ceiling a little bit too. So potentially treating the ceiling with something, not just like drywall. Yeah. And I have some big Speaker 2 (10:01) white wood trusses up there as well. But what I was going to say, another kind of like my chandelier, my... big moment was I did a really big bird of paradise on my, you know, our Ollie table on our website. So we designed that after an antique I have, and it's like, 40 inches round for a side table, which your sectionals are over 36 inches deep. So you can get the Ollie side table and you can set that as a side table next to your sectional. And because it's so massive, you can put our biggest black planter on it and plant a full-size tree, the bird of