Most rooms in the modern home are conveniently rectangular, which is great news when it comes to making use of the space.
You can press your bookshelves, beds and sofas right up against the wall, and have maximum room for actually living in.
This isn’t quite so straightforward in spaces which don’t have quite as many right-angles. The culprit usually here is the slope of a roof, which restricts your options, and forces you to think a little bit more creatively – though the same might be said of the cylindrical spaces found on the corners of certain period properties.
An irregularly-shaped room can present a challenge, to be sure, but it’ll also add some visual interest that can’t be replicated via other means. After all, if all of your rooms were the same shape, then the regularity would begin to grate before long. Let’s look at how we might get the best from a strangely-proportioned room.
Made-to-Measure Shelving
Built-in or custom wardrobes and shelving will ensure that you’re getting maximum possible use out of the space. If you stick with the standard stuff, then you’re almost guaranteed to be wasting valuable room in the corners.
In areas with especially low roofs, like attic spaces, then storage space is essential, as it’ll free up more room in the places where you can actually stand up straight. In under-stair spaces, drawers make a great deal of sense – especially if the stairs are narrow enough that you can get drawers to fit all the way underneath them.
If you have an awkward space to fill, then a functional item, like an electric radiator, might be just the thing to fill it. Modern devices actually look pretty smart – so you can make a feature of it!
Make Good use of Nooks and Crannies
Sometimes, an awkward space is only awkward because you haven’t made the right use of it.
If you’ve got an old airing cupboard sitting above your staircase, but you’ve installed a new combi boiler downstairs, then you might consider turning the empty space into an office space, or a little quiet space for reading or meditation.
Create Symmetry where there isn’t any
The human eye is very easy to fool – especially when it comes to subtle irregularities. We’ve all seen those optical illusions in which two equally-sized squares are made to look vastly different. Well, you can employ the same strategies to disguise small slopes in your roof. Parallel lines are usually your friend here, so find some hanging decorations that can be arranged to create the illusion of straightness where there isn’t any.
Of course, you can only get so far by doing this – but if the room is only slightly squiffy, tricks of this kind can work wonders.
