How wonderful is it to stay in a hotel and find a chocolate on your pillow? How comforting is it when curled up on a sofa, watching a film, to have a little table to safely put your drink on so it doesn’t spill? How reassuring is it before getting home on a dark winter’s night to be able to turn the lights and heating on from your phone? How divineis it to climb out of your relaxing bath and be snuggled in a soft, warm fluffy towel which is within easy reach?
All these details – both large and small – make such a difference and are appreciated on a daily basis. Whilst some may seem obvious – like ensuring you have a good door mat by the front door – the importance of thinking about them at an early stage when carrying out a design project, cannot be overstated.
It is only when details are missed that things get annoying. You can’t turn the lights off downstairs once you are upstairs – how frustrating is that? You have designed and installed the most beautiful kitchen but there is nowhere to put the recycling (which seems to get ever more complicated!). You wanted somewhere to put your shampoo in the shower but the builder said that a niche was just too difficult!
With a keen eye and oodles of experience at JBI we are continually asking questions and giving suggestions to ensure that details are bounced around and discussed. These solutions are then written into the design brief and followed through – it is amazing how many details can slip through the net in the plethora of decision-making. It is our job to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
It is fascinating how individual details are important to different people. Sometimes it is down to budget; sometimes stage of life; or sometimes whether it is a London pad, country house or holiday home. All of these factors need be taken into consideration. Some of us love the quirky, luxurious comfort of Boutique Hotels (well let’s be honest that is probably most of us!) whilst others are looking to create streamlined, easy to keep homes where storage is of utmost importance.
Artwork and beautiful pieces of furniture can be vital to some clients, whereas textures, comfort and the ability to ‘slob out’ with friends and family are much more important to others – and often a combination!
We recently visited Heckfield Place in Hampshire. It has taken six years to complete and the results are stunning (https://www.heckfieldplace.com/) However, amongst all the beautiful and relaxing design, one detail that really resonated with us was their passion to remove all plastic from the house. So as a result, one of the measures taken is that all the soaps and body lotions in the rooms are in ceramic bottles.
So, as you see, details don’t need to cost the earth but thinking about them is worth every minute spent in design. So let us know – what details are important to you?