Other stories by Sarah Susanka

  • Floor Level Changes Enhance Spatial Experience

    In the last couple of decades we’ve become more sensitive to the challenges posed by steps to those who are mobility impaired, but there are still many situations in which a change of level is desirable to create a particular spatial effect.

  • Pleasing Placement

    Positioning windows to maximize light and views helps create an appealing space.

  • Designing Outdoor Rooms

    Most people conceive of an outdoor room as a porch, screened or not, attached to the house. If just one side is open to the elements, it hardly feels like outdoors at all. Three open sides and we really start to feel the connection with our surroundings. We are projected out into the landscape, but...

  • Color, texture affects visual weight

    When speaking about visual weight, we need to talk about color, but not in the conventional way. Color preferences vary enormously from person to person and are beyond the scope of our experience of space, and it's this characteristic that we'll discuss here.

  • Designing your landscape

    What do we mean by the landscape of home? It's not only the gardens, but also the views and vistas, and the walkways and thresholds that let you feel at home on your land. Of course, your house is part of this landscape, too. How do you decide when to use these elements? You begin by realizing that...

  • Varied ceiling height adds interest

    When we want to define one space from another, we typically use a wall. But once there is a wall, there is also an impenetrable barrier to views and to conversation, which is not always desirable.

  • House and landscape as an integrated whole

    Have you ever noticed that most houses are situated on their lots rather like vehicles that have landed from outer space? Even if there's landscaping surrounding the house, there's often little or no consideration given to whether any of it can be seen from the interior. Windows are generally...

  • Create a focal point to add character and significance to a particular area

    A point of focus can be as simple as a favorite piece of art at the center of the main living space. Or it can be more elaborate, such as an inglenook around a beautifully designed fireplace or a composition of windows looking into the garden beyond. Its purpose is to draw you into the space and to...

  • Exposed structural elements add character

    The structural components of a building, if left exposed on the inside or outside of the home, can be artful expressions in their own right.

  • Exposed structural ceiling elements can enhance interior character

    Posts and beams provide a form of interior décor that is at once functional, attractive, and informative.