High ceilings aren’t always best – and location isn’t everything: 10 of the biggest house myths debunked
Kids should have their own room
It’s fine for children to bunk down in one room, provided they have a “timeout space” – a room they can go to to be on their own – says clinical psychologist Dr Linda Blair. “Siblings will get closer even if they argue. Powerful emotions – whether negative or positive – will help them form lifelong bonds,” but give them things of their own. “A shared room shouldn’t prevent kids from expressing themselves,” adds interior designer Nicola Harding. “Hang curtains off bunk beds, and give each child their own light and pinboard for their precious things.”
It’s all about location
“As someone whose mother moved our family from London to Dorset just to be in a particular Arts and Crafts house, I understand that a home can drive your buying decisions more than location,” says Albert Hill, co-founder of the historic homes estate agency Inigo (the team behind The Modern House). “It can help people get out of their geographic comfort zones – possibly into cheaper areas.”
Bathrooms need windows
“A window in a bathroom is usually seen as a practical way to refresh the air rather than to look out at scenery,” says architect Laura Jane Clark, author of the forthcoming Handbook of Home Design (Kyle Books, 23 March, £22). “Typically, bathrooms are sited close to the drainage, yet the view is usually obscured by opaque glass. By tucking bathrooms away internally, it allows these windows to become part of bedrooms or living spaces.” Invest in a decent extractor fan. “Opt for the more effective – though pricier – centrifugal-type fan,” she adds. If you still want some natural light, try a skylight.
Open-plan living is better than having more, smaller rooms
Rooms act like containers, allowing us downtime, says Matt Gibberd, the other co-founder of Inigo. “Lockdowns changed how we regard open-plan living – and contemporary home design has naturally shifted towards the ‘broken’ plan, whereby sliding room dividers, glazed screens, curtains and changes of level are deployed to provide separation,” he adds. “Period properties, of course, have a lot of this built in as standard – a range of different spaces that can fulfil different functions.”
Avoid draughty period properties
“Yes, period properties are draughty,” says Hill. “Older building techniques were less precise, but homes also needed draughts to stop the buildup of damp.” But there are practical and stylish ways to solve this. “You need to insulate,” Hill says. “Invest in thick, floor-sweeping curtains, which can also be a fantastic decorative feature. Fit brush seals on the bottom of doors and letterboxes. Try secondary or micro double glazing. Loft insulation – with wool or some other natural material – can make a big difference.” Combating any issues with damp is essential in keeping a house warm – so if you are painting the exterior of your house use a breathable paint or you’ll trap all the moisture inside and create damp (and cold) conditions.
High ceilings are best
Ideally we want lofty spaces for socialising and smaller ones to retreat to, says Gibberd: “If you look at a Georgian townhouse, the ceiling heights change as you go up,” he says. “On the ground floor, they tend to be high to portray a sense of grandeur. On the upper floors, where bedrooms are, they’re lower.” Large rooms are inevitably more expensive to heat, and the acoustics a challenge, especially if you have hard floors. You don’t need high ceilings for sleeping. “Smaller rooms tend to be cosier, less draughty and more welcoming,” Gibberd says. “The chocolate-box cottage, with its bendy beams and flagging flagstones, is always going to hold a romantic appeal, in the same way that a humble workers’ cottage has proportions that feel just right.”
Reducing the number of bedrooms will affect your house’s value
“Most estate agents will advise you to never lose a bedroom,” says Ellie Rees, co-founder of the estate agency Brickworks. “But if, for example, you have a three-bedroom house with a downstairs bathroom, it would be wise to lose a bedroom and shift the bathroom upstairs. Generally, downstairs bathrooms are unpopular.” Bear in mind, an underused bedroom doesn’t have to remain a bedroom. “Post-pandemic, buyers want a dedicated space for home working, so if you have a spare bedroom, your home will retain value if you can turn it into an office.”
Wooden worktops are unhygienic
They’re far from being unhygienic, says Toby Hall, founder of kitchen makers Inglis Hall. “Even a gnarly, well-loved wooden worktop will have innate antibacterial properties, which suppress and even kill bacteria in a matter of a few hours,” he argues. “That said, we don’t recommend using timber in wet areas because mould and eventually rot will set in.”
“A simple sand and reseal can bring it back to life,” says Adrian Bergman, the design manager at British Standard by Plain English. “Accept and embrace that it will build a patina over time.” Move around items that live on it regularly as all worktops change colour over time, he adds. This enables them to age evenly.
Strong paint colours make a room feel smaller
“Strong colours enliven small spaces and – contrary to common belief – don’t always make rooms feel smaller,” says Farrow & Ball’s colour curator Joa Studholme. “Richer colour can blur the boundaries of the room – corners are difficult to read so the room feels bigger.”
This rule extends to your ceilings, too. “Using the same colour on the ceiling as on the walls creates a soothing atmosphere and is much more subtle than you would imagine,” adds Studholme. “With both planes the same colour, it is difficult to tell where the walls end and the ceiling begins, which results in the perceived ceiling height going up and the room feeling bigger.”
Lace curtains are old-fashioned
Not according to vintage guru Pearl Lowe – but they do need a modern facelift. The solution? Introduce some colour. “I was looking for a piece of fabric to hang in my bathroom window that prevented people on the street from seeing in, but allowed light in. I found a piece of vintage cotton lace and dyed it bright pink,” Lowe says (she now sells them at pearllowe.co.uk). “If you want to dye your own, just make sure they’re cotton and not polyester,” she cautions. “Lots of people make that mistake.”
If lace is still too fussy for you, Gemma Moulton of East London Cloth suggests the cafe curtain. “Very similar in construction and purpose, we opted to replace the traditional synthetic lace for simple, natural linens on slim brass poles, rather than the traditional curtain wire.”
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