Some designers continuously come up with awkward designs for their customers’ homes. Do they do it with the best intentions? Do they do it because it addresses functional and aesthetic needs? Are they just trying to cut costs and produce only the bare minimum for their clients? Today, let's dive deep and talk about the top 3 embarrassing Home ID mistakes that will also cost you dearly! 

No. 1: MARBLE LAMINATES (High Pressure Laminates)

Please stop sticking marble looking laminates on your carpentry doors. That is not how marble or stone looking laminates should be used for interior design.

To understand how these laminates should be used, we need to understand how the actual marble stone is used. In real world situations, designers and architects love to use marble; not only on the floor, but also on the walls as wall features. 

This kind of application is known as a highlighted treatment, where we draw the attention of the visitor to look and marvel at the wall feature. In many of these situations, designers will use big slabs and use a method of vein matching known as bookmatching.

Photo Credit : Bookmatching by Hafary

Bookmatched natural marble and stone is a notoriously expensive product, as the manufacturing process for it is time-consuming, labor-intensive and wasteful. 

The bookmatching technique can only be carried out using the finest quality marble, which has defining attributes of clarity and definition. One example is Statuario Venato, which has a clear white base and a few, very pronounced, strong brown-gray lines. Due to the colossal expense of bookmatched natural marble and stone, we don’t see it very often. Hence, the rarity and value. 

On the other hand, we have these marble veins laminates… (sigh)…

Photo : Poor use of marble looking laminates on the cabinets

These laminates look like the real thing. While there is nothing wrong in having laminates that are replicas of natural materials, like wood grain or stone, it looks tacky and awkward when the treatment or application is done incorrectly.

Some designers choose to use these marble laminates on cabinet doors. In reality, such applications defy logic. Typically, a piece of marble is about 25mm thick. They are heavy and it is impossible to install real marble slabs onto the doors and use them like regular cabinet doors. 

For many, choosing to use replica materials is to create a certain sense of believability, as if it is real marble or stone. So use the marble laminates, just use them in the way that mimics how real marble slabs are used on wall features. Laminates from Lamitak even have a range that can be bookmatched!

 Photo Credit : Lamitak Bookmatched laminates

Conventional marble laminate comes in a size of 1.2m by 2.4m, and some designs will require more than 1 piece to create a wall feature. But by using more pieces, the “real marble” illusion is broken and the overall result becomes a plasticky, repetitive look. In the natural world, a natural material’s veins and patterns never repeat. 

By itself, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the marble laminate material. Just use it in a believable manner. Know the material size and play along those factors to achieve a dignified and realistic look.

No. 2: Bad Ceiling (AKA ‘L” box ceiling in Singapore) Designs 

One of my personal pet peeves is how certain renovators, in the spirit of profit, will propose ill-serving and unsightly false ceiling designs. Some of these renovators will justify their designs by saying they have artisanal value, artistry to fabricate… yadah yadah. 

The reality is, these designs make the ceiling look atrocious, distracting and complicated. Sometimes, when paired with additional downlights, the whole ceiling just looks like a big mess.

Photo Credit : Examples of messy looking ceiling designs

To maximize profit for their project, the unscrupulous renovator would propose the bare minimum amount of false ceiling box ups, for example only 300mm in width. 

Now, this small amount of false ceiling together with downlights, makes for a disproportionate composition. And when cutouts are made for services like air con blowers etc, that is when it looks really bad. 

When large downlights are installed, the visual composition becomes disproportionate. The light diffusion from the downlights are also severely compromised, as they are closer to the walls and not spreading to the center of the room.

No. 3 – Weird TV Feature walls and TV Consoles

Asian IDs may take the cake when it comes to coming up with the weirdest designs for TV feature walls and Consoles. Now, some of these designs border on being weird and whimsical. Some are just plain ridiculous. 

There is a common misconception that TV consoles must be symmetrical and balanced. While symmetry and aesthetics are important, so is proportion and treatment. If done wrongly, your TV Feature may end up looking like an altar.

Photo : Bad examples of TV consoles and feature walls

There’s also the 画蛇添足 (adding limbs to a snake) design strategies that these excessive renovators like to do for their clients’ homes. They add layers, odd forms, lights and experiment with different types of material all within the small wall space, which results in distracting the person from watching the TV… Designing a TV feature wall should complement your TV watching experience, rather than distract and take away from the experience!

Photo : Adding a lot of unnecessary details to the TV Feature walls

What can you do about it?

Some advice to mitigate the examples of bad design above:

Less is more – in design, it’s better to be plain and simple. Look at the space as a whole, as opposed to just looking at adding frills to one particular sector or furniture.

Be natural – think logically about how natural finishes perform in the real world and when you use synthetics, always be believable in the execution of the design.

Do more research – deep dive into how other successful designers implement their designs and do not be immediately convinced of the design offered by your renovator. Always start with a mood board and share your intended goals with your designer/renovator as early as possible to be aligned on the vision of your home.

There are definitely more than 3 embarrassing design mistakes that homeowners and IDs/renovators are susceptible to. I look forward to sharing more next time in the next Word from the Nerd!

Posted on 12 Aug 2022

Astley Ng

The Designerd