Renovating
10 Ways That Different Levels Can Shape Your Home, Inside and Out
Walls, doors and windows aren't the only ways to separate spaces. Using levels may not be one you've considered
There’s a range of techniques available to a designer to fine-tune the connection or separation between spaces both inside and outside your home. Changes of level – or, conversely, the alignment of levels – can be a very effective device. Here are some examples of how it can be done and how you can use the idea in your own home, whether you’re working with an open-plan area, a smaller room or your outside space.
Here, again, is a simple change in level, but in a slightly more complex space, with a kitchen raised up from a more open dining/living space…
…and such devices are not just for kitchen/living spaces. This bathroom cleverly uses a change in level between the washbasins area and a raised platform for the bath.
Create wonderful storage opportunities with raised levels
Where space is tight, a great way to create much-needed storage is to raise a floor level. In this example, a raised bed-deck allows for plenty of drawers beneath.
Where space is tight, a great way to create much-needed storage is to raise a floor level. In this example, a raised bed-deck allows for plenty of drawers beneath.
Double your floor area with a simple mezzanine
The classic bed-deck, raised up just enough to create a cosy seating area beneath while retaining just enough headroom on the upper level.
This is a tremendous use of restricted space to get the most out of a room.
The classic bed-deck, raised up just enough to create a cosy seating area beneath while retaining just enough headroom on the upper level.
This is a tremendous use of restricted space to get the most out of a room.
Connect your inside/outside spaces
A very popular use of levels to enhance the sense of space in a kitchen/dining extension is to run the interior floor level through to an outside terrace or decked area with steps down to the garden.
Along with these matching levels, the use of folding/sliding doors has become very popular and glass-door companies have devised weatherproof details for the thresholds so that the matching levels do not cause any weathering problems.
A very popular use of levels to enhance the sense of space in a kitchen/dining extension is to run the interior floor level through to an outside terrace or decked area with steps down to the garden.
Along with these matching levels, the use of folding/sliding doors has become very popular and glass-door companies have devised weatherproof details for the thresholds so that the matching levels do not cause any weathering problems.
Here is another example where this has been very successfully done, despite a significant change in level between the interior and the garden. In this instance, the doors are sliding and the floor surface changes from timber inside to stone outside. Nonetheless, the extended sense of space is very apparent.
Let your space spill down steps to the outside
Sometimes, however, the change in level from interior to garden is simply too big to extend a terrace at floor level without specific Planning Permission. An alternative approach, as illustrated here, is to use steps to let the interior space ‘spill’ over to the outside. Here, the doors and steps are to the side of the extension, allowing for an uninterrupted picture window view of the garden from the elevated living area.
10 key planning permission facts – and how best to get project approval
Sometimes, however, the change in level from interior to garden is simply too big to extend a terrace at floor level without specific Planning Permission. An alternative approach, as illustrated here, is to use steps to let the interior space ‘spill’ over to the outside. Here, the doors and steps are to the side of the extension, allowing for an uninterrupted picture window view of the garden from the elevated living area.
10 key planning permission facts – and how best to get project approval
Give your basement room breathing space
The idea of letting the interior space flow out with a terrace also works when the interior is below ground level and a terrace is excavated. Again, the room, here a basement room, is given a much greater sense of space by the level exterior terrace, which allows the interior space to flow out and make a basement much less basement-y.
A beginner’s guide to basement conversions
The idea of letting the interior space flow out with a terrace also works when the interior is below ground level and a terrace is excavated. Again, the room, here a basement room, is given a much greater sense of space by the level exterior terrace, which allows the interior space to flow out and make a basement much less basement-y.
A beginner’s guide to basement conversions
Here’s another example of excavating the garden to match an interior level that’s below ground level. The interior is only a metre or so below the garden and the split-level effect works very well, even though the excavated area is relatively small.
Be creative with your steps
This basement level exterior space could have been a difficult box of below-ground space, but with clever use of steps and intermediate levels, the sense of it being deeply excavated is alleviated and we are left with a more open sense.
This basement level exterior space could have been a difficult box of below-ground space, but with clever use of steps and intermediate levels, the sense of it being deeply excavated is alleviated and we are left with a more open sense.
I love this use of lazy terracing, with patches of planting to break up what would otherwise be a tricky slope or a rather rigid staircase…
…and these slightly off-kilter horizontal planes almost seem to glide across one another, creating a cool design feature and breaking up the sense of a climb or descent.
Interior steps can be used creatively, too. In this example, the most obvious thing would have been to create three simple steps in a line, but by widening the middle one the designer has not only created a seat, but also made an interesting composition of the steps, which are picked out in an inky purple colour for emphasis.
Make a strong separation without walls
Where the earlier internal open-plan examples created slight separation with one or two steps, here we have a full split-level that has been opened up. There is a strong sense that the space up the stairs is a separate room, but with all of the shared connectivity and open views of an open-plan arrangement.
Where the earlier internal open-plan examples created slight separation with one or two steps, here we have a full split-level that has been opened up. There is a strong sense that the space up the stairs is a separate room, but with all of the shared connectivity and open views of an open-plan arrangement.
Here, too, there is a strong sense of two spaces that are connected as opposed to one space that has been separated.
The addition of a full-height wall between the steps and the side of the upper ‘room’ gives an even stronger sense of separation, while still retaining the benefits of shared daylight and more interesting views across the spaces thanks to the half-height wall.
Forget open-plan – explore the new trend for ‘broken-plan’ living
Forget open-plan – explore the new trend for ‘broken-plan’ living
Utilise your level change to incorporate functional necessities
In this kitchen, five steps lower than its adjoining dining space, the level change has been used to house an eye-level oven and kitchen storage units….
In this kitchen, five steps lower than its adjoining dining space, the level change has been used to house an eye-level oven and kitchen storage units….
…and in this dining space, the split level gives an opportunity for feature shelving while retaining the ‘balcony’ effect of connecting the spaces.
Employ level changes to frame interesting interior views
Setting up deliberate ‘views’ within and across interior spaces can be a wonderful way to enhance your home. Level changes create lots of opportunities for these views to become that much more interesting as they do not all have to be simple horizontal views. Try glimpses through steps and glass balconies to spaces beyond, as seen in this home.
Houzz Tour: Brilliant broken-plan living in a Victorian house
Setting up deliberate ‘views’ within and across interior spaces can be a wonderful way to enhance your home. Level changes create lots of opportunities for these views to become that much more interesting as they do not all have to be simple horizontal views. Try glimpses through steps and glass balconies to spaces beyond, as seen in this home.
Houzz Tour: Brilliant broken-plan living in a Victorian house
This example combines a tall window looking out on an external courtyard alongside a double stair-flight with views out, across, up and down to semi-connected spaces.
Which of these ideas would you consider for your own home and why? Tell us in the Comments section.
Which of these ideas would you consider for your own home and why? Tell us in the Comments section.
A classic way to create a strong sense of two zones within one open-plan space is to create a change in level. Here, two steps down from a dining area to a living area is enough to make a clear division and also to provide occasion seating for dining. The effect is enhanced by the change from a timber (visually lightweight) flooring on the upper level to a stone (visually heavier) on the lower level. Be careful of reversing these, a general rule of thumb is to have your heavier materials beneath your lighter ones.