Despite what you may think, I don’t go into normal people’s homes and evaluate the designs, because I know firsthand how much time and work it takes to completely design a home, especially with jobs and kids. But that doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention when I see something cool or, in this case, when my entire team sees some obvious “room wreckers.” We’ll go further and define it as those elements of a room that make you want to stay there or not use that room at all. Perhaps otherwise known as “pleasure killers”. Many people can tolerate these things without noticing how miserable they are, but we are acutely aware of how pleasurable and comfortable a room can be, so these crimes scream at us. More good news! They’re fixable, I promise.
I also want to acknowledge that at our Airbnb (mountain house), when we last visited, the bulbs on the island were obnoxiously blue/bright. Obviously, I didn’t install these bulbs; They were replaced, but I forgot to order hot, so I’m afraid our Airbnb guests will have the exact same reaction as we did at our Palm Springs Airbnb. I need to fix this asap.
Waster: Poor overhead lighting + no lamps
Bad lighting deserves the death sentence of design. With this it is very easy to find out both right and wrong. In this case, there were a lot of canned lights that were 5000kelvin (ultra bright and cold) and not on dimmers. It was like living in a research laboratory. We turned them off immediately, but noticed that the lamps were very dim. We moved all the lamps around the house so we could enjoy the house (which was otherwise nice!). This was probably done by builders who just chose the standard and then installed them without realizing that you had options. Even after you’ve installed them, most canned lights these days have temperature options, and the answer is to choose “warm AF.” Unless you’re in a laundry room or garage, I’m not sure why you would want such a cold light and so many lights.
Solution:
1. Choose recessed lighting with temperature controls (most have them now).
2. If you go in and they are already installed, I believe you can replace the bulbs with warmer bulbs.
3. Worst case: Put them on a dimmer and add lamps. Even add lamps (or plug-in wall sconces) in the kitchen and bathroom. Poor overhead lighting over your dining table? Get two cute cordless lamps for meals or homework.
4. If you have overhead fixtures with normal LED bulbs, this is very easy. Simply switch the bulbs to 2700 Kelvin (3000 Kelvin is fine too), and if it’s a multi-bulb chandelier, reduce the wattage to 40.
For prevention, first of all, you don’t need as much light as you think. Absolutely love it. Probably 1/3 of what a builder would do. Read this post to see how much stuff we kept in our garage, which was much less than recommended, and has plenty of light.
Extra tip: They also had motion-sensor auto lights in the bathroom that were extremely bright and not something you want to turn on in the middle of the night. And then when you take a shower, they’ll turn off, and you’ll be left in complete darkness because you forgot to turn on the normal non-motion sensor light. So be very careful in choosing that option, especially if it is in your own home. Make sure you can control the brightness settings!
Ruiner: Push-drawers that you accidentally open
This is a new problem to me that I have only experienced directly twice. The first time it was my fault – my brother’s river house. Thank God we didn’t do this in their kitchen. But for all the seating benches (next to the fireplace, in the dining room, in the bedroom), we wanted a clean look, so they looked like benches, not like storage. So we deliberately did not put hardware in favor of push mechanism. They first came as normal drawers (no hardware), and we had the cabinet guy take them back out and replace the mechanisms inside (which was probably annoying but very doable). So when they reinstalled them, they looked great, but when you sat on them, your feet would inevitably touch them and kick them open. It’s manageable there as they are secondary seating and not frequently used/kicked about. We laugh at it as an annoyance, but there is nothing worth changing about it.
But at the Airbnb, all the drawers in the kitchen were push drawers, and they would open whenever you accidentally leaned on them (which was constant). Is this a big deal? No. But it’s a persistent irritation that impacts your daily experience at home.
Solution:
Choose normal drawers with hardware. But if you like the sleek look of push drawers, edge pulls are a potentially good option for you.
Ruiner: The Dining Chairs That Make the Worst Noise on the Floor
I am extremely sensitive to this noise (I think most people are sensitive too, but my tolerance for it is lower and my reaction is definitely bigger). There’s a restaurant in Arrowhead I won’t sit inside because the sound of chair legs on the cement floor is so loud you can’t hold a conversation (I tell them politely every time I ask to be seated outside, and they apparently don’t share my irritation). This is certainly worst on concrete floors, but it can be worse on tile or stone as well.
Solution:
felt pad. I almost went to Lowe’s and bought felt pads for them and installed them. The chairs don’t have to make noise when you open and close them!
so easy! Now, in the context of our Palm Springs Airbnb, I wasn’t angry with them. We knew we were in a flipped Airbnb and the owners probably hadn’t been there long enough to experience some of these hassles or consider them significant (because for a lot of people, they’re not that big of a deal).
My team and I can look at millions of design crimes, but many of them are hard to solve, or require expensive changes or new furniture, so it feels cruel to shame people for them. But these were so solvable (okay, replacing the drawers would take more work) that I felt sad not mentioning them. I would never leave them in a public review because we really had a great time, and it was a nice Airbnb. To top them off would be the most Karen of all Karens, the Design Edition. But these are small things that you don’t pay attention to
Quick note – when we stayed at The Carly (which is now booking weddings and lots of retreats, yes!), we traded social media for our stay, but my friends who own it had another request for us to list every single detail that seemed a little jarring, off-putting, or just something we saw that could have been better. So as a design team, we have to be so nuanced and highly selective in the name of eliminating all the things that could possibly hinder the best times ever.
There’s a lot more we could talk about, and if you like these kinds of posts maybe we will. do you have any? let us know! xx
Opening Image Credit: Photo by Caitlin Green | From: River House Dining Room Reveal
