I used to have one 10 or so years ago in an apartment where the TV was about 65-6 meters away from the couch. That made it a little better, but still not comfartabld. Good for 3-4 hours max. It was OK as we barely watch TV. Now we don't have a TV in the house anymore. Just, in storage. I might get a table projector in future.
Omg I’ve finally found a channel that goes right into the details of the subject and I don’t have to sit here and listen to their life story, this is going to be one of my go to videos when I want to learn about design ideas. Thanks for the Great info!!!
And it's so refreshing to have a designer focus on practicality. So many designers only seem to care about how everything looks & pish posh when someone points out how impractical it is.
Zellige tiles have been a fad for a few years here in europe (and are a little cheaper because of distance to morroco). There is another downside: Because of their irregular shapes, especially pertaining the thickness of the tiles, you can have varying amounts of grout shown and sometimes at difficult angles. This means the grout get dirtier more easily, making more and more thorough cleaning necessary. An often overlooked downside to Zelliges.
We added zellige tiles more than 10 years ago in our kitchen and the amount of grout showing is minimal, and shouldn't be an issue if you have a good tiler. We never have any problem with cleaning, basically just wipe it down as with other surfaces. I think people who like zellige tiles understand that the "look" is more bohemian and are not looking for a clinical neat look.
Also for the zellige tiles: it is an artisanal, intensely labour intensive process. People really break their backs over them. They're too precious to be used as a 'trendy' tile that the owner will take down in a year or two because of the next fad. These tiles are made to be used in a home for decades and decades. It is a sign of gratitude to the maker of the tile to put them up for life. If that is not your vibe, go for paint or stucco.
Tile already has enough practicality issues with the potential for needing access to the plumbing, adding onto that by creating potential problems with tiles that have different profiles/elevations can lead to hazardous edges in an area where slip & falls could translate into lacerations, or tiles being set irregularly allowing for leakage due to grouting. Considering the lighting in bathrooms isn't typically going to be designed to take full advantage of this style, it's pretty easy for the texture effect to either not be that noticeable and/or having shadows causing an unintended emphasis of edges DETRACTING from the natural aesthetic you're going for instead of emphasizing it. Unless you have money/time to burn installing zellige tiles, you're almost always better off minimizing the negatives and maximizing the impact by hitting up Habitat for Humanity or some other kind of remnant building material store and achieving the same effect with slight color variations/mosaic style when looking to install tile with this look. Just remember that if you're shooting for a more artisan look, then don't expect to PAY standard prices for the install. You need someone with the experience to do it correctly in terms of build quality, and with the eye to do it well in terms of aesthetics.
@@lstcloud Not to mention are far more likely to come loose over time or any small earthquake due to their comparative weight and mounting methods to other materials.
A barn door appears to be what I know as a sliding door with a fancy sliding arrangement at the top. I grew up with sliding doors in all our bedrooms, they didn't have ANY gaps around the doors other than the normal one at the bottom to clear the carpet or lino. No fancy rail either, plain silver rail with two sliding mechanisms, and they not only kept sound out - they fitted as tightly as a normal door except they totally covered the opening rather than fitting into the opening - and they also kept the heat in at night (unless left open slightly to allow light in from the hallway light, mea culpa). If you have ones that don't fit across the doorway without any space between them (and you couldn't slide a piece of paper between ours, they literally slid against the wood door surrounds) then it sounds as though they have a problem, because the ''barn doors'' I've always known and used - going back to the 1960s - are a space saving way to block a bedroom doorway when the bedroom opens into a narrow hallway and there isn't any realistic way to have a door that opens on hinges. Personally I prefer them, doors that open on hinges can be dangerous and trap little fingers, it is also very hard for a teen to slam a sliding door.
We had put a barn door in a condo we renovated. We enjoyed it for a little bit and helped us sell the condo when we moved out. But we grew to hate it over the 2 years we had it. It was for the bathroom and privacy was a problem as you had gaps and the door was noisy as fuck.
I was in a period modern home a few years ago that had an older version of these. Most weren’t quite as wide as ones you get today. It was genuinely terrifying to walk on them, like walking on construction frames or a tightrope.
One thing I hope to see go one day is the completely open floor plan some houses have now. The house I live in has the living room, dining room, and family room combined into one massive door without walls that extends all the way to the ceiling of the second floor which is just a balcony overlooking the massive room. In addition, the kitchen only has a bar separating it from the massive room. Sounds roomy and light right? No, all it accomplishes is making one giant echo chamber and giving you no privacy in the home without being in a bedroom. You can't even put plates away at night in the kitchen as quietly as you can because the house acts as a megaphone, blasting that quiet clinking straight into the bedrooms. It sucks.
Wow it's interesting to see this here. I always thought an open concept floor was a brilliant idea and I actually planned to have it in my house in the future, but I never put any thought into the negative sides it could have. Thanks for this insight, it's an interesting thing to consider when looking for a new place
This is why as an amateur sound guy and someone with apparently bad taste, I've always been fond of popcorn ceilings and wood paneling. Sucks that sound right up. No shag carpet, though that would do it too.
You hit the nail on the head with the barn doors! Similar to the problems of barn doors, I see a lot of crampy apartments in Toronto where the "door" to the bedroom is at the corner of the room. It's two perpendicular sliding glass doors that when you "close" it forms the corner of the bedroom. I think it's impractical because it doesn't properly seal so smell goes through. The "doors" aren't even magnetic to hold them together like some shower doors! The (thin) frosted glass is also not a good material for sound insulation. Add the fact that you now have 0 privacy (your guests can still kinda see you through even if it's frosted) and you can't even lock it!
I just came here to pat myself on the back for every decision we made with our house, including avoiding many of these!! Lol. We got so much pushback from our very traditional builders and neighbours at first because SO much thought went into prioritising practicality and style over current trends and culture (UK). The result is lots of people come to see our finished house to get ideas for their own renos! Most importantly overlooked, especially in London: STORAGE!!
I'm glad you mentioned barn doors. I always thought that in most homes, they look idiotic and you can tell that they were put there because it's popular and not because it made sense for the style and function of the home.
Wow! This video nails ALL of the things that drive me bonkers in home design. Strangely, many of these things are actually used in model homes which may seem appealing. Buyers find out later that these "features" are just SO wrong. The TV over the fireplace is the #1 killer item. Now I know I'm not crazy.
Your content isn't just great, it's necessary. Building conventions that have been around for 50 or 100+ years have stood the test of time. New trends are sometimes just done to be pretty, or in the case of some, inexpensive. As you point out, they also don't always translate from one area of the world or country to another. Building techniques that work great in the dry southwest do not always hold up in the wet northeast. Thanks!
I like your videos they are very considered of practical and financial needs. it's like fresh air compared to the aboundance of content that push solutions that are unpractical or too expensive for many people
It's the respect with which he makes his points. Sometimes people speak trashy forgetting most home owners are lay people n simply going with the floor
I have a small house with an 83 square foot galley kitchen a 26-inch wide case opening into the breakfast room and a 32-inch door into the dining room. Barn doors would be a solution because they wouldn't take as much space as hinged doors. I have pocket doors dividing the bedroom section from the living-dining space, a pocket on the master bedroom's private bath, and a pocket in one of the bedrooms. Some times, some spaces, a non-hinged door is the best solution.
Pocket doors and barn doors are not the same. Barn doors take up as much if not more space that traditional hinged doors. To cover a 30” opening you need a door larger than that for a barn door and a track that is the double the size of the door. So your potentially taking up 70-80 inches of wall. This costs you that entire wall space from being able to put anything on or against that wall. This means your choosing style over wall space and there is an argument to be had for that. Also pocket doors in houses jam over time. The wood frames warp as houses age and they also get stuff jammed into the pockets all the time. Eventually in many houses that have them the door just stays open because it becomes difficult to use. Another minor problem with pocket doors is the track has to be built into the wall which means it cannot be a load bearing wall. More often than not a pocket door wall is thicker than a normal wall to accommodate the track (also a minor problem). If pocket door gets jammed bad enough you have to break open the wall to fix it which means repairs are more costly. These issues are why pocket doors never took off and why they remain a niche item to solve very specific problems. There are swing doors that have existed for 100s of years with just the need of WD40 and a cleaning. And if installed properly swing doors do not take up that much space and do not require an entire wall to put up.
@@rjgaynor8 I already have three pocket doors that have worked well for the 25 years since we had them installed in a previous remodel: one on a bathroom (installed within a load-bearing wall with proper reinforcement in a beam and framing above and to either side of the door), one as a bedroom door, and one as a divider between the south end of the house (living room-dining room-kitchen ) and the north end of the house, critically blocking the view from the dining room directly into another bathroom. Hinged doors from the kichen into the dining room interfered with the modest dining table and chairs and the credenza, and a hinged door into the breakfast room will interfere with access to the laundry room and pantry. This house presents challenges. Neighbors have demolished and replaced houses in better condition, to the detriment of the neighborhood charm, but if I had the budget for that I would still preserve the exterior appearance and interior structure.
@@rjgaynor8 2:49 This is the general lay-out I'm considering for the door from the kitchen to the dining room, using two 24-inch doors to make an open plan for most puropses, but to allow the space to be closed off when things become smoky ir cooking fragrances overpower. The small gap around the door frame will allow make-up air for the kitchen vents to flow the right way without the toasting chilis tear-gassing other occupants as they would with a fukk 44-48-inch wide opening. Again, a hinged door will not work in the limited space I have, but a pair of barn doors with this installation layout will.
I give up a little corner in my living room before putting a tv way up on my fireplace mantle. Besides, Decorating the fireplace is pure joy with the changing seasons.
I have a kind of awkward, narrow living room with a fireplace. Right now the tv is over the fireplace but I would like to move it to the wall. The issue is arranging the furniture since the room is so narrow. We have a sectional couch because our family likes to sit all together when we watch tv and movies. I will consider the mount you were talking about, but I feel the fireplace would look so much nicer with a beautiful piece of art over it instead of a tv.
An alternative to a tv is a pull down screen and projector. No wiring is needed for the screen as many are manual pull down types. The projector can be mounted on the ceiling above your seating area or behind you if the unit has a long throw lens. the biggest issue is wiring: you'll need to get AC power up there. The video image can be broadcast to the projector with a wireless video connection. With a screen/projector combo, the mantle area can be decorated and your screen can be almost any size to suit your viewing habits. When you're done watching, let the screen up and out of sight. This also works really well in very small spaces, like tiny homes.
I live in a small apartment and the bedroom door seriously reduced the amount of usable space. I was able to convince the property manager to replace the bedroom door with a farm door. Yes, it doesn't seal, but is wide enough that it more than covers the door frame. It also freed up all of the space that was being used by the arc of the previous door. A pocket door would have been best option.
If your space is small enough that you need the extra space a door opening takes up, you basically live in a studio and the privacy a door provides is negligent anyway
Fireplaces are extremely impractical in a lot of locations, TV or no TV. Also: thank you for the explanation on zellige tiles. I keep seeing them in videos from abroad but had no idea what they were called or why I'd never seen tiles like those here. My country has a robust tile industry with many historical and current types to choose from, so we're more likely to use those than to import a completely different style.
@@gooser__43 Those come with fireplaces too, it's one of the places where I find them absurd... if you don't mind I'll stay in my house, in a location with average yearly temperatures in the high 20sºC
@@NavaSDMBnot if they are gas fireplaces which are being installed in most newer homes and condominiums. I have one and I use it everyday in the winter.
@@helene420 You live in a place with actual winter. But hiw does it make sense to have a fireplace in Miami, Houston or San Diego, three locations ehere I have actually seen them? In such places they're about as logical as white shag carpeting. Oh wait...
Another issue with open showers is the high points in the floor become mold/mildew factories. We have to keep the fan on for an hour after use to ensure the water fully evaporates. Further, we have chipped out the grout and regrouted due to permeated mildew stains. Even if the grout is sealed, this can be a problem.
We have a 1700mm x 700mm shower base with a 1200mm screen plus 400mm swivel door. LVT flooring and no splashes, mould, puddles etc, and no grout stains after one year.
A few of my bosses installed the zellige tiles in their houses here in London,UK, and "lived" with them for all of two weeks .They were used as back slashes in the kitchen and shower rooms .The kitchen installers and bathroom installers were back recently installing corian surfaces ,nice surfaces by the way, in those former zellige tiles .The clean teams are now silent and my bosses,when they visit,seem happy until the next rip out!
We had them for 10 years, no issues, no complaints from my cleaning lady too. The tiles were probably not installed properly in the first place. Or do we get better stuff in Europe?
I'm so happy we have a not so fancy shower with higher floor, it's so much easier to keep clean in my opinion. Also, the kids can have a quick mini bath when they are muddy
I stayed at a really nice hotel (for me; I am poor so not the Ritz) last week that was completely ruined by a barn door as a bathroom door. I had never experienced a barn door inside before, and I HATED it, exactly for the lack of seal. I was rooming with a male cousin of mine, and while Im comfortable around him, I still didn't need him to hear (or see; that gap is huge!) my business in bathroom. It was an awful experience simply because of that dang door. (It was also really hard to get it to stay shut...it had to be locked or it would drift on the tracks when someone walked by.)
I have a barn door separating my kitchen area from the living spaces and it's an aesthetic pleasing solution, but a little nuisance to tell you the truth. It saves space, all right, but I have the feeling it's not very robust on the long run.
We had sliding doors growing up - don't know what a pocket door is but ours were like barn doors only no fancy sliders or handles, plain wooden doors that slid over the door opening tight against the wood frame blocking out sound, light and keeping the heat in - and we didn't manage to do more than put a few pinholes in them from hanging posters on them as teenagers. They lasted 20+ years when I moved out and another ten years after that, still being in place - the original ones just painted different colours over the years - when mum and dad sold the house 30+ years after it was built. Nothing wrong with a good sliding door, and the only issue would be if the sliding mechanism isn't sturdy enough and keeps sticking, usually because the door is heavier than the mechanism was designed to be used with.
All good points here. I have no choice but to put my TV above the fireplace. It’s actually the only wall in the living room craft room that I have. To compensate I just installed my electric fireplace lower, which gives me a better range for placement of the TV. I know you were referring to unmovable standard fireplaces.
We bought the frame tv when it first came out. It said you would have a choice of 250 photos. I got 15 when I started - it's now down to about 7. You have to buy a subscription of 5.99 a month to get more (last time I checked) You supposedly are able to load your own photos but it's quite difficult and doesn't work the way it was presented when sold.
Yes, a TV over the fireplace is a pain in the neck. ;-) Furthermore, unless there is a deep mantel to deflect the heat it may damage the TV. A rental house I stayed in had an open shower that was well designed with a full tiled partition. No glass to have to clean after use every day! Some floating staircases I've seen in videos lack a proper railing, which would be a building code violation. Rough-surfaced tiles would be difficult to keep clean, and in a kitchen, grout with any tile will absorb grease unless you regularly seal it.
Open floor plans are also really bad news from a fire safety standpoint. The lack of partitions allows for maximum airflow, which is guaranteed to accelerate fire development. It amazes me that people can spend twenty or thirty thousand dollars to have marble countertops in the kitchen, but start to bitch and whine about spending an extra $2.50 per square foot to have a residential fire sprinkler system.
💯 on all counts - however items like the floating stairs with no handrail is against code in the USA, so will be remedied on resale if it's missing the rail. but I see it all over Asia and HATE it.
Another issue with putting TV above fireplace. My fireplace has no mantle above it. Even though my TV is mounted a good distance (I'd estimate about 2.5ft) above the top of the fireplace it melted the bottom of my TV after warming up the living room on a winter night… I think if it at least had a mantle that could have blocked the direct heat but definitely be careful.
You may need to have your fireplace checked out. The melting point of polyethylene , the most common TV frame material, is between 365 to 418F, so your winter fire must have been hot indeed!
The dreaded plastic deformation. I briefly saw something about a metal shield for TVs above the fireplace, but I didn't follow the link. Hope you have some luck in that.
Build a mantle and your problem is solved. There is no other solution. The heat will always rise about the front of thr fireplace, You just want to shift it a few inches in front of thr TV, not directly below it
I agree. I have a friend who has his TV mounted high on the wall. It is incredibly uncomfortable to watch TV in his house. Now, I also have a friend who has an "Indian" style house in which the whole bathroom is the shower. That's really nice and gives you lots of room to take your shower! The only issue with this is that there has to be tile everywhere! And everything has to be waterproof!
I raised a house full of boys and swore if I ever built a house that I would have the floor drain to the center and tile all the walls up to the ceiling so the room could be hosed off
Excellent content, Reynard! I'm an amateur space and design nerd! A great collection of important info, and really well explained. Delighted to subscribe. G Ire
Glad I watched this. I was planning to use sliding doors or pocket doors in my project. Though, there are great places for them, however, bedrooms and bathrooms are not good. As for office desk in middle of room. I did not consider the location of power outlets and how much more space a desk occupies. Good catch Reynard. 👍👍
Excellent video. I think the biggest design trend that is impractical - and very unsafe - is the free standing tubs that are now very popular. when indoor plumbing first started they were all like that. After the flu pandemic of 1918 for health and safety reasons tubs were now built in. (another change as a result of the pandemic was built in closets rather than armoires) It was easier to keep the bathroom clean. Also, the tub in the picture is a major safety hazard as there is nothing to stop you from slipping and falling on the floor (it rather invites this) and nothing to grab on to to assist you in and out if you need it (or to keep from falling) as will as no lip on the tub as a place you can sit on if you need to. They really should be banned by the code.
You also now have the problem of extra mold building up behind or on the sides of the tub from splashing/vapor. Give me the old garden tub attached to the wall, thanks.
Ha! A bathroom barn door-if you live alone. While we’re in the bathroom, I want the shower in proximity of the tub to rinse off after a soak. Add a heated towel bar and a radiant heat floor. The best arrangement I saw was the shower and tub situated behind a glass wall & door. Keep the heat in when necessary. Now for the kitchen-enough with the racetrack style with the giant luncheonette counter. Two dishwashers required and if there’s space, throw in a petite clothes washer/dryer combo for kitchen towels. Notes, just in case I hit the lottery. But 2 dishwashers are a must!
Another thing to add about the TV problem, just like he mentioned is that your TV will most likely overheat due to the heat coming from the fireplace, it will also be a pain in the neck to set up anything like a gaming console or a TV Box. TVs should be at eye level and depending on the size of the TV you have to make sure you set up your couch at a safe distance from it but also not too far, for example, a 65" inch TV should be between 6.5 to 9 ft away from you for optimal viewing experience.
Heard about the tv over the fireplace issue creating possible neck issues years ago, and thankfully, listened to it and have never done it. In fact, I've never done any of these mistakes. But no worries, I make plenty of other mistakes in my home, lol.
3:22 off the shelf or diy barndoors have problems like these… If you plan and constuct custom high quality barndoors properly with a carpenter you won’t face any of the above mentioned issues 🙃✌🏻
My house was built with a space-saving pocket door for my bathroom. Although expensive to retrofit, pocket doors provide the advantages of barn doors without the problems.
Our bedroom doors were what you seem to call barndoors, dad made them and we never had any problems with them at all. They were still going strong - albeit having been painted over the years as the rooms were redecorated - when mum and dad sold the house some 30 years later. Still with the original hardware, and no problems whatsoever.
I had a shower without any curtain or a glass in a dorm room in Sweden. Basically just a shower mounted to the wall, drainhole, and nothing else. Cheap and ugly. I had no splashes, everything in the bathroom was dry when I showered, I had no extra humidity in the bedroom, and there was no heating in the bathroom. Everything was perfectly okay and it was the best bathroom in the world because it was easy to clean, i can move without touching glass or a curtain, I don't have to clean glass. It was big, yes, like 8-10 sqm.
I was wondering what an open shower was, then when I saw the pictures, I immediately thought back to my time in korea. A lot of the older houses have open showers, matter of fact, the first place I lived there had an open shower. I couldn't stand having that water everywhere.
I agree with the fireplace placement, however, due to lack of space to configure seating in an open floor plan there's literally nowhere else to put the tv that pairs well with the direction of seating.
Thanks for lots of good tips. Could you please elaborate with more details, such as what is considered the minimum splash length, what’s needed to install floor electrical outlets, etc.
I have a barn door for my half bath in my office..saves a tremendous amount of space. The problem with the seal really only occurs if your room's walls are not completely square, which is the most common case in older homes like mine. There's plenty of privacy imo
If your barn door was bought from a retailer, then it has a large gap at the top of the door. Walls being square has nothing to do with it. Also you save no space as it takes up the wall it’s mounted on and you cannot mount or place anything on that wall. The difference is what space you lose.
My son bought a big house put his TV above the fireplace. He would say oh come and watch TV, and you nailed it right on the head. It was like sitting in the first row of a movie theater. I absolutely hated it. The TV to me should never be watched when you have to look up at it.
The one which gets me is the floating stairs. I don't know why anyone would think they are safe, even for young people in the 20's. They are often used in those 'Tiny homes' that you see marketed all over youtube and I've seen some people say wouldn't these tiny homes make great retirement homes for old people! They wouldn't because there is no where in the home where they can keep mobility equipment. Tiny homes and floating stairs are an health hazard.
Good vudeo and I agree with all you say. I watch lots of home design origrammes like Grand Designs and can never understand why people have staircases without bannisters. Even older people whose mobility is going to get worse have them. The other big no-no for me is a big kitchen but they choose a range cooker rather than split level oven and hob. I hate bending down to the oven.
We renovated a large condo with too many small,spaces and opened it up with a double hight space and eliminated 1 bed 1 bath. The results are dramatic and beautiful. All doors are pocket doors to save space. Wish I could show you all.
Sliding doors are perfect for our ensuites in bedrooms, as the people in a bedroom with you are personal to you - there is a normal one for guests, not to mention you'd have to go and really try to look in to one if you wanted to. There's never been any odours or anything. One of our showers is open, but it's a wetroom with underfloor heating and a good slant, it's very nice when done right.
I like making custom very practical little installations with little regard to the overall ambiance but I loved this video! Lots of nuances, very clear points without compromising on details and examples. Felt like a museum visit in the best way
My unit has open showers. I’m not a fan but thankfully with a shower curtain it prevents water from splashing beyond the shower area and the water dries quickly due to heated floors. The entire bathroom is tiled except the ceiling so it would’ve been fine without a shower curtain except the lack of storage meant I had to keep towels and things in my bathroom that I didn’t want to get wet.
I stayed at an Airbnb once that has a sliding barn door to the bathroom and every time I needed to go my friends toddler would just push the door and walk right in. Who in their right mind would think this was a good idea
I have a small appartment which has double hanging sliding doors separating living room and bedroom. Where the sliding doors go into the walls on opening. It makes no difference whatshowever to a normal door. The stone walls were pulled back, a beam attached to the ceiling, attach the slider to the beam, close in with woodframe and drywall to just beyond the point were the the closed doors start. Frame the opening. Done.
Unlike some of the other things, the wet room works well if properly designed, with a good sloping floor to the drain and an adequate side panel. Some of the other things here are intrinsically bad design for various reasons. One thing - in my experience people who take their shoes off indoors and get around in socks can easily slip on a floating stair with a foot going between the steps where the riser would be. I remember this from a house I used to visit as a child. If lucky you just got a badly bruised shin. Hated those stairs.
The issue of barn doors is really not sight, but sound. A barn door can sit anywhere from 1 to 1-3/4 from the wall. If the door extends even a few inches from the interior opening, the field of view is very narrow, limiting how much is actually seen. Sound however is a bigger problem: you can hear nearly everything on either side of the door. All the TV noise from the living room to the "personal moments" heard in the living room. As a room divider, they're great. Being a videophile on a budget, I abhor the TV over the fireplace, as they are a literal pain in the neck. I like the mantle mount, but suggest a different approach for fireplace centric rooms: a projector and retractable screen. The screen mechanism is ceiling mounted, out of your ordinary line of sight and the projector behind you, also ceiling mounted. The screen is lowered for viewing and retracted when you're done. With this, you're now not limited to image size. Want a 100" image? No problem and unseen until it's down. All the decor you normally have on the mantle can stay there. One aspect implied but not specifically mentioned about chandeliers and why they aren't best for above the tub: water vapor. All that wonderful hot water vapor rises and condenses on the cool material of the chandelier, resulting in rust or rot. As to open showers.. They are freaking cold. Once the hot water stops, the cold rushes in. You forgot to add a problem with floating staircases: CUI. Climbing while intoxicated. All the photos I've seen that have them show designer spaces, but rarely family homes. If you find one in the US without hand rails, almost guaranteed that the inspector got a fat envelope.
oof about to move into a studio with a cove as a bedroom, was going to get a barndoor but you raised some super good points. what would be an alternative tho, i still need some privacy there
It all depends on the viewing angle. If your couch is far enough away, and the TV is hanging relatively low, the angle of view is low enough to not cause neck pain. In many cases you have a TV that is hanging 6ft off the ground, while the couch is only 8-10ft away, creating a steep viewing angle.
MY studio has an open shower and I'm not allowed to change the tiles in any way( not allowed to drill) according to the landlord. So I ended up superglueing a plastic curtain rod on. Its not the most aesthetically pleasing but at least the entire bathroom doesn't get wet when I shower with floor flooding for days
Many of these problems happen when "design" isn't but is decoration or a structurally comlpeted room. . Parallel track pocket doors - if designed into the structure- are as space-efficient as barn doors, and can be designed to overlap when closed, providing a vertical seal with no gap. "All" it takes is a competent architect and a trained carpenter. The same is true of a TV and a fireplace. A TV over a traditional fireplace is a height problem, over a low profile modern gas or electric one it's not. btw, functional fireplaces rarely make sense from an energy efficiency standpoint - a video screen can simulate a fireplace without the issues of net loss of floor space, heat loss, ventilation and the maintenance issues. A "floating" staircase is just one that lacks an obvious supporting wall or beam under one or both the ends of the treads. Safety can be improved with can be improved with small visual impact by using a combination of deeper overlapping treads, correctly oriented reflection-coated safety "glass" risers, a top and bottom post that are narrow, but strong enough to support a handrail with safety stringers between the handrail and the tread ends.
