An interior designer’s guide to transforming dead space in tricky dormers

An increasing number of Irish homes are built with a small footprint, and often over three floors, which results in small spaces that have no particular function. While they might at first appear redundant, with a bit of imagination they can be transformed.
Take a typical dormer home. Downstairs consists of accessible, practical living spaces and, on paper, upstairs features bedroom accommodation and perhaps a bathroom in the eaves. But as families grow and storage space dwindles it can be frustrating to live with those sloped ceilings and what can often be dead space. It can be hard, but it is possible to see the potential in these nooks and crannies.
Some may not consider the possibility of consulting an interior designer to reimagine those tricky areas, but in her work on residential homes, the Dublin-based interior designer Emma Cooling of Cooling Design is frequently asked what to do with such spaces, often in the eaves of houses.
“They may be small, but they shouldn’t be discounted,” Cooling says. “Depending on where they are they could be turned into an office, a dressing room, a wardrobe space, a toy room, a laundry room, a pantry, or even a gym.”Creating something new out of seemingly thin air is a challenge but not impossible. Planning is vital. “You need to know what the space will be used for and the sizes of everything to be fitted. This should all be done in advance of the plumbing and electrics too,” Cooling says.Take the main bathroom in the eaves of a dormer bungalow in Portmarnock, which she designed. The family wanted to create a luxury suite for the parents, and a fun family bathroom. “I paid special attention to the location of the bath here so you could stand up in it without whacking your head,” she says. “The tap is directly under the eave, which would be a redundant space. If you have doors on a vanity unit, make sure they can open without banging against anything.”She worked with Astorio Builders to add a half-height tongue-and-groove panel up to the beginning of the eave and painted it in Down Pipe by Farrow & Ball, a dark grey. The rest of the wall is painted in Farrow & Ball’s understated grey Ammonite. “Sometimes in a room this size, people are afraid to use more than one colour, as they think it will shrink the room, but it’s not the case,” Cooling says. “In fact, it creates the illusion of more height and this is what I’ve done here. The two colours work because they are two different textures.”
In a small space, storage comes at a premium. Cooling added a packing rail above the panelling so it could be used as a shelf. “You could stand toiletries or a toothbrush on it,” she says. “I love plants in a bathroom as they provide a tropical feel. I always add artwork and objects too, to give the room personality.”She painted the door frame, the architrave and the skirting boards the same colour and added monochrome black-and-white geometric tiles by The Design Emporium, which combine well with the hue of the paint.Given the limited amount of space, instead of a vanity unit, a freestanding washstand works better, with a brass frame that matches the taps and the mirror, both byEx.T and available from TileStyle. Wall hung taps free up space too.Here, the window in the eaves lets in the light, but in a bathroom that has little or no light she advises embracing the darkness and going all out with a strong colour of paint or wallpaper. “It creates a sense of space rather than highlighting the fact that the roof is angled,” she says.
This has been done effectively in an office she designed recently in a modern three-storey residential home. “It’s such a tiny, awkward space, so I wanted to give it a wacky character. That’s why I used an unusual wallpaper by Jean Paul Gaultier with Lelièvre and extended it into the eaves and onto the ceiling.”Given the size of the room, a custom-built desk with drawers for storage and a curved edge made the most out of the space. “Curves are great in small spaces, because you can extend the surface space out, and curve them at the side.”To keep the desk clear, the printer and large files are stored on custom shelves. “Everyone worries that shelving will make the room look smaller, but weirdly it has the opposite effect,” Cooling says. “I curved the little wall shelf above the desk as well and added a comfortable white Pantone chair, available from Cooling Design.” Finally she painted the shelves and the desk in pale blue Ice IV by Paint and Paper Library, which is picked up in the blue and white patterned wallpaper.
Another example of a small room she worked on is a nook, located off a bedroom in a residential home. “The client didn’t know what to do with it so we decided it would be a nice space for a reading nook.” Here she added a low white Gubi swivel chair. “It works because it’s not taking over. A big armchair, for example, would look ridiculous.”
In addition she placed a small coffee table beside it, with a Gubi Grasshoppa lamp and a piece of Asian-inspired art on the windowsill. She added a beige Roman blind by Cooling Design with fabricby Manuel Canovas on the window. The wall here has been painted in China Clay by Little Greene, a warm white. “It’s a calming, restful colour,” she says. “The client wanted the space to be light and airy and I think we achieved just that. It’s amazing what you can do with a little bit of imagination.”