Dish Draining Cupboard
My Auntie Lina** and Uncle Ugo have one in their apartment in Torino and it is just an insanely good idea. It keeps the dishes out of the way, it allows them to drain somewhere that's designed to get wet, it allows a lot more space than a traditional dish drying rack, it's not cluttering up your bench space, and when it's time to put them away you just pop the cupboard open and take things out in an orderly fashion.
If I wanted to have the sink facing a window I'd have to rethink design but I think I could make it work.
Tilt-Turn Windows
These I also saw for the first time in Italy and they're wonderfully practical.
You turn the knob one way a certain amount and the windows open up properly and you can stick your head out and see who is at the door/what the person down the street is yelling about/whether there is a vicious xenomorph hiding in the shrubbery beneath your window***.
You turn the knob the other way a certain/different amount and the window pops out at the top allowing the passage of cool, fresh air into the room and hot stuffy air out of the room without having to open the entire arrangement.
Living in Australia this means I'd have to have fly wire outside to keep myself from being eaten alive by mosquitoes when I left the window top agape but I figure that could be managed.
Either just by having tilt-turn windows that open inwards, or by having inward opening tilt-turn windows and outward opening flyscreen panels.
I'd prefer the second option because that preserves the ability to stick your head out and have a nosey about.
As an Aussie I've almost never been able to do this because of fly wire being in the way.
It looks like so much fun in the movies...
I also like the Norwegian windows that have a set of windows that swing inwards on the inner edge of the frame and a second set that swing outwards on the outer edge of the frame that allow better insulation in winter but again I'd have to make allowances for flyscreens.
Maybe a rectangle of flywire secured by magnet strips that I could remove or attach at will...
French Doors In The Master Bedroom
I love French doors. These arched ones below are particularly gorgeous.
Now whether they open onto a balcony as shown here or a private courtyard as shown below will depend on how many storeys my imaginary house has and which level I chose to put my bedroom on.
The important thing is that they should be there, they should allow me to move from my bedroom to a relaxing section of the outside world and they should let copious amounts of lovely fresh air and outdoors smells into my bedroom whenever I should wish it!
Dutch Doors
This is another thing you don't see in Australia often, partially due to the aforementioned mosquitoes and so on but also because it just wasn't one of the things the Dutch saw fit to bring over or to share with the rest of us if they did.
I'm still a bit hurt about that, the Dutch.
I mean, look at how lovely they are!
You can get a bit of fresh air**** without letting pets or children wander in or out willy-nilly when they shouldn't.
You can chat to people who are outside when you're inside or vice-versa, hear things that are going on without having to open windows or doors, shut two parts of a door on somebody one after the other to emphasise how displeased you are!
Versatile!
Bathroom Fernery
My grandmother's house has a well-established fernery outside the bathroom window and it is the most absurdly soothing thing.
With the combination of the plants in the fernery and the shade-cloth that protects them, the light levels in the bathroom are gently muted, slightly green and it is always cool and refreshing.
It lets you feel like you're near nature without having to struggle to keep plants alive indoors or deal with the shed leaves, incumbent spiders or other such things.
It ensures privacy - none of that everyone can see your private moments tosh - and overall just gives the room a nice atmosphere.
Alcove Beds
A little room within a room.
A little nook to squirrel yourself away in and - depending on design - remain unseen.
Novel, an interesting use of space, and in some cases almost like having a secret room out in the open.
When I was a kid I imagined being able to turn my bed into a little secret room, I put bookshelves under my bunk bed in such a way that I had a little room underneath my bed, but if you'd told tiny me that these sorts of bed designs actually existed I would have lost my tiny mind.
Especially if it had a built-in book case and looked like it had been nicked from Aladdin.
Courtyard
There will be one. Yes there will.
It might not necessarily look like this one but look at that lighting.
Innit nice?
A nice place to relax and kick back by yourself or entertain if you feel so inclined.
Now I am aware that some of these features may make my house more susceptible to access by general intruders, thieves, weirdoes and zombies but I'll take measures to dissuade that during the planning stages.
I wouldn't want to get lax and then have to spend hours scrubbing brains and blood out of the nice rugs and wooden floors I'm planning on having.
*I am aware that if I did try and cram all the features listed here and in other posts into one house, it probably would end badly for me, for the house, and for my sanity and bank balance.
A girl can still dream though.
A girl can dream.
**Well, she's my grandmother's cousin but we call her Auntie Lina, and that makes her husband Uncle Ugo.
***Well the information will serve the people behind you well. You know very well what form the confirmation of presence will take.
****Are you sensing a theme yet?
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