Myths About Design Spread by Builders

"Not every designer will advise a plumber on how to properly install a toilet, but rarely does a plumber refuse to help you choose curtain colors." In this post, designer Dmitry Sivak talks about myths that can be heard from builders. Previously, he listed layouts to avoid and collected a record number of views.

Dmitry SivakDesignerFounder of the Kiev-based studio S&T Architects, which designs interiors, builds houses, and accompanies projects "until the last vase".

1. Direction of Floor Joints
The most popular myth that even some designers believe is the rule that the direction of joints in parquet or laminate planks must always be away from the window.

If you suddenly challenge or consciously violate this life law, workers will look at you as a madman, scoundrel, swindler, fraud, or sneak. You have nothing left to lose; nothing awaits you anymore.

According to this rule, the floor direction must always be away from the window and nothing else, and if followed, it promises a smooth surface for the future floor, like here. 

Those who dared to violate the law, according to legend, will not get parquet but something similar.

Let's check if this is true.

Here is a photo of an innocent interior where the floor was laid according to the rule.

And here is where it's done opposite. No difference at all.

Sometimes blind adherence to this rule can ruin the design because the direction should follow aesthetic sense, not myths. Especially since workers often struggle to answer when windows are on both sides.

2. The Joint Between Tiles Should Be Minimal
Experienced designers are already used to shame and don't fear making tile joints of any size. But every time the topic of a joint wider than 1 millimeter comes up in conversation, tension hangs in the air like in a movie scene before a battle.

If a tile layer accidentally makes a joint not as thick as a hair, people perceive this as a legitimate, fully human, one could say legally justified right to throw out the tile layer. In their dreams, they admireably stroke tiles laid without joints. The disrespect shown to these fanatics is this kind of laying.

Today's salvation for these people is 3-meter-long and 1-meter-wide tiles. There are even larger formats, but even this is hard to fit into an apartment via the staircase.

Tile layers have found a cunning way to bypass the system: they say that for heated floors, large joints are needed to allow heat to pass and accommodate expansion from heating tiles. Clients believe this scientific fantasy and agree.

There's nothing wrong with the desire to lay tiles without joints or with large joints, combine tiles of different formats, and not fear that the joints on the wall and floor won't align. The world of design is broader.

3. Baseboard at Floor and Door Casing the Same Color
Every time in our project, if a door is white and the baseboard is another color, I get calls asking to confirm whether it's an error and send a copy of my designer diploma.

This myth comes from classical interiors, where often large door casings matched the floor baseboard color. Fans of this myth would even put the varnish at the entrance in matching color.

Can a door casing be a different color? Of course it can.

There can be all sorts of combinations, and in general, baseboards and door casings don't have to exist. Members of the sect of witnesses to one color are thrown into sacred agony by such a design.

4. Wallpaper Is No Longer in Style

These people just didn't feel the aesthetic massage from wallpaper. It can be used until all walls in our homes are finally covered with monitors.

You may find interesting:

• Layouts to Avoid
  
• 7 Questions to Ask the Construction Team Before Renovation
  
• How to Talk to Builders?