Kirsty McLuckie: Think smug for winter

The mercury is dropping, the leaves are turning and we’ve already had our first blast of inclement weather.

Mid-October is when we remember – with some dread – that winter is coming and it is time to batten down the hatches.

Sensible homeowners will have had the boiler serviced, bled the radiators, and checked loft insulation and lagging.

But this year, more than ever, there is the impetus to make sure that heating and insulation is at maximum efficiency in every room, to keep bills to a minimum.

Those of us with open-plan spaces, and features such as double-height ceilings and dramatic high windows, might also be rueing our modern design choices.

Suddenly these vast areas of luxurious space don’t seem so enviable and, although it sounds like the ultimate humblebrag, having a home that is too capacious to heat is a real problem.

When we built our house 17 years ago, we designed an open-plan kitchen, living and dining room with under-floor heating – a definite winter luxury for your feet. It isn’t huge, but the space has been used exactly as we’d envisaged. The kitchen part is in the centre, overlooking a small sitting room, and the far end opens onto a dining area with a big table and a huge window.

It has seen every part of our lives from family meals, telly watching, birthday parties, homework, Christmas dinner to crowded kitchen discos.

Image: Adobe Stock

But, with the kids out of the house now and just the two of us left, the entire room is a big expense to heat. Like many others who have enjoyed their spacious open-plan houses, we are now trying to think of ways to close off bits of them.

The aristocracy used to do this with their great mansions, shutting down whole wings at a time, but I didn’t ever expect to have to think about it in what is quite a modestly-sized modern house.

Curtains seem to be the sensible option. But our full-height cathedral-style window would need acres of material – and possibly the use of scaffolding – to fit with dressings. We didn’t think about that when we installed it. Putting up heavy drapes across the wide entrance to that end of the room is a possibility, to shut it off altogether at dusk every night when any thermal gain from the window is about to reverse.

Fortunately, our heating is zoned so it would cut the space we need to keep warm by about a third.

Equally, the type of thick Gothic curtains at every door, last seen in Hammer Horror films, would shut out any draughts from the outside. I just need to work out if the cost benefits would outweigh the high prices they currently command.

I’ve even spotted a magnetic thermal curtain which could close off the draughty door to the garage completely. However, taping up the cat flap might be a step too far, as I couldn’t take the feline protests.

But if utilities remain this expensive, I can see a shift in interior design trends coming, and in the types of home we aspire to.

Forget extolling the spaciousness of a house that is for sale. This year, one that’s truly “cosy” – previously estate agency speak for “small” – is the ultimate luxury.

- Kirsty McLuckie is property editor at The Scotsman