The Glade Design

23/10/2026

What Is Colour Temperature in Interior Design?

Colour temperature is why two rooms painted the same white can feel completely different. Here's what kelvin actually means, how warm and cool whites behave in a real home, and the mismatch that makes people repaint a room they never needed to repaint....

Colour Temperature in Interior Design. what kelvin actually means, how warm and cool whites behave in a real home, and the mistake that makes a room feel cold.

23/10/2026

A pink and orange kitchen that started with plants.

The client loves the colours of nature, so that's where the scheme began — not from a mood board of other kitchens.

Laminex cabinetry, white mosaic splashback with orange grout, over the warm yellow floor that was already there. On paper it shouldn't be calm. In the room it is.

Evergreen, Clayton South.

21/10/2026

The Real Cost of Skipping Space Planning Before You Renovate

Skipping space planning never shows up as one line on an invoice. It arrives in pieces — variations, returns, a sofa that never fits, and a hallway you turn sideways in for twenty years. Here is what it actually costs, and the two-hour fix....

Skipping space planning is the most expensive shortcut in a renovation. Here is what it actually costs — in money, in variations, and in daily frustration.

20/10/2026

1970s kitchen renovation, before and after.

The windows were large and the house was still dark — because of where the walls sat. You walked in and met the fridge and pantry, blocking the view through to the living and dining.

So we opened it up. Only where walls were costing more light than they were worth.

Turner, Glen Waverley. Photography Tess Kelly.

18/10/2026

What Is Layered Lighting?

Layered lighting means using several light sources at different heights — ambient, task and accent — instead of one ceiling light doing all three jobs. Here is what each layer does, what goes wrong, and the one thing to try tonight....

Layered lighting means using ambient, task and accent light together instead of one ceiling light. Here's what each layer does and how to build them in any room.

18/10/2026

Watch what happens when the old joinery comes out.

That's the whole move at St Georges Court. No walls came down, no plan was redrawn, nothing structural was touched. We took out the existing cabinetry and looked at how much room it had quietly been using.

It was enough for a double basin — the one thing the clients wanted and had assumed they couldn't have without building something.

And the new joinery holds more than the old one did, in less of the room.

That's the trade most people don't realise is on the table. You often don't need more square metres. You need the ones you already have to stop being wasted by something that isn't earning them.

St Georges Court.

https://thegladedesign.com/product/layout-fix/

16/10/2026

What Is Texture in Interior Design?

Texture in interior design is the surface quality of everything in a room — how a material feels, and how it looks like it would feel. Here's what it does in a real home, the difference between actual and visual texture, and the two mistakes that flatten a room....

Texture in interior design is the surface quality of everything in a room — how it feels and how it looks like it would feel. Here's how to use it, and where it goes wrong.

16/10/2026

Floor-to-ceiling joinery in a small apartment living room.

No structural change was possible, so one wall had to do everything — w**e storage, display, and a fireplace with logs.

Planika fuel fireplace, no chimney needed. Stone from a single 300×300 sheet, broken up and laid back piece by piece. Dulux Domino, hand-painted matte.

Arcadian.

15/10/2026

Three kitchen renovation mistakes that cost the most.

The fridge or pantry parked at the far end, so every meal is a walk. The cheapest tap, hinges and drawer runners — the parts your hands are on daily. And underestimating the budget, where plumbing and electrical quietly eat the splashback money.

None show up on a mood board. All show up in daily life.

https://thegladedesign.com/kitchen-design-mistakes-to-avoid/

14/10/2026

Do You Really Need a Separate Toilet? The Pros and Cons

The separate toilet has gone from standard to slightly embarrassing in about two decades. Here is how I actually decide whether one earns its floor space — the households it suits, the ones it doesn't, and the 1.2 metre rule that explains why yours feels wrong....

An interior designer's honest take on whether a separate toilet is worth the floor space — the households it suits, the ones it doesn't, and the 1.2m rule most people miss.