Relatively unique home renovation ideas you've either thought of or actually done?

Here are a few that have passed my mind at one stage but I've not gone ahead with them:

• Urinal. I thought it was a brilliant idea at first but now I'm not so sure.
  
• Those Dyson hand dryers you see in public toilets, I've always wondered why they haven't been adapted for home use.
  
• All power plugs about 1ft off the floor so large adapter plugs don't get in the way of my vacuuming.

Yours?

 

Wardrobes in bedrooms?

It seems as though every second house ommits what I thought was a given.

 

While I agree ordinarily, I can see why detached wardrobes are better in some cases (small rooms). Full length floor-to-ceiling BIR's can make an already small room look even smaller. I've removed BIR's twice because of this. A detached wardrobe just makes everything feel more spacious.

 

I also thought about installing a urinal in the bathroom. And I've thought about cutting a foot off from the bottom of the toilet door but not so sure now. I like the commercial / industrial look

 

That's insane lol

 

Laundry chute (from upstairs main hallway that services most bedrooms)
Recycle chute (from kitchen out under veranda to bin)
Have been toying with the idea of a door thru brickwork to throw firewood into a store, just so I don't have to carry it thru the house.
Glass walls to the showers, (like a splashback,not see through), silicone sealant to edges only, no more grout=easy to clean (will pass on mirror glass ).
*didn't sacrifice the linnen cupboard space for the laundry chute, recycle chute was also canned ......

 

Laundry chute sounds brilliant but I don't know if I'd do a garbage / recycling chute. I bet it would get nasty after a while and difficult to clean.

An all glass shower is smart. I currently have all these mini baby tiles which take forever to clean. My new place has huge tiles...when I first saw them I thought holy crap this is the greatest thing ever, I've just cut my grout cleaning time by like 90%. Those tiny postage stamp sized tiles can go to hell.

 

Love łaundry chute, my MiL used to have one. Wish I can get one for my house.

Ideas I have and wish I can implement one day is to revolutionise the cupboard and wardrobe doors. I can't see why we need super strong doors internally; doors are made extremely heavy and thick hence takes up to much space, including the tracks. Hinges are big, heavy and ugly. The only person using these doors are the occupant of the rooms so something like a cardboard or curtain would suffice. Also, I'd much love for these doors to be at least half translucent. Ditto to doors to Ensuite. Gee, I'm getting excited now. Who wants to join me?

 

How about a hidden room behind a bookshelf that opens up.

 

We have a dungeon

 

Cat run.

Our kitchen/dining area has a glass sliding door that opens to a small deck for our cat run. It's 36sqm and fully enclosed. It runs the length of the house and uses the space between the house and the fence, so that they can come & go whenever they like, but we can also shut them outside if we've got visitors who might let them out into the proper yard.

 

Friend has one of these. Pretty cool

 

Most people replace wardrobe doors with sliding door panels when renovating.
If they have used mirror's you can be reasonably sure they went to some trouble with the reno (if they used plaster, they went cheapo).

Had one at the end of our main bed walk in robe.
It was only small, but we had well insulated it and used it for wine storage
Never did tell the agent or buyer about it, hope they worked out there was a void

Great idea for indor cats.
Had a friend who changed out a window panel to include a pet door, this had a tube that ran out to a rather large aviary so the cat's could get some fresh air, sun and grass

I've wanted to design and build my own enviromentally efficient home, have had the idea of sliding internal opaque partition walls to seperate off living spaces and rooms to improve functionality and usability (like stacker doors that slide back into a recess out of the way/hidden), this would allow open plan living yet allow area's to be closed off for heating/cooling or to convert to temporary bedrooms

 

Seems hidden wine cellars with funky trap doors are popular, too. Pricey though.

I have a few old homes as rentals. One of them has a trap door going to under the house. I've no idea what's under there. When I bought it, I asked the previous owners about double doors in between two rooms. I was told they are stored in the roof along with other stuff. Tradesman took them down, and he mentioned there's plenty of other stuff in there.

I bought an even older house (sight unseen) recently and do wonder if anything is stored up above!

 

I’ve got the hobless showers and can’t believe everyone doesn’t have them, flipping brilliant

 

They are awful for waterproofing. I'd rather have a high end ceramic pan like what Villeroy &Bosch offer

 

Excuse my ignorance but what's so special about them? It's just nicer looking, right? There must be some benefit that I'm not seeing.

 

Fireman's pole.
Not that I'm a fireman or own a fire station or even needed to get down in a hurry, but I had one in this room for a while from the loft to the main floor. There was also a trapeze, briefly, when one of my girls was into that stuff. I removed both when that space became an Airbnb.
That red panel under the table is a trapdoor, too. It used to house a chimney. The trapdoor came in handy when I had to get some furniture and that canoe upstairs. Below that room is my wife's ceramics studio. I have pondered replacing the red trapdoor with glass - one day.

 

We also have a secret door. It goes from one of the bedrooms in the house into the adjacent building. The door is very obvious from the house side, but concealed and soundproofed from the other side. One day we'll open it up again.

 

I've flirted with the idea of a low cost bathroom in an IP using metal sheeting. IP is a bit rustic so it might suit.