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Architects and interior designers are building compact niches, shelves and alcoves into clients’ homes, for storage, for showcasing objects or for adding depth to a wall. Here's how they do it

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Whether a house is 500 or 5,000-square-feet, storage space is always at a premium. It’s one of the reasons that goldsmith-turned-architect Cindy Rendely will often build niches in clients’ homes. To her, carving out a nook is a great way to add without unnecessarily chewing up floor space.Tom Arban

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Rendely’s alcoves aren’t just utilitarian. Sometimes the cavities house books, bath towels or even shampoo, but they can also act as the architectural equivalent of a highlighter, underscoring something important – a work of art, perhaps, or a collection of figurines. “They provide a moment for viewing something special,” she notes. To heighten the effect, she might place the niche somewhere highly visible – the top of a staircase or the end of a living room – and draw attention to it with built-in spotlights, or elegant materials like oak shelves.Tom Arban

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Architect Heather Dubbeldam uses niches as a showcasing tool as well. When she and colleague Kristi Morrison designed a house for a cookbook author, the kitchen, naturally, required special attention. Dubbeldam and Morrison provided ample room for gadgets and tools by covering a whole wall in custom cabinetry. To break up the monotony of the cupboard doors and drawers, they also included a band of spot-lit niches. The homeowner rotates what she displays to keep her work area feeling fresh – her extensive collection of Pez dispensers adds a cheeky punch of colour.Dubbeldam Design Architects

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One of the benefits of niches, according to Dubbeldam, is that they can make a room feel larger, “since the openings give additional depth to the space.”Shai Gil

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That’s especially true if the nook punches through a wall entirely, something architect Paul Raff did in his award-winning Cascade House, where he perforated a three-storey slate wall that runs through the centre of the home. Raff planned the cut-outs thoughtfully. On the upper level, the nooks are sized to provide interesting look-throughs and to hold ornaments. In the basement-level kids’ area, the holes are large enough to kick a soccer ball – or run a train track – through. The perforations create a sense of airiness by allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the house.Ben Rahn

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One of the challenges of adding niches is that the cavity needs to have enough depth to carve into. Standard, four-inch- to five-inch-thick slabs are too narrow to create anything worthwhile. In their Alpine Chalet, Toronto-based Atelier Kastelic Buffey turned the often-underused space beneath a fireplace – a place that naturally has a lot of depth – into a row of elegant storage and display shelves. Without the recesses, it would just be a big blank gap. With them, it’s an architectural showpiece.Shai Gill

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